THE EXPOSER OF THE MESOPOTAMIA SCANDAL.
THEATENED WITH ARREST BY A SUPERIOR.
AFTER THE WAR.
THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS. FRIDAY, AUGUST 17TH, 1917.
A GERMAN FORECAST OF THE NEW PEACE.
UP A WIRE ROPE TO THE
FRONT.
[EY HAMILTON FYFE.]
THE PRUSSIAN CODE CURIOUS ARBITRARY AND ARTIFI CIAL STANDARDS OF HONOUR.
You
soda with a German officer, They had Schubert had been secretary of the Ger slined together at the Carlton. man Embassy at London and had return- ed to Berlin in the trail of Prince Lichnowsky at the outbreak of the war, caretaker.opent
There is a curious flight of fancy in one
There is on the Italian front a moun- One night in the autumn of 1914, short of the recent numbers of Harden's [BY "OSE WHO KNOWS HIM.")
Zukunft, on what the world will look tain, one of the highest of the Dolomitely after the war began, one of my friends Bat in Baron Carl von Schubert's house, One of the few bright features of the like three months after the ending of the
war. It pictures a world as peace, in group, nearly 10,000ft, considered in Berkeley Square, drinking whisky und otherwise melancholy report of the Meso- potamia Commission is the fact that there friendly international relationship, mak-pretty hard climb. To reach the summit from Corting takes the best part of a was a man who took his courage in hising use of the technical discoveries which hands, though faced with all those pos have been unde during the war for the day. Only hardened climbers ean reach sibilities of failure which can be brought development of commercial enterprise. It about in official circles, and told the truth also explains the methods taken by the it. at all costs. That man is, to quote the world to make further wars imposible; se that Maximiliam Harden apparently report, a Major Carter.'
looks forward to a reign of eternal peace as the result of the present conflict. The article, which is written by Herr Moritz Ernest Lesser, a professor of engineering, however, very German in spirit. The following quotations will give some idea Lof it:
"
His name will live rather as "Carter of Mesopotamia, and his action will live, like that of Dr. Russell, The Times was correspondent, who, in a similar fearless manner, told the truth about the sufferings of our soldiers in the Crimea. Of Carter, the Royal Commission speaks as follows:-
We wish to express our appreciation of the evidence given and the work done of
1, 6, (Indian Medical Service). He, by his persist- ence, brought to
the notice of his superiors the terrible condition of the wounded when they arrived at Basra after Ctesiphon, and in other ways be revealed shortcomings which might have been ignored and left uaremedied. His sense of duty seems to be most com- mendable, and he was fertile and re- sourceful in suggesting remedies. Scarcely, if ever, has such reference been made to a witness giving evidence before a Royal Commission But so nd mirably does the last sentence sum up Lieutenant-Colonel Carter, as he is now, that that fact is an additional reason for giving it here. If there is one thing above all others it is that Carter, throughout his whole carer, has shown himself to be resourceful.
A FULL-BACK.
Robert Markham Carter, as I knew him twenty years ago when he walked Bt. George's Hospital, and when he figured as full-back in the hospital fifteen in the alt days when we used to play at the Spotted Dog, Ealing, or wherever it was, was always resourceful, full of initiative. If his man had to be marked he was marked. Bo it has been throughout with Carter Away up in the hills in India, in Masopotamia before the war, on leave in this country (and he took seventeen special courses in one holiday), he was always storing away knowledge, which became useful, as we have seen from the illnesses and body troubles peculiar to Mesopotamia has itself and affords particular interest to the medical student.
Commission's report.
At the end of October, three months after the ending of the world war, the directors of the leading banks and indus trial firms of Germany held a meeting to the number of three, thousand in the building of the Reichstag, under the chairmanship of the Secretary for the Home Department, and founded the com- pany for the development of and use of the inventions which had been discovered in the war. The object of the company was to employ in nence the technical pro- gross which had evolved under the stress of war, and the capital subscribed was forty times as great as the balance-sheet required.
weeks later the company for the building of private submarines was founded."
THE SUPER-SUBMARINE.
