America's War for Humanity Part 76

Eighteen--Repatriation, without reciprocity, within a maximum period of one month, in accordance with detailed conditions hereafter to be fixed, of all civilians interned or deported who may be citizens of other allied or a.s.sociated states than those mentioned in clause three, paragraph nineteen, with the reservation that any future claims and demands of the allies and the United States of America remain unaffected.

Nineteen--The following financial conditions are required:

Reparation for damage done. While such armistice lasts no public securities shall be removed by the enemy which can serve as a pledge to the allies for the recovery or repatriation for war losses. Immediate rest.i.tution of the cash deposit in the National Bank of Belgium, and in general immediate return of all doc.u.ments, specie, stocks, shares, paper money, together with plant for the issue thereof, touching public or private interests in the invaded countries. Rest.i.tution of the Russian and Roumanian gold yielded to Germany or taken by that power. This gold to be delivered in trust to the allies until the signature of peace.

Twenty--Immediate cessation of all hostilities at sea and definite information to be given as to the location and movements of all German s.h.i.+ps. Notification to be given to neutrals that freedom of navigation in all territorial waters is given to the naval and mercantile marines of the allied and a.s.sociated powers, all questions of neutrality being waived.

Twenty-one--All naval and mercantile marine prisoners of war of the allied and a.s.sociated powers in German hands to be returned without reciprocity.

Twenty-two--Surrender to the allies and the United States of America of all German submarines now existing (including all submarine cruisers and mine-laying submarines), with their complete armament and equipment, in ports which will be specified by the allies and the United States of America. Those that cannot take the sea shall be disarmed of their material and personnel and shall remain under the supervision of the allies and the United States.

Twenty-three--The following German surface wars.h.i.+ps, which shall be designated by the allies and the United States of America, shall forthwith be disarmed and thereafter interned in neutral ports, or, for the want of them, in allied ports to be designated by the allies and the United States of America and placed under the surveillance of the allies and the United States of America, only caretakers being left on board--namely: Six battle cruisers, ten battles.h.i.+ps, eight light cruisers (including two mine layers), fifty destroyers of the most modern type. All other surface wars.h.i.+ps (including river craft) are to be concentrated in German naval bases to be designated by the allies and the United States of America, and are to be paid off and completely disarmed and placed under the supervision of the allies and the United States of America. All vessels of the auxiliary fleet (trawlers, motor vessels, etc.) are to be disarmed. Vessels designated for internment shall be ready to leave German ports within seven days upon direction by wireless. The military armament of all vessels of the auxiliary fleet shall be put on sh.o.r.e.

Twenty-four--The allies and the United States of America shall have the right to sweep up all mine fields and obstructions laid by Germany outside German territorial waters and the positions of these are to be indicated.

Twenty-five--Freedom of access to and from the Baltic to be given to the naval and mercantile marines of the allied and a.s.sociated powers. To secure this, the allies and the United States of America shall be empowered to occupy all German forts, fortifications, batteries, and defense works of all kinds in all the entrances from the Cattegat into the Baltic, and to sweep up all mines and obstructions within and without German territorial waters without any question of neutrality being raised, and the positions of all such mines and obstructions are to be indicated.

Twenty-six--The existing "blockade conditions set up by the allies and a.s.sociated powers are to remain unchanged, and all German merchant s.h.i.+ps found at sea are to remain liable to capture. The allies and the United States shall give consideration to the provisioning of Germany during the armistice to the extent recognized as necessary.

Twenty-seven--All naval aircraft are to be concentrated and immobilized in German bases to be specified by the allies and the United States of America.

Twenty-eight--in evacuating the Belgian coasts and ports, Germany shall abandon all merchant s.h.i.+ps, tugs, lighters, cranes, and all other harbor materials, all materials for inland navigation, all aircraft and all materials and stores, all arms, and armaments, and all stores and apparatus of all kinds.

EVACUATED ALL BLACK SEA PORTS

Twenty-nine--All Black Sea ports are to be evacuated by Germany; all Russian war vessels of all descriptions seized by Germany in the Black Sea are to be handed over to the allies and the United States of America; all neutral merchant vessels seized are to be released; all warlike and other materials of all kinds seized in those ports are to be returned and German materials as specified in clause twenty-eight are to be abandoned.

Thirty--All merchant vessels in German hands belonging to the allied and a.s.sociated powers are to be restored in ports to be specified by the allies and the United States of America without reciprocity.

Thirty-one--No destruction of s.h.i.+ps or of materials to be permitted before evacuation, surrender, or restoration.

Thirty-two--The German government will notify the neutral governments of the world, and particularly the governments of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Holland, that all restrictions placed on the trading of their vessels with the allied and a.s.sociated countries, whether by the German government or by private German interests, and whether in return for specific concessions, such as the export of s.h.i.+pbuilding materials or not, are immediately canceled.

Thirty-three--No transfers of German merchant s.h.i.+pping of any description to any neutral flag are to take place after signature of the armistice.

Thirty-four--The duration of the armistice is to be thirty days, with option to extend. During this period, on failure of execution of any of the above clauses, the armistice may be denounced by one of the contracting parties on forty-eight hours' previous notice.

