The Coming Conquest of England

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THE COMING CONQUEST OF ENGLAND


by August Niemann


Translated by J. H. Freese



CONTENTS

I. THE COUNCIL OF STATE

II. THE OFFICERS' MESS

III. A RUSSIAN COMRADE

IV. THE CIRCASSIAN BEAUTY

V. THE CAPTAIN'S WIFE

VI. THE OUTRAGE

VII. THE MAHARAJAH

VIII. THE PAMIRS

IX. THE GERMAN EMPEROR

X. FIVE LAKHS OF RUPEES

XI. THE MOBILISATION

XII. THE CAMP OF LAHORE

XIII. THE BATTLE

XIV. IN THE PANIC-STRICKEN CITY

XV. THE COURT-MARTIAL

XVI. THE PROFESSOR

XVII. DOWNING STREET

XVIII. THE YOUNG RUSSIAN CAPTAIN OF DRAGOONS

XIX. ON THE ROAD TO SIMLA

XX. A FRIEND IN NEED

XXI. EDITH'S ADVENTURES

XXII. THE ETHICS OF ESPIONAGE

XXIII. HOMEWARD BOUND

XXIV. THE ADVENTURES OF THE CALEDONIA

XXV. A SUSPICIOUS FISHING-SMACK

XXVI. CAMILLE PENUROT

XXVII. EBERHARD AMELUNGEN

XXVIII. THE FATE OF A SPY

XXIX. A WOMAN'S TREACHERY

XXX. EDITH'S LAST JOURNEY

XXXI. THE STOLEN DOCUMENT

XXXII. NEWS OF AN OLD FRIEND

XXXIII. THE LANDING IN SCOTLAND

XXXIV. THE BATTLE OF FLUSHING

XXXV. AT HAMPTON COURT




AUTHOR'S PREFACE


I recall to mind a British colonel, who said to me in Calcutta: "This is
the third time that I have been sent to India. Twenty-five years ago, as
lieutenant, and then the Russians were some fifteen hundred miles from
the Indian frontier; then, six years since, as captain, and the Russians
were then only five hundred miles away. A year ago I came here as
lieutenant-colonel, and the Russians are right up to the passes leading
to India."

The map of the world unfolds itself before me. All seas are ploughed
by the keels of English vessels, all coasts dotted with the coaling
stations and fortresses of the British world-power. In England is vested
the dominion of the globe, and England will retain it; she cannot permit
the Russian monster to drink life and mobility from the sea.

"Without England's permission no shot can be fired on the ocean," once
said William Pitt, England's greatest statesman. For many, many
years England has increased her lead, owing to dissensions among the
continental Powers. Almost all wars have, for centuries past, been
waged in the interests of England, and almost all have been incited
by England. Only when Bismarck's genius presided over Germany did the
German Michael become conscious of his own strength, and wage his own
wars.

Are things to come to this pass, that Germany is to crave of England's
bounty--her air and light, and her very daily bread? or does their
ancient vigour no longer animate Michael's arms?

Shall the three Powers who, after Japan's victory over China, joined
hands in the treaty of Shimonoseki, in order to thwart England's aims,
shall they--Germany, France, and Russia--still fold their hands, or
shall they not rather mutually join them in a common cause?

In my mind's eye I see the armies and the fleets of Germany, France, and
Russia moving together against the common enemy, who with his polypus
arms enfolds the globe. The iron onslaught of the three allied Powers
will free the whole of Europe from England's tight embrace. The great
war lies in the lap of the future.

The story that I shall portray in the following pages is not a chapter
of the world's past history; it is the picture as it clearly developed
itself to my mind's eye, on the publication of the first despatch of the
Viceroy Alexieff to the Tsar of Russia. And, simultaneously like a flash
of lightning, the telegram which the Emperor William sent to the Boers
after Jameson's Raid crosses my memory--that telegram which aroused in
the heart of the German nation such an abiding echo. I gaze into the
picture, and am mindful of the duties and aims of our German nation. My
dreams, the dreams of a German, show me the war that is to be, and
the victory of the three great allied nations. Germany, France, and
Russia--and a new division of the possessions of the earth as the final
aim and object of this gigantic universal war.

THE AUTHOR.




TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

This volume is the authorised translation of Der Weltkrieg deutsche
Traume (F. W. Vobach and Co., Leipsic). The translator offers no comment
on the day-dream which he reproduces in the English language for English
readers. The meaning and the moral should be obvious and valuable.

LONDON, September, 1904.




THE COMING CONQUEST OF ENGLAND




I

THE COUNCIL OF STATE

It was a brilliant assemblage of high dignitaries and military officers
that had gathered in the Imperial Winter Palace at St. Petersburg. Of
the influential personages, who, by reason of their official position
or their personal relations to the ruling house, were summoned to advise
and determine the destiny of the Tsar's Empire, scarcely one was absent.
But it was no festal occasion that had called them here; for all faces
wore an expression of deep seriousness, amounting in certain cases to
one of grave anxiety. The conversation, carried on in undertones, was of
matters of the gravest import.

The broad folding-doors facing the lifesize portrait of the reigning
Tsar were thrown wide open, and amid the breathless silence of all
assembled, the grey-headed President of the Imperial Council, Grand Duke
Michael, entered the hall. Two other members of the Imperial house, the
Grand Dukes Vladimir Alexandrovitch and Alexis Alexandrovitch, brothers
of the late Tsar, accompanied him.

The princes graciously acknowledged the deep obeisances of all present.
At a sign from the Grand Duke Michael, the whole company took their
places at the long conference table, covered with green cloth, which
stood in the centre of the pillared hall. Deep, respectful silence still
continued, until, at a sign from the President, State Secretary Witte,
the chief of the ministerial council, turned to the Grand Dukes and
began thus:--

"Your Imperial Highnesses and Gentlemen! Your Imperial Highness has
summoned us to an urgent meeting, and has commissioned me to lay before
you the reasons for, and the purpose of, our deliberations. We are all
aware that His Majesty the Emperor, our gracious Lord and Master, has
declared the preservation of the peace of the world to be the highest
aim of his policy. The Christian idea that mankind should be 'ONE fold
under ONE shepherd' has, in the person of our illustrious ruler, found
its first and principal representative here on earth. The league of
universal peace is solely due to His Majesty, and if we are called upon
to present to our gracious Lord and Master our humble proposals for
combating the danger which immediately menaces our country, all our
deliberations should be inspired by that spirit which animates the
Christian law of brotherly love."

Grand Duke Michael raised his hand in interruption. "Alexander
Nicolaievitch," he said, turning to the Secretary, "do not omit to write
down this last sentence WORD FOR WORD."

The Secretary of State made a short pause, only to continue with a
somewhat louder voice and in a more emphatic tone--

"No especial assurance is required that, in view of this, our noble
liege lord's exalted frame of mind, a breach of the world's peace could
not possibly come from our side. But our national honour is a sacred
possession, which we can never permit others to assail, and the attack
which Japan has made upon us in the Far East forced us to defend it
sword in hand. There is not a single right-minded man in the whole world
who could level a reproach at us for this war, which has been forced
upon us. But in our present danger a law of self-preservation impels
us to inquire whether Japan is, after all, the only and the real enemy
against whom we have to defend ourselves; and there are substantial
reasons for believing that this question should be answered in the
negative. His Majesty's Government is convinced that we are indebted
for this attack on the part of Japan solely to the constant enmity of
England, who never ceases her secret machinations against us. It has
been England's eternal policy to damage us for her own aggrandisement.
All our endeavours to promote the welfare of this Empire and make the
peoples happy have ever met with resistance on the part of England.
From the China Seas, throughout all Asia to the Baltic, England has ever
thrown obstacles in our way, in order to deprive us of the fruits of our
civilising policy. No one of us doubts for a moment that Japan is, in
reality, doing England's work. Moreover, in every part of the globe
where our interests are at stake, we encounter either the open or covert
hostility of England. The complications in the Balkans and in Turkey,
which England has incited and fostered by the most despicable methods,
have simply the one object in view--to bring us into mortal conflict
with Austria and Germany. Yet nowhere are Great Britain's real aims
clearer seen than in Central Asia. With indescribable toil and with
untold sacrifice of treasure and blood our rulers have entered the
barren tracts of country lying between the Black Sea and the Caspian,
once inhabited by semibarbarous tribes, and, further east again, the
lands stretching away to the Chinese frontier and the Himalayas, and
have rendered them accessible to Russian civilisation. But we have
never taken a step, either east or south, without meeting with English
opposition or English intrigues. To-day our frontiers march with the
frontier of British East India, and impinge upon the frontier of Persia
and Afghanistan. We have opened up friendly relations with both these
states, entertain close commercial intercourse with their peoples,
support their industrial undertakings, and shun no sacrifice to make
them amenable to the blessings of civilisation. Yet, step by step,
England endeavours to hamper our activity. British gold and British
intrigues have succeeded in making Afghanistan adopt a hostile attitude
towards us. We must at last ask ourselves this question: How long do we
intend to look on quietly at these undertakings? Russia must push
her way down to the sea. Millions of strong arms till the soil of our
country. We have at our own command inexhaustible treasures of corn,
wood, and all products of agriculture; yet we are unable to reach the
markets of the world with even an insignificant fraction of these fruits
of the earth that Providence has bestowed, because we are hemmed in, and
hampered on every side, so long as our way to the sea is blocked. Our
mid-Asiatic possessions are suffocated from want of sea air. England
knows this but too well, and therefore she devotes all her energies
towards cutting us off from the sea. With an insolence, for which there
is no justification, she declares the Persian Gulf to be her own domain,
and would like to claim the whole of the Indian Ocean, as she already
claims India itself, as her own exclusive property. This aggression must
at last be met with a firm 'Hands off,' unless our dear country is to
run the risk of suffering incalculable damage. It is not we who seek
war; war is being forced upon us. As to the means at our disposal for
waging it, supposing England will not spontaneously agree to our just
demands, His Excellency the Minister of War will be best able to give us
particulars."

