RUSSIAN IMPERIAL CONSPIRACY REVEALED
Follette, Isabel B. La
Russian Imperial Conspiracy Revealed Unlocking of Secret Archives of War Correspondence Shows Shocking Story of How War was Planned. By ISABEL B. LA FOLLETTE Senator Robert L. Owen, author of...
...Before the Declaration...
...and England concerning which these two powers, in consequence of the general understanding existing between them, have to delibera...
...Senator Oiven shows that from 1870 the European system was steeped in this atmosphere of nationalism, militarism, and secret diplomacy...
...A vigorous demand from Edward Grey on Poincare and Sazonoff might have prevented the War...
...So much for the Allies' "war of defence...
...M. I...
...The peace of Europe can still be preserved by you if Russia decides to discontinue these military preparations which menace Germany and Austria-Hungary...
...This assertion is based upon a geologic study which draws a perfect picture of the evolution of the region...
...Joffre said in 1913 while in St...
...Cloudy days save us from too much sun in summer...
...Petersburg...
...Bear in mind, as you read the evidence, that the President of the French Republic has the right to make a secret treaty on his own authority, binding France without the advice of the French Senate or Parliament...
...Telegram 216, July 31, Isvolski to Sazonoff: "From military attache to War Minister, 1 A. M. "The French War Minister informed me in earnest, hearty tones (sincerite enthusiastique) that the Government is firmly decided upon war, and requested me to confirm the hope of the French general staff that all our efforts will be directed against Germ_any, and that Austria will be treated as a quantite negligible.** The Russian telegrams from the highest authority are evidence of commanding importance showing the earnest desire of the Germans and Austrians to localize and adjust the conflict and to avoid a general European war...
...On July 31, 1914, William sent the following telegram to Czar Nicholas: "Upon your appeal to my friendship and yo»*r request for my aid 1 have engaged in mediation between your government and the government of Austria-Hungary...
...Throughout, the record is one of commercialized imperialism...
...Grand Can von j C. E. Sturdevant, Grand Canyon National Park naturalist, has just issued an interesting statement concerning the great Canyon of the Colorado...
...I see in it the greatest peril threatening today the peace of Europe...
...The British Government has consented to publish its own secret documents...
...For 1914 the military appropriations of Russia, France and England made a total of $t,-337,259,735, while Germany and Austria appropriated $420,133,850, so that the Entente Allies appropriated $917,000,000 more in 1914 than Germany and Austria, and this does not include Belgium, Italy, Japan or the Balkans...
...Telegram 201, July 28, Isvolski to Sazonoff, states that the German ambassador had again visited the French...
...Neither Russian, French nor British interests were menaced by Austria or Germany...
...The Russian Imperial Conspiracy...
...His book reviewed in this issue of La Follette's merits careful study by every reader of the magazine.—R...
...The book cites a distinguished list of scholars from each of the allied countries of the war who have written books and otherwise expressed themselves to the effect that Germany should not have to shoulder the main guilt of the war...
...Two nations have fully prepared themselves for war, are determined on war against a neighbor, and yet the Premier of France assures the Ambassador of Germany that a friendly exchange of views between the powers forbid Germany to prepare for defense...
...It was planned for years...
...Strata of the earth tell scientists that the great mountains were slowly worn down, during millions of years of erosion...
...Sturdevant declares that mountains, high as the Alps, once rose above the country now known as the Grand Canyon...
...The peace of the world will be best promoted by the elimination of this destructive international blunder...
...It rests in your hand to avert it...
...It was a German acceptance of a state of war organized and made against Germany on a pretext that was frivolous and false...
...2.00...
...The whole reparations problem rests on the fallacious premise of the unique responsibility of Germany...
...Petersburg, "The Russian army is at this moment the mightiest in the world...
...M. Raymond Poincare, who, with Isvolski and Sazonoff, it is shown by Senator Owen, willed the war and actively incited the Russians to the general mobilization which began the war, confesses as follows in "Foreign Affairs," October, 1925: "I do not claim that Austria or Germany in this first phase had a conscious thought-out intention of provoking a general war...