It is understood that the execution of articles three and eighteen shall not warrant the denunciation of the armistice on the ground of insufficient execution within a period fixed except in the case of bad faith in carrying them into execution. In order to a.s.sure the execution of this convention under the best conditions the principle of a permanent international armistice commission is admitted. This commission shall act under the authority of the allied military and naval commanders-in-chief.

Thirty-five--This armistice to be accepted or refused by Germany within seventy-two hours of notification.

PRESIDENT'S COMMENT ON ARMISTICE

"The war thus comes to an end; for, having accepted these terms of armistice, it will be impossible for the German command to renew it.

"It is not now possible to a.s.sess the consequences of this great consummation. We know only that this tragical war, whose consuming flames swept from one nation to another until all the world was on fire, is at an end and that it was the privilege of our own people to enter it at its most critical juncture in such fas.h.i.+on and in such force as to contribute, in a way of which we are all deeply proud, to the great result.

"We know, too, that the object of the war is attained; the object upon which all free men had set their hearts; and attained with a sweeping completeness which even now we do not realize.

"Armed imperialism, such as the men conceived who were but yesterday the masters of Germany, is at an end, its illicit ambitions engulfed in black disaster. Who will now seek to revive it? The arbitrary power of the military caste of Germany, which once could secretly and of its own single choice disturb the peace of the world, is discredited and destroyed.

"And more than that--much more than that--has been accomplished.

The great nations which a.s.sociated themselves to destroy it had now definitely united in the common purpose to set up such a peace as will satisfy the longing of the whole world for disinterested justice, embodied in settlements which are based upon something much better and much more lasting than selfish compet.i.tive interests of powerful states.

"There is no longer conjecture as to the objects the victors have in mind. They have a mind in the matter, not only, but a heart also. Their avowed and concerted purpose is to satisfy and protect the weak as well as to accord their just rights to the strong.

"The humane temper and intention of the victorious governments has already been manifested in a very practical way. Their representatives in the supreme war council at Versailles have by unanimous resolution a.s.sured the people of the central empires that everything that is possible in the circ.u.mstances will be done to supply them with food and relieve the distressing want that is in so many places threatening their very lives; and steps are to be taken immediately to organize these efforts at relief in the same systematic manner that they were organized in the case of Belgium.

"For, with the fall of the ancient governments which rested like an incubus upon the people of the central empires, has come political change not merely, but revolution; and revolution which seems as yet to a.s.sume no final and ordered form.

"Excesses accomplish nothing. Unhappy Russia has furnished abundant recent proof of that. Disorder immediately defeats itself. If excesses should occur, if disorder should for a time raise its head, a sober second thought will follow and a day of constructive action, if we help and do not hinder.

"To conquer with arms is to make only a temporary conquest; to conquer the world by earning its esteem is to make permanent conquest. I am confident that the nations that have learned the discipline of freedom and that have settled with self-possession to its ordered practice are now about to make conquest of the world by the sheer power of example and of friendly helpfulness.

"The peoples who have but just come out from under the yoke of arbitrary government and who are now coming at last into their freedom will never find the treasures of liberty they are in search of if they look for them by the light of the torch. They will find that every pathway that is stained with the blood of their own brothers leads to the wilderness, not to the seat of their hope.

"They are now face to face with their initial tests. We must hold the light steady until they find themselves. And in the meantime, if it be possible, we must establish a peace that will justly define their place among the nations, remove all fear of their neighbors and of their former masters, and enable them to live in security and contentment when they have set their own affairs in order.

"If they do we shall put our aid at their disposal in every way that we can. If they do not we must await with patience and sympathy the awakening and recovery that will a.s.suredly come at last."

GERMAN MALTREATMENT OF PRISONERS

Prisoners set free under terms of the armistice brought back tales of their almost unbelievably barbarous treatment in German prison camps. A correspondent, Philip Gibbs, describes some of them as living skeletons.

Of one typical group he says "they were so thin and weak they could scarcely walk, and had dry skins, through which their cheekbones stood out, and the look of men who had been buried and come to life again.

Many of them were covered with blotches. 'It was six months of starvation,' said one young man who was a mere wreck. They told me food was so scarce and they were tortured with hunger so vile that some of them had a sort of dropsy and swelled up horribly, and died. After they left their prison camp they were so weak and ill they could hardly hobble along; and some of them died on the way back, at the very threshhold of new life on this side of the line."

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP OF WORLD WAR ZONE

Showing Final Battle Line from Holland to Switzerland. Shaded Portion Shows German Territory Evacuated.

1. Rhine line to be occupied by Allied troops as provided in Armistice, showing cities and brdgeheads.

2. Neutral Zone Line as provided by terms of Armistice.]

CHAPTER x.x.xIV.

HONOR TO THE VICTORS

November 16, 1918, the American Distinguished Service Medal was conferred upon General Pers.h.i.+ng at his headquarters in the field by General Tasker H. Bliss, representing President Wilson. The ceremony was witnessed by the members of the allied missions, and was most impressive, Admiral Benson, representing the United States Navy, and William G. Sharp, American Amba.s.sador to France, were also present.

SERVICE MEDAL TO GENERAL PERs.h.i.+NG

General Bliss, in presenting the decoration, read this order issued by Newton T. Baker, Secretary of War: