electric company, proposed, in August, 1914, a comprehensive program for the mobilization and organization of the economic resources of the German Empire. Special stress was laid upon the necessity of obtaining raw materials, partly by purchase in neutral countries and partly by the seizure of all stores in the conquered lands. A new bureau, with 36 subdivisions, was created to carry out this plan, under the direction of the Ministry of War. As soon as Belgium was occupied this bureau began its work. By 66 separate decrees in less than two years the Germans have seized thousands of machines, countless machine tools, lathes, oils and fats, chemical and mineral products, wool, linen, jute, cotton, thread of all kinds, rubber, automobiles, locomotives, motors, horses and other animals, hides, and many other products, completely stripping Belgium. The ultimate purpose of these seizures is disclosed in a speech of Herr Beumer in the Prussian Diet last February: "Anybody who knows the present state of things in Belgian industry will agree with me that it must take at least some years-assuming that Belgium is independent at all-before Belgium can even think of competing with us in the world market. And anybody who has traveled, as I have done, through the occupied districts of France will agree with me that so much damage has been done to industrial property that no one need be a prophet in order to say that it will take more than 10 years before we need think of France as a competitor or of the reestablishment of French industry." See Contributions; Requisitions; German War Practices.

Belgium, Neutralization of. Belgium is so situated that its owner, if a powerful State, might endanger the safety of England, France, or Germany, and dominate the Rhine and the English Channel. Largely because of this a special treaty, signed April 19, 1839, by Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia, as well as Belgium, guaranteed that Belgium should “form an independent and perpetually neutral State. It shall be bound to observe such neutrality toward all other States." On August 9, 1870, Prussia reaffirmed its "fixed determination to respect the neutrality of Belgium so long as the same shall be respected by France," and agreed with Great Britain "for the [joint] defense of the same" in case it should be violated by France. Despite these guaranties Germany made military plans to attack France by way of Belgium, and after 1906 began to construct strategic railways to the Belgian frontier, and the fears of the Belgians as well as of the French were aroused. But the German Chancellor, when questioned in the Reichstag, reiterated Germany's determination to abide by her solemn promise, and positive assurances were given the Belgian Government, as late as 1913, that Germany would respect the neutrality she had guaranteed. See Neutralized States.

Belgium, Violation of. Notwithstanding her agreement to respect Belgian neutrality, Germany on August 2, 1914, demanded of the Belgian Government a free passage through to France. That this was a violation of law and right we have on high authority-the German Chancellor. In his speech to the 15963°-18-3

Reichstag on August 4, 1914, he said: “"We are now in a state of necessity (Notwehr) and necessity (Not) knows no law. Our troops have occupied Luxemburg and perhaps have already entered Belgian territory. Gentlemen, that is a breach of international law. It is true that the French Government declared at Brussels that France would respect Belgian neutrality as long as her adversary respected it. We knew, however, that France stood ready for an invasion. France could wait; we could not. A French attack on our flank on the lower Rhine might have been disastrous. Thus we were forced to ignore the rightful protests of the Governments of Luxemburg and Belgium. The wrong—I speak openly—the wrong we thereby commit we will try to make good as soon as our military aims have been attained. He who is menaced as we are and is fighting for his highest possession can only consider how he is to hack his way through (durchhauen).” Nothing more need be said. See Notwendigkeit"; War, German Ruthless

"Kreigs-Raison";

ness.

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Belgium's Woe. "And there where lives were not taken, and there where the stones of buildings were not thrown down, what anguish unrevealed! Families hitherto living at ease, now in bitter want; all commerce at an end, all careers ruined; industry at a standstill; thousands upon thousands of workingmen without employment; working women, shop girls, humble servant girls without the means of earning their bread; and poor souls forlorn on the bed of sickness and fever crying, 'O Lord, how long, how long?' . . . God will save Belgium, my brethren; you can not doubt it. Nay, rather, He is saving her. . . . Which of us would have the heart to cancel this last page of our national history? Which of us does not exult in the brightness of the glory of this shattered nation? When in her throes she brings forth heroes, our mother country gives her own energy to the blood of those sons of hers. Let us acknowledge that we needed a lesson in patriotism. . . . For down within us all is something deeper than personal interests, than personal kinships, than party feeling, and this is the need and the will to devote ourselves to that more general interest which Rome termed the public thing, Res publica. And this profound will within us is patriotism." (Cardinal Mercier, pastoral letter,

Christmas, 1914.)

Belgrade. Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, commands the Danube River at the Austro-Serbian frontier. It was shelled by the Austrians as early as July 29, 1914, withstanding, however, all attacks until December. December 1 the Serbians evacuated the city. The Austrians entered on December 2, being forced to conduct the bombardment from across the Danube, and reduce the city to ruins. The rally of the Serbians on December 5 enabled them to reoccupy Belgrade, December 13, 1914. The final fall of Belgrade took place on October 9, 1915.

Belligerent. A State or a community which is party to a legally recognized war. For convenience, one party to a war is often spoken of as "belligerent" and the other as

66

enemy."

The term "belligerent batant."

66

is also used synonymously with com

Benedict XV (Giacomo della Chiesa) (1854- ). Pope since the death of Pius X in 1914. He was formerly cardinal archbishop of Bologna. He early expressed his horror at the mutilation of the cathedral of Rheims, and later endeavored to lead the warring nations to peace. See Peace Overtures; Rheims.

). Austro-Hun

Berchtold, Count Leopold (1863garian Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1912-1915. As the statesman who signed the Austrian ultimatum to Serbia, he was nominally responsible for the outbreak of the war. See Potsdam Conference; Serbia, Austrian Ultimatum.

"Berlin to Bagdad." The grandiose scheme of German politicians, bankers, and merchants for the economic and political control of Central Europe and Western Asia. Soon after the Berlin Congress of 1878 the foundations of German military influence in Turkey were begun by Gen. von der Goltz, who was invited to Constantinople by Abdul Hamid to reorganize the Turkish army. In 1889 and again in 1898 William II visited Turkey, on the latter occasion declaring at the grave of Saladin: "The 300,000,000 Mohammedans that are scattered through the world may rest assured that the German Emperor will eternally be their friend." Shortly afterwards a German railway company secured from the Sultan very favorable concessions and financial assistance for extending a railway from Haidar Pasha (on the Bosporus opposite Constantinople) to Bagdad. This railway would thus virtually connect Bagdad by way of Constantinople, Sofia, and Vienna with Berlin. The length of the Bagdad Railway was estimated at 1,740 miles. At the outbreak of war in 1914 the tunnel sections under the Taurus Mountains and the desert sections eastward from Aleppo to the railheads which had been pushed forward from Bagdad were still unfinished. The Germans had hoped to extend the railway to the Persian Gulf, but England's insistence on a share in the control of this extension, by which the Germans might threaten India, held up the German negotiations with Turkey. An agreement with Great Britain reached in 1914 was nullified by the outbreak of the war. See Conquest and Kultur; Drang nach Osten"; Goltz, von der; Kiel Canal; "Mittel-Europa"; Pan-Germanism; Turkey, German Influence in.

"Berlin to Bagdad," German View. Dr. Rohrbach, in his Deutschland unter den Weltvölkern, characterized the development of Germany toward Constantinople as "the greatest political end which the present or the next generation can desire." The Alldeutsche Blätter, the organ of the Pan-Germans, said on December 8, 1895, that the German interests demanded as a minimum that Asiatic Turkey should be placed under a German suzerainty. The most advantageous way would be to connect Mesopotamia and Syria and place the whole of the Sultan's dominion under German protection (summarized by the author of The Pan-German Doctrine, 1904, p. 216). Consequently, as

remarked Prof. Spiethoff, of the German University at Prague (as quoted in the Round Table, March, 1917), “the establishment of a sphere of economic influence from the North Sea to the Persian Gulf has been for nearly two decades the silent, unspoken aim of German foreign policy. Our diplomacy in recent years... only becomes intelligible when regarded as part of a consistent Eastern design. . . . A secure future for Germany is to be reached along this line and no other." See Conquest and Kultur.

“Berlin to Bagdad,” Political Purpose. The Germans before the war, were fain to represent the Bagdad railway, which was the spinal cord of their Berlin-Bagdad vision, as primarily an economic enterprise for the regeneration of Asia Minor and Mesopotamia. But such was not the view held in Germany. “The Bagdad line,” said the Alldeutsche Blätter on December 17, 1899, “can become of vast political importance" to Germany. How vast was shown by Karl Radek in the Neue Zeit for June 2, 1911: “The Bagdad railway being a blow at the interests of English imperialism, Turkey could entrust its construction only to the German company, because she knew that Germany's army and navy stood behind her, which fact makes it appear to England and Russia inadvisable to exert too sensitive a pressure upon Turkey." Prof. R. Mangelsdorf saw even greater possibilities: "To some extent, indeed, Turkey's construction of a railway system is a threat to England, for it means that an attack on the most vulnerable part of the body of England's world empire, namely Egypt, comes well within the bounds of possibility" (Akademische Blätter, June 1, 1911). And, said Dr. Paul Rohrbach, summing up the gains to Turkey of collaboration with Germany, "Egypt is a prize which for Turkey would be well worth the risk of taking sides with Germany in a war with England.” (Die Bagdadbahn, 1911, p. 19.) See “Drang nach Osten"; Pan-Germarism, etc.

Bernhardi, Friedrich von (1849- ). German general who achieved political prominence through his volume Germany and the Next War (1911). In this he sets forth with frank cynicism the advantages, the necessity, and the inevitability of a war between Germany and England. Very briefly summarized, his argument is as follows: Germany can acquire that "place in the sun " which is her due only by a war of aggression, because the powers of the Triple Entente-Russia, France, and England-each and all endowed with vast colonial possessions which they can not adequately use, have been surrounding Germany with a ring of iron. When this war comes it must be waged ruthlessly and " frightfully,” with the object of destroying the balance of power in Europe and without regard to treaties or vested rights. The neutrality of Belgium need not be observed. "In one way or another we must square our account with France if we wish for a free hand in our international policy." For Germany the question is either "world power or downfall." War, moreover, is a biological necessity in the life of nations and by war is secured the survival of the

fittest-a kind of political neo-Darwinism which has been much in vogue in Germany in recent years. The war has shown that Bernhardi's ideas had taken a much stronger hold on the German mentality than had been usually supposed. While his book was too expensive to be widely read by common people, it had, nevertheless, gone through eight editions before the war. It exercised great influence on the upper and middle classes. "Do you know, my friends nearly ran me out of the country for that. They said, 'You have let the cat out of the bag.' to A. C. Walcott, in German War Practices, p. 13.) See "KriegsRaison"; Militarism; Nietzsche; Prussianism; Treitschke; War, German View; "World Power or Downfall."

(Bernhardi

Bernstorff, Count J. H. von (1862- ). German ambassador to the United States, 1908-1917. He was absent from his post at the outbreak of the war, but returned at once not merely to perform his official duties but to direct the vast German propaganda. His activity in this latter connection was long suspected by public opinion, but little definite was known until the publication by the Committee on Public Information of an analysis of the von Igel papers. The State Department announced in September, 1917, that it possessed ample evidence to prove Count von Bernstorff's previous knowledge of the Zimmermann note. On January 22 he asked the German Foreign Office for $50,000 with which to try to influence Congress; and he was under instruction to stimulate strikes and sabotage in American factories. He was handed his passports on February 3, 1917. Since his return to Germany he has been appointed ambassador to Turkey in succession to Dr. von Kühlmann, who became Foreign Minister. See Dumba; Igel, von, Papers of; Intrigue; Sabotage; Zimmermann Note.

Bernstorff, Intrigues of, against Canadian Pacific Railway. The German Government, through Secretary Zimmermann, cabled directions to Bernstorff for "energetic action in regard to the proposed destruction of the Canadian Pacific railway at several points." Capt. Boehm had been given detailed instructions as to the method to pursue. The general staff named three men in the United States "suitable for carrying out sabotage," one of whom was the now notorious Jeremiah O'Leary, editor of Bull. By this revelation Bernstorff was proved to have been engaged in intrigues against American neutrality, which he had specifically denied again and again.

Bethmann Hollweg, Dr. Theobald von (1856Former German Chancellor. The son of a famous Prussian Liberal politician, he passed through the grades of the Prussian bureaucracy to the Ministry of the Interior. In July, 1909, he succeeded Prince Bülow as Imperial Chancellor, and held office exactly eight years. Before the war Bethmann Hollweg posed as a Liberal, although his utterances revealed his unswerving devotion to the Prussian ideal. He seems to have desired an entente with Great Britain and had, apparently, achieved it in 1914, when, as he lamented, the war shattered his plans. chancellor he must, of course, bear the responsibility for

As