Raemaekers' Cartoon History of the War Volume II Part 12

_THE GERMAN_:

"_If you will let me keep what I have I will let you go_"

I have twice publicly stated that Germany has been and is prepared to discuss the termination of the war upon a basis that offers guarantee against further attack from a coalition of her enemies and insures peace to Europe. You have read President Poincare's answer to that.

One thing I do know--only when statesmen of the warring nations come down to a basis of real facts, when they take the war situation as every war map shows it to be, when, with honest and sincere will they are prepared to terminate this terrible bloodshed and are ready to discuss the war and peace problems with one another in a practical manner, only then will we be nearing peace.

Whoever is not prepared to do that has the responsibility for it if Europe continues to bleed and tear itself to pieces. I cast that responsibility far from myself.

VON BETHMANN-HOLLWEG _to Berlin Correspondent of New York World.

May 22, 1916._

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_THE WANDERING JEW_

"_Once I turned the Christ from my door; now I must wander from the Northern to the Southern seas--from Eastern to the Western sh.o.r.es ...

asking for Peace, but never finding it._"

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_GRAt.i.tUDE OF THE WOMEN OF FRANCE TO THE KING OF SPAIN FOR THE TRACING OF THE MISSING_

The soul of the royal work for the discovery of the missing is Don Emilio-Maria de Torres, Minister Plenipotentiary and private secretary to his Majesty. It is in the offices of his Secretariat, in the Palacio Real, that this work is installed; it was soon so crowded there that it became necessary to give up to it four halls, and then eight, in order that the collaborators, becoming more and more numerous, might work comfortably. In May, 1916, the work of the King, already a year old, occupied at Madrid twenty-eight persons, who began their day at eight in the morning and sometimes worked far into the night.

MME. GABRIELLE REVAL _in La Revue des Deux Mondes._

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_THE BILL_

It is proved that from May 20 to May 25 (1916) seven different divisions were flung into the battle on both sides of the Meuse. Four of these were brought from other points of the Western front--two from Flanders, two from the Somme.

On the left bank alone four divisions were employed in the last week-end fighting. Without a thought of the enormous losses caused by our curtain fire and machine guns, the German Command threw them one after the other into the boiling pot east and west of Mort Homme. On May 22 alone, before the capture of c.u.mieres village, which has now been retaken, the enemy made no fewer than 16 attacks upon the front from the Avocourt Wood to the Meuse. Over 50,000 men sought that day to climb the slopes of Mort Homme and the plateau of Hill 304. The great charnel heap had 15,000 fresh corpses flung upon it without the French lines having yielded.

_Official Despatch from Verdun front._

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_THE LAST RIDE_

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_CAGED_

During an enterprise directed to the northward our high sea fleet on May 31 encountered the main part of the English fighting fleet, which was considerably superior to our forces.

During the afternoon, between Skagerrak and Horn Reef, a heavy engagement developed, which was successful to us, and which continued during the whole night....

_The High Sea Fleet returned today (Thursday) into our port._

_German Admiralty Report.

Berlin, June 1, 1916._

On the afternoon of Wednesday, the 31st of May, a naval engagement took place off the coast of Jutland.

The British s.h.i.+ps on which the brunt of the fighting fell were the battle cruiser fleet and some cruisers and light cruisers, supported by four fast battles.h.i.+ps. Among these the losses were heavy.

The German battle fleet, aided by low visibility, avoided a prolonged action with our main forces. As soon as these appeared on the scene _the enemy returned to port_, though not before receiving severe damage from our battles.h.i.+ps.

_British Admiralty Report.

London, June 2, 1916._

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