...The scheming of this little group of chauvinistic militarists resulted in the destruction, often worse than death, of millions of trusting and deceived patriots...
...As Prof...
...Occasionally, the beauty of some cloud formations strikes an appreciative cord, but for the most part, clouds are deprecated as robbers of our sunlight...
...AH this is written upon the walls of the canyon...
...This evidence, points out Senator Owen, banishes the legend of the shocked surprise with which the allied Governments learned of the German invasion of Belgium...
...Russian Foreign Minister, wired the Russian Ambassador at Pari?, Isvolski, as follows: "The political agreements concluded between the Allies during the war must remain intact, and are not subject to revision...
...View of Senator Owen ii T\T° WONDER," says Senator Owen, "that 1N the Entente leaders did not insist on trying the Kaiser under the Versailles Treaty for the 'supreme offense against international morality and the sanctity of treaties.' The terrible offense charged does not describe Wilhelm II...
...by Hon...
...But this fatal admission by Poincare is an absolute confession of the utter falsehood of the Entente propaganda in the United States that Germany had for years planned the World War, and brought it on...
...ON THE 24th of February, 191(5, Sazonoff...
...Great Britain was led into the war on the theory that British interest required cooperation with France and Russia, a theory upon which Sir Edward Grey had laid the ground by years of naval and military conferences in which every detail of a war on Germany had been carefully outlined...
...Never before in the whole history of historical writing," says the same historian, "has there been so rapid and complete a change in the opinions of historians concerning an event of major importance as has been witnessed in the revision of our conceptions concerning the causes of the outbreak of the World War in August, 1914...
...Of course the war was already launched and Grey, Poincare and Sazonoff knew it...
...Ready to Close on Germany...
...Plan for War Booty...
...Koltert L. Owen, Albert and Charles Koni, New York...
...TT>HIS has become possible through the A opening up of the secret archives, in former wars concealed for indefinite years, by the revolutionary governments of Russia, Germany and Austria...
...While this action was taking place your troops were being mobilized against my ally, Austria-Hungary, whereby, as I have already communicated to you, my mediation has become almost illusory...
...Gradually, then, the region rose again until it became a vast plateau which, in turn, was gouged out by the sand rilled waters of the Colorado...
...They include the agreement with France and England on Constantinople, the Straits, Syria and Asia Minor, and also the London treaty with Italy...
...It was the Czar, the authority responsible for making the war, and to the German Kaiser, that King George appealed...
...It was a graceful and useful gesture and went far to satisfy public opinion, that Great Britain did not wish the war and tried to prevent it...
...War Could he Prevented...
...Asquith, on Saturday, August 1, at 2 A. M., had King George telegraph to the Czar, making a strong appeal for peace...
...whenever a period of political tension arises...
...It describes the Russian conspirators, and the Treaty of Versailles, which with grave international immorality violated the solemn pledges made to the Germans as a basis for their surrender and the abdication of the Hohen-zollerns—the fourteen points...
...so have the Belgians...
...The Russians would not permit it...
...A single telegram," Senator Owen believes, "from Poincare to the Czar refusing to approve a general war would have prevented the World War...
...THIS was two days before the German Government demanded that the Russian mobilization should stop under a penalty of German mobilization and three days before the German Ambassador at St...
...3) they contrived a great increase in the military preparations of France and Russia, making a three-year conscription in the former, while in Russia 2,230,-000 men were ready for quick action and 14,-000,000 were ready for call to the colors...
...Foreign Minister and told him that: "Germany solely desired to work with France for the maintenance of peace...
...Asquith and King George knew "well to whom to appeal, says Senator Owen...
...THE WORD "honor" frequently means "interest" in the diplomatic code, says Senator Owen...
...High Class Diplomacy VIVLANI expressed astonish/nent at the German demands for Russian demobilization under penalty of a German mobilization "when a friendly exchange of views was in progress between Russia, Austria and the other powers...