He bowed once more to the Grand Dukes and resumed his seat. The tall,
stately figure of the War Minister, Kuropatkin, next rose, at a sign
from the President, and said--

"For twenty years I served in Central Asia and I am able to judge, from
my own experience, of our position on the south frontier. In case of
a war with England, Afghanistan is the battle-ground of primary
importance. Three strategic passes lead from Afghanistan into India: the
Khyber Pass, the Bolan Pass, and the Kuram Valley. When, in 1878, the
English marched into Afghanistan they proceeded in three columns from
Peshawar, Kohat, and Quetta to Cabul, Ghazni, and Kandahar respectively.
These three roads have also been laid down as our lines of march. Public
opinion considers them the only possible routes. It would carry me too
far into detail were I to propound in this place my views as to the
'pros and cons' of this accepted view. In short, we SHALL find our way
into India. Hahibullah Khan would join us with his army, 60,000 strong,
as soon as we enter his territory. Of course, he is an ally of doubtful
integrity, for he would probably quite as readily join the English, were
they to anticipate us and make their appearance in his country with a
sufficiently imposing force. But nothing prevents our being first. Our
railway goes as far as Merv, seventy-five miles from Herat, and from
this central station to the Afghan frontier. With our trans-Caspian
railway we can bring the Caucasian army corps and the troops of
Turkestan to the Afghan frontier. I would undertake, within four weeks
of the outbreak of war, to mass a sufficient field army in Afghanistan
round Herat. Our first army can then be followed by a ceaseless stream
of regiments and batteries. The reserves of the Russian army are
inexhaustible, and we could place, if needs be, four million soldiers
and more than half a million of horses in the field. However, I am more
than doubtful whether England would meet us in Afghanistan. The English
generals would not, in any case, be well advised to leave India. Were
they defeated in Afghanistan only small fragments of their army at most
would escape back to India. The Afghans would show no mercy to a
fleeing English army and would destroy it, as has happened on a previous
occasion. If, on the other hand, which God forbid! the fortune of war
should turn against us, we should always find a line of retreat to
Turkestan open and be able to renew the attack at pleasure. If the
English army is defeated, then India is lost to Great Britain; for the
English are, in India, in the enemy's country; as a defeated people they
will find no support in the Indian people. They would be attacked on all
sides by the Indian native chieftains, whose independence they have so
brutally destroyed, at the very moment that their power is broken. We,
on the other hand, should be received with open arms, as rescuers of the
Indian people from their intolerable yoke. The Anglo-Indian army looks
on paper much more formidable than it really is; its strength is put at
200,000 men, yet only one-third of this number are English soldiers, the
rest being composed of natives. This army, moreover, consists of four
divisions, which are scattered over the whole great territory of India.
A field army, for employment on the frontier or across it, cannot
possibly consist of more than 60,000 men; for, considering the
untrustworthiness of the population, the land cannot be denuded of its
garrisons. As a result of what I have said, I record my conviction that
the war will have to be waged in India itself, and that God will give us
the victory."

