Don Martin diary entry
for Tuesday, January 1, 1918:
One of the first things I did was to buy this diary.
Then
went to Herald office on Fleet St. Bothered by loss of cablegram which came
last night and was mislaid by the hotel. Came to my room in Savoy at 10:30.
Pretty lonesome business in London.
Weather
raw and cold
Don Martin's first
"mail story", dated January 1, was published in the New York Herald,
Sunday, January 20, 1918, without byline. It's length is a taste of what was to come - Don
Martin did not try to spare words! Germany's certain defeat was reported for
the first time - of many to come.
Germany Has No Chance Whatever to Win War,
English Firmly Believe
Sacrifices Only Increase
Determination of People to Triumph
Even if Twenty Years of Fighting is Required
[Special
to the Herald]
Herald
Bureau, No. 130 Fleet Street, London, Jan. 1
Before leaving the United States I
heard many persons actually ask if there was any possibility that Germany might
win the war.
In England, where the people are
face to face with war conditions and in possession of much more information
than drifts across the Atlantic, the answer is quickly and most emphatically
given:---
“There is no chance whatever that
Germany will win. The Allies will win if it takes twenty years, and we’ve got
the men and money to do it. The people have the fortitude and the patience, and
Germany knows it.”
One does not have to be in Great
Britain long to realize that the old spirit—commonly called pluck and
tenacity—which won so many wars has been roused now as never before. England is
groping around in inky darkness at night. She is having much less food than she
ought to have. She is paying high prices. She is sacrificing her amusements and
her pleasures. She is staying indoors at night and constantly watching skyward
for enemy aircraft. Her pleasure automobiles are a thing of the past. Banquets
are unknown. Bars are closed except during short periods at midday and in the
evening. The army of workers goes to work in the darkness of early morning and
returns home in the foggy blackness of early evening. Women are doing things
they never before dreamed of doing. Children are being put in factories the
moment they can leave school.
Hardships
Increase Determination
In brief, London—and all of England
as well—is putting up with discomforts which might well be expected to stagger,
if not completely discourage, a nation. But England is neither staggered nor
discouraged. It may be said quite truthfully that the more sacrifices she is
called upon to make and the more privations imposed on her the more dogged
becomes her determination to crush Germany, and to stick to the task till a
complete job has been done.
Measured by the inconveniences and
hardships London already is suffering New York city knows nothing at all of the
war. To begin with, daylight does not start till nearly eight o’clock in the
morning, and daylight ends at four. In all the great city not a light gleams
from a window. The streets are black. Street lamps burn at infrequent
intervals. All are shaded so that only a small circle of light is thrown on the
pavement. Shops appear closed. Restaurants which compare with the gaudiest or
finest on Broadway seem locked tightly from without, yet within there are
lights and crowds. One might walk the entire length of the Strand, Piccadilly,
Fleet street or any of the other popular thoroughfares at night and not see the
first suggestion of life behind the solid walls.
Travel
at Night Dangerous
Policemen are scarce. They usually
stand in a doorway ready to guide any pilgrim who has strayed from his course,
as many do. For a stranger to find a house or street number after dark is
almost impossible. For a stranger to walk a cozen blocks without stumbling over
a curb or bumping against a post or projection is next to impossible. One may
carry a flashlight, but must be discreet in its use. The strictest kind of
regulations have been adopted to prevent the showing of a single ray of light
to airmen, who are likely to come over from German camps any night.
I don’t know what New York city
would do in similar circumstances. No doubt it would do just as London is
doing—grin and bear it—but I doubt if it would take the whole thing as
philosophically as the British capital does.
Still, England is not
grumbling—much. Her determination is to “lick” Germany. She thought three years
ago this would be a small job. She even ridiculed at first the notion that
Germany, or any other nation, should be so presumptuous as to think of fighting
Great Britain. Her point of view has changed now. She know her Tommy is a good
fighter—and he is—but she know also that the Kaiser’s soldiers can fight, and
that there seems to be an almost endless supply of them. But she knows that the
man power of the Allies will increase, and that the man power of Germany cannot
increase, and she knows that the United States and England, with France doing
her part in as noble a manner as ever, can triumph over the Hun in time.
Much
Peace Talk Heard
One can hear peace talk wherever he
goes. Just at present the talk of men who assume to have a smattering of
information from official circles is that Germany will lose all her
possessions, but probably will not have to bear alone the cost of restoring
Belgium. The suggestion that she may ever retain any part of Belgium is
ridiculed.
No secret is now made of the fact
that a year ago there was a fear that the submarine menace would become so
formidable that a peace reasonably suitable to Germany would have to be made,
but those fears are held no longer. England is satisfied that she will be able
to get all the food and supplies she needs, that the United States will come
forward in the spring and summer of this year with a splendid fleet of new
ships, and that there will be plenty of vessels for the transportation of
troops.
With what she believes to be a most
roseate prospect ahead of her, England has settled down for a good siege of
discomforts, hardships and, if need be, downright suffering.
Fully half of the men one meets in
the streets are soldiers in uniform. Many are in London on leave. Many are on
the way from the possessions to the front. Australians are numerous. They and
the Canadians bear a somewhat striking resemblance to the Americans.
Air
Raids Now Commonplace
Air raids are expected at all
times. London is prepared for them. The resident population has grown
accustomed to them and knows where to go for safety when the warning is given
that enemy aircraft are coming toward the city. It is surprising how little
damage has been done, considering the number of raids that have been made by
the Huns and the weight of the bombs dropped. One might walk about the city for
a week without seeing the first evidence of the bombardments. Still the people
talk much about them and a stranger is told at great length just what he or she
must do when the policemen blow their warning whistles and the guns begin to
boom.
Very evidently the Huns bombard the
city with the idea of disgusting England with the war and giving impetus to any
possible movement for peace. But the raids are having the opposite effect. All
cities in England are putting up with the same inconveniences as is London. All
are possible targets for the Hun bombs and thus all are kept in darkness.
Women telephone operators will be
mentioned in the honor lists to be given out early in the year. During raids of
the severest description the telephone girls have remained heroically at their
posts. Despite the fact that the operators at important centers have received
permission to take cover during raids, they have refused to leave their work.
With guns thundering and bombs dropping frequently in the immediate vicinity
they have carried on their work with splendid fearlessness, realizing that the
telephone plays an effective part in the defence of the city’s homes.
On the occasion of the first daylight raid the
operators at an important station near the danger zone were told they might
take shelter, but volunteers were asked for so that the service would not have
to be discontinued. Practically the entire staff immediately offered to stay on
duty and they did their work till the “all clear” signal was given, although
their risk was very great. Within fifty yards of this particular station there
were several deaths due to bombs and the cries of the injured could be heard in
the exchange. Now it is proposed that these courageous girls be rewarded for
their valor. All London approves the suggestion.
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