...It was not a German declaration of war, declares Senator Owen...
...Sazonoff admitted in 1910 that the World War was brought about by the determination of France and Russia to humiliate Germany...
...Petersburg accepted a state of war as forced on the German Government...
...Clouds All too often clouds are not appreciated by man...
...Long periods of cloudless skies are as depressing as continuous overcast heavens...
...This is noi a dead issue, but a vital world problem...
...The men who launched the war were patriots, says Senator Owen, but they thought in terms of military strategy, believing in the all-powerful might makes right...
...Telegram 208, July 30, 1914, from Isvolski to Sazonoff, assured him: "The French Government is ready to fulfill all its obligations as an ally...
...Inform the French Government of this and at the same time thank it for its declaration * * * that we can fully rely upon the support of our ally, France...
...The dispatches show, declares Senator Owen, that Germany tried to secure French neutrality and failed, tried to obtain British neutrality and failed, tried to induce Belgium to submit to an unopposed passage and failed...
...For a number of years he has been president of the National Popular Government League which has conducted a vigorous campaign for the initiative, referendum and recall...
...MEANWHILE the French Military Staff held meetings with the Russian Military Staff, planning how a war of offense could be waged against Germany...
...Finally, the sea swarmed covered the Canyon...
...I have gone to the extreme limit of the possible in my efforts for the preservation of the peace of the world...
...Professor Gooch, a leading English historian, in his book "Germany," says: "No evidence has appeared to indicate that the German Government or the German people had desired and plotted a world war...
...Without them, crops would never grow...
...That Germany was ready to co-operate with the- other powers for the maintenance of peace...
...Senator Owen sounds the warning, "If the democracies or peoples of the world continue to permit secret diplomacy with its ambitious intrigue, militarism, commercial imperialism, this World War will not be the last...
...He was United States Senator from Oklahoma from 1907 to 1925...
...No existing documents give us the right to suppose that at that time they had planned anything so systematic...
...Such a policy constitutes a danger for Europe —and also for Belgium...
...SENATOR OWEN quotes telegram after telegram between the Russian Ambassador at Paris, Isvolski, and the Russian Minister of War, Sazonoff...
...Charles E. Tansill, expert historian for the Library of Congress, was assigned by Congress the task of studying the records with a view to ascertaining the war guilt, and he is also convinced of the French and Russian responsibility...
...From 1912 to 1914 these gentlemen successfully worked out the following plans: (1) They manipulated the Balkan situation so that they could take advantage of any crisis which might arise as an excuse for a European War...
...The suppressed telegrams, as Senator Owen says, indicate that with both Russia and France the negotiations for the maintenance of peace were "a ruse de guerre" and used as a screen for a war already fully determined on both in Paris and St...
...He points out the great significance of this fact...
...Colonel E. M. House wrote to the...
...Clouds so affect our health that physicians classify regions suitable for the care of different types of patients by the clouds, or want of clouds, in the sky...
...The responsibility for the security of my country forces me to measures of defense...
...Immeasurable mutual distrust, imperialistic ideals, and a patriotism restricted to material national instincts respectively worked each other up without its ever being possible to say that any particular nation had contributed most to the general tendency of the world...
...In spite of this, I have continued it, and I now receive reliable news that serious preparations for war are going on on my eastern frontier...
...Senator Owen finds this "the refinement of high-class diplomacy...
...Thus, says Senator Owen, Russia planned to control Constantinople and the Straits, and take what she pleased of eastern Germany and Austria, while France would take what it pleased of western Germany...
...With the League of Nations, the World Court, and the whole European situation resting on the cruelly unjust Versailles Treaty, Senator Owen sees no chance for peace until the facts are disseminated and wartime illusions righted...
...Telegram 1551, on July 29, from Sazonoff to Isvolski: "Nothing remains for us but to hasten our own warlike preparations and to reckon with the probable inevitability of war...
...Senator Owen is a progressive Democrat and is an active supporter of progressive principles...