The words of the General, spoken in an energetic and confident tone,
made a deep impression upon his hearers; only respect for the presence
of the Grand Dukes prevented applause. The greyhaired President gave the
Minister of War his hand, and invited the Minister for Foreign Affairs
to address them.

"In my opinion," said the diplomatist, "there is no doubt that the
strategical opinions just delivered by His Excellency the Minister
for War are based upon an expert's sound and correct estimate of the
circumstances, and I also am certain that the troops of His Majesty the
Tsar, accustomed as they are to victory, will, in the event of war, soon
be standing upon the plain of the Indus. It is also my firm conviction
that Russia would be best advised to take the offensive as soon as
ever the impossibility of our present relations to England has been
demonstrated. But whoever goes to war with England must not look to one
battleground alone. On the contrary, we must be prepared for attacks of
the most varied kinds, for an attack upon our finances, to begin with,
and upon our credit, as to which His Excellency Witte could give better
information than I could. The Bank of England, and the great banking
firms allied with it, would at once open this financial campaign.
Moreover, a ship sailing under the Russian flag would hardly dare show
itself on the open seas, and our international trade would, until our
enemy had been crushed, be absolutely at a standstill. Moreover, more
vital for us than considerations of this sort would be the question:
What of the attitude of the other great Powers? England's political
art has, since the days of Oliver Cromwell, displayed itself chiefly in
adroitly making use of the continental Powers. It is no exaggeration to
say that England's wars have been chiefly waged with continental armies.
This is not said in depreciation of England's military powers. Wherever
the English fleet and English armies have been seen on the field of
battle, the energy, endurance, and intrepidity of their officers,
sailors, and soldiers have ever been brilliantly noticeable. The
traditions of the English troops who, under the Black Prince and Henry
V., marched in days of yore victorious through France, were again
green in the wars in the eighteenth century against France and against
Napoleon. Yet infinitely greater than her own military record has been
England's success in persuading foreign countries to fight for her, and
in leading the troops of Austria, France, Germany, and Russia against
each other on the Continent. For the last two hundred years very few
wars have ever been waged without England's co-operation, and without
her reaping the advantage. These few exceptions were the wars of
Bismarck, waged for the advantage and for the glory of his own country,
by which he earned the hatred of every good Englishman. While the
continent of Europe was racked by internal wars, which English diplomacy
had incited, Great Britain acquired her vast colonial possessions.
England has implicated us too in wars which redounded to her sole
advantage. I need only refer to the bloody, exhausting war of 1877-8,
and to the disastrous peace of San Stefano, where England's intrigues
deprived us of the price of our victory over the Crescent. I refer,
further, to the Crimean War, in which a small English and a large French
army defeated us to the profit and advantage of England. That England,
and England alone, is again behind this attack upon us by Japan has been
dwelt upon by those who have already addressed you. Our enemies do not
see themselves called upon to depart in the slightest degree from a
policy that has so long stood them in such good stead, and it must,
therefore, be our policy to assure ourselves of the alliance, or at
least, where an alliance is unattainable, of the benevolent neutrality
of the other continental Powers in view of a war with England. To begin
with, as regards our ally, the French Republic, a satisfactory solution
of our task in this direction is already assured by the existing
treaties. Yet these treaties do not bind the French Government to
afford us military support in the case of a war which, in the eyes of
shortsighted observers, might perhaps be regarded as one which we had
ourselves provoked. We have accordingly opened negotiations through our
Ambassador with M. Delcasse, the French Minister for Foreign Affairs,
and with the President of the Republic himself. I have the supreme
satisfaction of being in a position to lay before you the result of
these negotiations in the form of a despatch just received from our
Ambassador in Paris. It runs, in the main, as follows: 'I hasten to
inform Your Excellency that, in the name of the French Republic, M.
Delcasse has given me the solemn assurance that France will declare war
upon England at the moment His Majesty the Tsar has directed his armies
to march upon India. The considerations which have prompted the French
Government to take this step have been further explained to me by
M. Delcasse in our conference of this day, when he expressed himself
somewhat as follows: 'Napoleon, a hundred years ago, perceived with rare
discernment that England was the real enemy of all continental nations,
and that the European continent could not pursue any other policy but to