The object of this company was to build submarines for pleasure trips and to search for the treasure which had been sunk in the war:-
It was found possible to invent
I left Cortma one morning at seven, and before nine I was on the top of this mountain, looking round иров A panorama of peaks, far as eye could see north, south, enat, and west, and down into the valley, where the village seemed a slattered handful of pine-cones, the river a mere silver thread.
...
But
leaving his house in charge of an English
The German officer who was living in it had been taken off a ship returning from Africa He was detained in Lon don pending an arrangement for his ex- change. He was a Pruation barón' ánit. Of course I had not walked up. E servant of the State. He was at one and like other Germans of his class, wan a clude, equally, the possibility of motor the same time an aviator, an officer in ing. Italian military engineers have done such marvels in the way of moun-1 cavairs regiment, a member of the per this could rompass the impossible. tain road-making one- believennent German diplomatic establishment, and had been in Africa with the minister. on consular busi- the rocky. Dolomites rise up too sheer to of colonint affairs allow of their being ascended by any but of the town within a radius of five miles
ness
While in London he had the run
the top; then I had gone up by Tele Oxford and knew many people in Eng- the narrowest paths. How had gott of Berkeley Square, He had been at ferica, or rather by two Telefericas. land. Some of the men in the British had climbed into a narrow box like & Foreign Office had been with him at Os wide coffin, just room for two people, and ford, and they had been friends there this box, slung on a wire rope, had been before the war. He was commonly to be sugged upward, sometimes at an angle en lunching and dining as the smartest approaching the perpendicular, until it West End hotels and restaurants. landed me only a hundred feet or so below the peak
Immediately I arrived I was asked by a brisk little captain of Alpini what I thought the sensation was like. I re plied immediately: "Like flying in on acroplane."
stones, or snow.
His case and his attitude intérested too. British. He was presumably a gentleman hecause his treatment was so typically fallen upon evil days, and, therefore, lo he treated with great courtesy and con sideration and kindness. They knew how badly he wanted to be at home, fighting, and they tried to make his detention as easy and as pleasant for him as possible.
This night as he sat in Berkeley Square drinking his visky sodn," as he called it with my friend he was restless and irritable.
Suddenly he burst out:
Aeroplanes, it is true, move very fast "Soon the great shipping lines built The Teleferica coffin moves slowly (thank deep-going submarines, which were no goodness). But from an aeroplane you longer dependent on the waves, and in see the ground apparently passing which one could sail without sca-sickness, beneath you, in just the same way as you As these ships travelled on a cable laid watch it from your wire rope. The for under the sea, and were worked by angreater height of the seroplane counter electrical current from the land, they acts the effect of its speed, so far as the
"Damn England. Damn these English! journeyed at incredible speed, and an earth and the eye are concerned.
If they hadn't come into this war it express boat mede the journey from Ham.. burg to New York in forty-eight hours. ground. It swings you at times in mid- have won.
Not that the Teleferica keeps near the would be nearly over now and we should We didn't believe that We thought Te a submarine which could sink to the depth air many hundred feet above rocks, loose England would fight. af 2,000 metres, and from this sprang the gradually. First you notice the tree-tops win, and this war will make Germane But we shall You rise, as a rule, knew she would not. international company for raising the below you, then the ground-scape becomes the Americans and the French are ships which had been sunk during the rapidly more minute,
fashionable. Everywhere the English, war. The work was an immense success, Station diminishes. You feel you must received.
The Teleferica
So are the Russians. They and as there were accurate lists of the
It is only places where the ships had been sunk take hold of the sides of the car. You go into the best society.
You look over the the German is discriminated against. It large profits were earned by taking side and wonder whether it would be pre People say. He is a damn German, and immense sums of money were made. Also grip them tightly.
is not fashionable to be a German. passengers in these boats for exploring the feruble to fall on to rock or snow. You bottom of the sea.
except officially, speculate as to what would happen if don't receive him, Ships were found As specialist in preventive medicine which had gone down centuries ago, and the motor, which is tug-tag-tugging you, When we win this war we shall change and bacteriology under the Government one expedition in particular was fitted
all that. The German will go ahead of of India, Carter nude good and eventual
everybody," Now we are nearing the earth again. out to recover the treasure of a whole But only for a short space of seconds. ly found himself Professor of Materia continent which had been sunk in Up snars the rope, the coffin tilts dizzily;
My friend was taken aback. Medica,
Pharmacy, and
"But," he said, you are well treated Morbid Spanish armada. Moreover, rich veins of Anatomy, and Curator of the Museum, cool and metal were discovered in the feel as if I might slide out.