...King George then wired the C7-ar in behalf of peace, after the Russian and French Governments were fully committed to war, and Great Britain bound to follow...
...By ISABEL B. LA FOLLETTE Senator Robert L. Owen, author of the Russian Imperial Conspiracy, was born at Lynchburg, Virginia, February 2, 1856...
...Begged Czar to Withhold EVEN Sazonoff has written that the Kai3er begged the Czar to keep his troops from the border, and that William II was "nearly frantic...
...Plan War On Germany...
...It is not to the credit of France, Serbia and Italy that they have not faced daylight with the rest...
...Senator Owen has made an intensive investigation of the causes of the late war...
...It is not I who l>ear the responsibility for the misfortune which now threatens the entire civilized world...
...Telegrams are quoted showing the response of the press to such stimulation, and the tremendous power of the newspapers in moving the French and Russian peoples to war...
...The friendship for you and your country, bequeathed to me by my grandfather on his deathbed, has always been sacred to me, and I have stood faithfully by Russia while it was in serious affliction, especially during its last war...
...It is of opinion, however, that at the present moment, when negotiations are still in progress between the less interested powers, it would be to the purpose that Russia, so far as (he measures of a defensive and precautionary nature which it has deemed necessary to adopt will permit, should not take any direct step which would serve Germany as a pretext for ordering the general or partial mobilization of her forces...
...2) they managed to get England involved so that she would have to ccme in on their, side...
...Secret Archives Reveal Facts...
...Clouds bring rain to our fields...
...The chief objectives were tho seizure of the Straits and the return of Alsace-Lorraine, and, for these aims to be realized, a European war would be necessary...
...In 1894 came the Franco-Russian Alliance which was transformed into an offensive organization by Isvolski and Poincare by 1912...
...All suggestions for the future daliminitation of central Europe are at present premature, but in general one must bear in mind that we are prepared to allow France and England complete freedom in drawing up the western frontiers of Germany, in the expectation that the Allies -on their part would allow us equal freedom in drawing up our frontiers with Germany and Austria...
...This book records, from official documentary evidence, the machinations of the European diplomats in bringing forth the World Wai...
...In January, 1914, the Belgian Minister at Paris, according to Senator Owen, informed the Minister of Foreign Affairs at home, "I have already had the honor of informing you that it is M. Poincare, Delcasse, Millerand, and their friends who have inaugurated and pursued the nationalistic, militaristic, and Chauvinistic policy, the renascence of which wo witnessed...
...In winter, clouds hold the day's heat from the sun close to earth and help protect us from the cold at night...
...1S27...
...It is significant to note that in the minutes of one of these meeting appears the following consideration: "From what is known of the German mobilization and concentration, one may conclude that the first great encounters will probably take place in Lorraine, Luxembourg and Belgium from the fifteenth to the eighteenth day...
...Chancellor Hollweg of Germany has said: "The controversy as to which party gave the first impulse to a program of general armament and to a perversion of the policy of alliances will probably never be fought to a finish...
...The story of the French press during this period is almost unbelievable, but Senator Owen cites actual telegrams showing that hundreds of thousands of francs of Russian money were paid monthly to the French press by the lieutenants of Poincare...
...In 1923 he spent many months in Europe that he might have access to original sources...
...No one threatens the honor and peace of Russia, which might well have awaited the success of my mediation...
...In reality, clouds play an important role in our daily existence...
...Telegram 209, of July 30, Isvolski to Sazonoff, states that the French Ambassador in London "Was instructed to confer with Grey as to the fixing of the combined attitude of France...
...N THE LIGHT of President Cool-id ge's recent assumption of the war-making power, Senator Owen's little book becomes almost terrifying...
...H. E. Barnes says, the Dawes plan and other plans for its enforcement are comparable to efforts to reduce the fine of a man known by all persons to be innocent...
...President of the United States from Europe, May 29, 1914, "Whenever England consents, France and Russia will close in on Germany and Austria...
Vol. 19 • October 1927 • No. 10