combine in resisting that great pirate. The magnificent plan of Napoleon
was the alliance of France with Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany, and
Russia, in order to combat the rapacity of England. And he would, in
all probability, have carried his scheme through had it not been that
considerations of domestic policy determined the Tsar Alexander I., in
spite of his admiration for Napoleon's ability, to run counter to the
latter's intentions. The consequences of Napoleon's defeat have shown
themselves sufficiently clearly during the past hundred years in
the enormous growth of the English power. The present political
constellation, which in many respects is very similar to that of the
year 1804, should be utilised to revive Napoleon's plan once more.
Russia has, of course, the first and most vital interest in the downfall
of England, for, so long as Great Britain controls all the seas and all
the important coastlines, it is like a giant whose hands and feet are
fettered. Yet France is also checked in her natural development. Her
flourishing colonies in America and the Atlantic Ocean were wrested
from her in the eighteenth century. She was ousted by this overpowering
adversary from her settlements in the East Indies and--what the French
nation feels perhaps most acutely--Egypt, purchased for France by
the great Napoleon with the blood of his soldiers, was weaned away
by English gold and English intrigues. The Suez Canal, built by a
Frenchman, Lesseps, is in the possession of the English, facilitating
their communications with India, and securing them the sovereignty of
the world. France will accordingly make certain stipulations as the
price of its alliance--stipulations which are so loyal and equitable
that there is no question whatever of their not being agreed to on
the part of her ally, Russia. France demands that her possessions in
Tonking, Cochin China, Cambodia, Annam, and Laos shall be guaranteed;
that Russia be instrumental in assisting her to acquire Egypt, and that
it pledge itself to support the French policy in Tunis and the rest of
Africa." In accordance with my instructions, I felt myself empowered
to assure M. Delcasse that his conditions were accepted on our side. In
answer to my question, whether a war with England would be popular in
France, the Minister said: "The French people will be ready for any
sacrifice if we make Fashoda our war-cry. British insolence never
showed itself more brutal and insulting than over this affair. Our brave
Marchand was on the spot with a superior force, and France was within
her rights. The simple demand of an English officer, who possessed
no other force but the moral one of the English flag, compelled us,
however, under the political circumstances which then obtained, to
abandon our righteous claims, and to recall our brave leader. How the
French people viewed this defeat has been plainly seen. The Parisians
gave Marchand a splendid ovation as a national hero, and the French
Government seriously contemplated the possibility of a revolution. We
are now in a position to take revenge for the humiliation which we then
endured, probably out of excessive prudence. If we inscribe the word
FASHODA on the tricolour there will not be in the whole of France a man
capable of bearing arms who will not follow our lead with enthusiasm."
It appeared to me to be politic to assure myself whether the Government
or the inspired press would not perhaps promise the people the recovery
of Alsace-Lorraine as the price of a victorious issue of the war. But
the Minister replied decidedly, "No. The question of Alsace-Lorraine,"
he declared, "must remain outside our view as soon as we make up our
minds to go in for practical politics. Nothing could possibly be more
fatal than to rouse bad blood in Germany. For the German Emperor is the
tongue of the balance in which the destinies of the world are weighed.
England in her own esteem has nothing to fear from him. She regards him
more as an Englishman than a German. Her confidence in this respect must
not be disturbed; it forms one of the props on which British arrogance
supports itself. The everlasting assurances of the German Emperor, that
he intends peace and nothing but peace, appear, of course, to confirm
the correctness of this view. But I am certain that the Emperor
William's love of peace has its limits where the welfare and the
security of Germany are seriously jeopardised. In spite of his impulsive
temperament, he is not the ruler to allow himself to be influenced
by every expression of popular clamour, and to be driven by every
ebullition of public feeling, to embark on a decisive course of action.
But he is far-seeing enough to discern at the right moment a real
danger, and to meet it with the whole force of his personality. I do
not, therefore, look upon the hope of gaining him for an ally as a
Utopian dream, and I trust that Russian diplomacy will join with ours
in bringing this alliance about. A war with England without Germany's
support would always be a hazardous enterprise. Of course we are
prepared to embark upon such a war, alike for our friendship with Russia
and for the sake of our national honour, but we could only promise
ourselves a successful issue if all the continental great Powers join
hands in this momentous undertaking."