bore. Everyone is kind to you. I saw at Grant Medical College, Bombay. The
instant fresh summits core into view. of your Oxford friends come to your mention of museutu recalls the fact
Meanwhile wireless telegraphy was
We are rising as the rate of nearly 200ft. table at Luncheon yesterday to ask whe that Carter one day met, in the streets perfected, until it was possible to send & minute. Turning my head to find out ther they could do anything to keep you of Bombay a native who had a leg ailment a current round the entire earth. It was how far the goal is, I see the rocky sides from being bored
The German was grinding his teeth." wcant amputation at an early dave.also possible to supply all airships at a of the mountains about to close in upon
certain height from the earth with this 5. Vague, sinister memories of an He had worked himself into a proper Calling the native to him, Carter ex surrent. In this year was founded the Edgar Allan Poe-ish character fit Prussian rage plained the position and promised the company for a passenger and parcel air through my perturbed mind. We plunge I hate their kindness! I hate their native five rupees if he would have the service without petrol, which served all from sunlight into the shade of the rock-soft, friendly, ways! They treat me as Sahib, said the native. By five the important points of the world. The masses, and shiver. I have no desire now if I were harmless. leg amputated that afternoon.
Yes,
to lean over and look down. I keep my poodle dog, running about! They don't I might be a littlo the amputation native's life, was saved, and he was bap pilots, because the airships which were gaze fixed upon distant lofty peaks. A take a German officer seriously. I may
had taken place, the parcel traffic no longer needed human
built for the purpose were guided from involuntary glimpse into the valley the land, an invention which was known 7,000ft. below makes my head swim. before the war,
force myself to make a flippant remark Next minute we have reached our sup ping-place. I get out gratefully, but very glad I cans.
which was rare and which would have
of
to the extent of five rupees. The next morning there was a procession natives, halt, maimed, and blind, outside Carter's house clamouring for opportu mities to earn five rupees.
“YOU, CAN'T SEE HIM.”
.
COMPLETE DISARMAMENT,
were to break down.
*
Every
go where 1 like, hear what I like, see what I like. I am a trained officer. I might be a baby for all the precautions they take against me. fear that I am powerful enough to hurt. They have no
thom.
My friend came away. As he came down the stairs, he told me, he thought of Guy Wetmore Caryl's lines:
moved away, as well he might, Considering the wretched taste that mark-
ed the thing.
The German officer has curious ar
"At the same time the Peace Congress at The Hague, which represented all civilised nations, decided on the complete disarmament of the world without any Those are some of the sensations of a What Carter found in Mesopotamia restrictions. It had been learnt that voyage in a Teloferica I must add to after Ctesiphon so moved him that he every great Power had a number of large them the illusion of the ground sinks Whereat the bull discreetly: coughed and endeavoured to rouse the responsible unmanned aeroplanes loaded with thou-auddenly beneath your heels which ac authorities to take action. He could do sands of bombs which were to be let loose companies the first sight of the wire rope aothing, and eventually asked to see the by wireless current at the first mobilisa Commander-in Chief, Sir John Nixon.tion over all the important towns of the Oh," he was told, you can't see him enemy to explode their cargoes by the make your representations through the same means. In this way every hostile proper channels." Of course it was too town and place would be reduced to ruin much for a major to see a commander in in a few hours. This meant that there chief. Carter struck to it. I am going could no longer be any more war. to see him if I wait here till half-past one The writer then describes the immense to-morrow morning." He did not wait growth of the big cities and the extra- so long but saw Sir John. The Com-ordinary traffic problems that arose. mission can tell the remainder of the These, however, were solved by setting
Major Carter, who, as we have seen,
pavements and even streets in motion. One discovery followed another, and in was the first to disclose the medical America the spectral film vitascope com- dehicle after Ctesiphon, endeavoured pany brought the pictures of distant to bring to the notice of the authorities orents as they happened to the theatre in Mesopotamia the real condition of and private house. And among these dia. the wounded. On this account he was coveries was one for preserving the heat treated with great rudeness. Surg of the sun which did away with the neces Gen. Hathaway, in writing to the sity for coal:-- D.M.S. in India on this subject, says: And finally, as inventions reduced the " The Army Commander, realising the trouble of living more and more, and injustice, ordered the D.A. and Q.G. more, and people began to lose the use and myself to deal with him (Major of their limbs, since everything was done Carter) with reference to his objection for them, a world conference was assem able remarks." And General Cowper, bled which forbad then D.A and Q.M.G., told us
