Don Martin diary entry for Saturday,
March 2, 1918:
Took a long walk
over Waterloo Bridge; up the other side of the river to Lambeth Bridge; then
back by the Admiralty etc. to the hotel. Had been at the office for three
hours. Had dinner at Simpson’s - have a meat card now – and then went to the
office and stayed till 11:30. Wrote several short stories; got up the
statements on the war anniversary for April 5 and wrote a 1-½ column story to go
with them. Shall now eat a couple of oranges, some cakes I bought yesterday in
Richmond – eating is different than it used to be – and go to bed. What
wouldn’t I give to run amuck in Mother’s icebox after she had had a chicken
dinner! Have lost 8 pounds but feel perfectly well. Everyone is losing some.
Weather windy and very cold.
And that Saturday evening of March 2 Don
Martin wrote a long letter to his mother. Here is an extract with
what he had to say about the war and Germany.
Mother
:
... It is Saturday night and I am at the office because I
have no other place to go. I have been writing some articles for the New York
and Paris editions and also some business letters and I see no reason why I
shouldn’t keep my typewriter humming a while longer and write to you. ...
The war is going on about as usual. No one can tell what
will happen. The Germans are bound to be licked but I imagine not very hard.
That would take too long and the world is getting pretty weary of war. Charlie [Don's sister's husband, where daughter Dorothy lives] tells me the draft age may be increased to 40 and that he might have to be
drafted. ... The war has reached the stage where almost everyone must be
willing to make whatever sacrifice there is to be made. If I were ten years
younger I would get in the service in some capacity. United States is likely
very soon to read a long list of casualties among Americans. They are going to
be in the fight and many of them will naturally be lost. They are a fine
looking lot of men. I understand they are splendid fighters. The Kaiser is a
fine specimen of humanity. He is responsible for the whole business and why in
the world someone doesn’t murder him and confer a blessing on the world is more
than I can understand. ...
With love
Don
And
the next day the Commodore gave Don Martin a “Go”!
An article about Japan's role was written dated Saturday and published in the New York Herald on Sunday, March 3, 1918.
JAPAN FULLY ABLE TO AID THE ALLIES THROUGH SIBERIA
Could Send an Army as Far as Lake Baikal to Protect Railroad
[Special to the Herald]
Herald Bureau, No. 130 Fleet Street, London, Saturday
Chief interest here this week is centered on the proposed action by Japan to safeguard the interests of the Allies in Russia by throwing an army into Siberia to save the country from German domination. Railway and military equipment at Vladivostok will be protected by seizure, and the German and Austrian prisoners, of whom there are 850,000 in Siberia, will be prevented from organizing and rising against their captors.
This project is stupendous but is by no means impossible. During the Russo-Japanese War a scheme for the invasion of Siberia was worked out by the military authorities which included the occupation of the country as far as Lake Baikal, nearly 1,500 miles by rail from the Pacific coast, and it would have been attempted had not the peace of Portsmouth intervened. This information, which of course was not published at the time, comes from Japanese sources.
Japan’s Three Roads
Japan has three routes by which she could easily enter Siberia. The shortest would be by way of Corea, across the strait at the lower end of the Sea of Japan, from Shimoneseki to Fusan, whence there is a good railway running to Chang-chun by Seoul, Ping-yang, Antung and Mukden. At Harbin the line connects with the Trans-Siberian.
There have been vast improvements on Corean railroads in the last dozen years, since the time when miniature trains were hauled by the discarded steam locomotives of the New York elevated roads, and now through express trains of the latest type make good time from Taushima strait to Harbin.
A second but much longer route connects Port Arthur with the Trans-Siberian Railroad at Harbin. Although passing partly through Chinese territory the railroad is leased to Japan, which acquired Russia’s rights in 1905, and the lease was extended for ninety-nine years in 1915. The principal advantage of this route would be to make available the large stores of army equipment that Japan has gathered at Port Arthur and Doiren.
The third route, direct to Vladivostok, would entail water transportation across the Sea of Japan, a distance of 450 miles. Should the expedition be decided upon military experts here believe that it would proceed from all three bases. Vladivostok would be occupied by detachments from Japanese war ships, which have been in that port for the last three weeks awaiting such a contingency, while an army would be sent up through Corea to Harbin, and equipment and supplies, including artillery, be forwarded from Port Arthur.
Could Keep Order
With the safety of Vladivostok and Harbin assured, the Japanese forces would control the Amur province and move on Chita, the capital of Transbaikalia, whence passage to Lake Baikal would be comparatively easy. Irkutsk, where the most serious disturbances are reported, lies forty-five miles west of the lake near its southern end.
The chief difficulty in any occupation of the country, whether by Japan and America or by Japan alone, would be political rather than military. It would be difficult to carry out without arousing the susceptibilities of the Russian people and to reconcile the conflicting views of the Bolsheviki and their opponents, though there is no doubt that either would prefer such temporary occupation to permanent conquest by Germany.
Japan undoubtedly could keep order in Eastern Siberia and could mobilize easily a force of 500,000 men to enforce it, providing a center to which the orderly elements of Russia could rally and eventually stem the German tide now threatening to overflow the European provinces.
Whether it would be necessary for Japan to extend her intervention to Europe would depend doubtless on the ability of the Russians to withstand the German invasion. That Tokyo until recently had no such intention is inferred here from the words of the Japanese Premier to the Diet a few weeks ago when he declared that Japan held herself responsible for the maintenance of peace “in this part of the world,” plainly implying that she did not consider herself bound to keep order in European Russia.
May Proceed Elsewhere
However, as she already has given great assistance to the Allies by her war ships in the Mediterranean, and as Germany triumphant in the Near-East would menace Japanese security in the Far East, it is considered likely that Japan will reply to the appeals of the Allies, whenever made, to protect civilization wherever menaced by the Hun.
The menace is not alone in Russia, but has extended this week to Asia Minor, where the withdrawal of the Bolshevik armies from the Caucasus has greatly strengthened the Teuton-Turkish forces. The latter have recaptured Trebizond, their greatest port on the Black Sea, and the right flank of the British in Mesopotamia is uncovered along the Persian border. Here, too, the Japanese could help.
About sixty thousand more square miles of Russian territory has been occupied by the Huns this week, while the Bolsheviki have been fighting their fellow countrymen in the south. Austria, after saying she would not invade the Ukraine, has invaded it along both banks of the Dniester and has reached Chotin and Kamenetz-Podalsky. The Germans have occupied Kieff, 330 miles from the Austrian border.
The Germans are reported at Luga, ninety miles from Petrograd, coming up the railway from Pakoff. They are at the Beresina, headed for Smolensk and Moscow. Little resistance is being offered despite eleventh hour appeals from Lenin and Trotsky, and Petrograd is preparing for a siege. Between Luga and the Beresina other German divisions are marching toward Bologoi, on the Petrograd-Moscow railroad, seeking to cut the line. The town is a railway junction and an important center of supplies for the capital.
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