bad anyone to invent any thing more?? threatened to put him under arrest, This is, of co
course, mainly fooling in and I said that I would get his hospital Wells' lightest vein. But it is not with- ship taken away from him for a med-out its intercat in giving ones due to the dlesome, interfering faddist
story in its own way:-
upon which you are to travel, soaring vertiginously into space, so that you tilt your head back to follow and have dill culty in keeping it in view. But rely bitrary and artificial standards of hou quickly these sensations wear off. 1 came down from this Dolomite mountain with our. He not only breaks his parole, bnt out any whatever. case travelling in coffins on wire ropes as handed that he will not attempt it at the
I grew as much it there is no work so low, dirty and under the suburban season-ticket holder is graded and humiliated by little things command of a superior. They feel de- his suburban train. not contempt but grateful friendliness, that are beyond explanation. I remem
Familiarity brad and a limitless admuration for the skiller encountering a German officer in Eng of the Teleferica engineers who have so had been taken prisoner. He was de simplified the difficulties of transport ontained with some of his brother officers land who belonged to the general staff. He these mountain fronts at a big country house in Wales, which Alpine troops who are making war on the ces prisoners. They slept two, three and Everything that is needed by the had been converted into a camp for off- roof of the world is sent up to them by four in a room; and this staff officer was wire rope.
Where they dwell there is furiously indignant and outraged be nothing but rock and snow not a tree, cause a fellow officer who did not belong not a blade of grass
All building to the staff had been put into the same materials must be obtained from kindliar room with him. He said it was a dis Telefericas carrying up wood for stoves. regions Day and night I have seen graes that he could not enduro
What a business: What a labour!" I said to a young officer with we
the end of a rope which dangled from Walked, or else like this." He seized above and sprang up the rocky, straight
The story of the misbehavior of Cap-
tain Pochammer of the German oruiser the water and made a prisoner at the freisenau, when he was fished out of battle off the Falkland Islands, ja known was rescued he was given free run of the throughout the British Navy, When he
with clothing. He behaved like a boor Brtish admiral's quarters and farnished and savage. He complained bitterly because the day clothing that he was provided with did not at him perfectly. The French and the British have learn
not
That!" he said: That's nothing For a long time it all came up on men's backs. Now we're signori German mind which in speaking of the And you--how did you get up then The "meddlesome, interfering faddist" future and a world from which war has had succeeded more than he knew, for he been banished still measures everything had moved the powers that be after in terms of material possession and nearly being broken, a term which advancement and gives no place at all to side of the mountain, using his arms to not only Army new but civilians can any change of spirit or any ideal concep pull himself up by and his legs merely understand In fact, it was almost a bion of the world. According to this, the to keep himself off the jagged wall. prime for anyone to be seen talking to peace conference of the future will onlyMind you don't slip, one of themed since thie war began that the word of Carter.
To him it fell to be sent home agree to disarmament because the methods said reassuringly as I scrambled and honour of a German officer does not to supervise on behalf of the Viceroy the of war have been developed to such a struggled, holding a rope firmly, to the mean anything, and that he does construction of hospital ships for the pitch that it will be to no one's advantage very top of the Dolomite mountain. If offend against his own code when he lies Tigris. One suck hospital ship the King to continue war. Even Germany would you do, you'll go down to Cortina with or breaks his pledged word in what be saw a fortnight ago, and after a careful consent to general disarmament before the out stopping." visit left with the remark, "It is wonder- unmanned aeroplane, with its load of
conceives to be the interest of the German ful; there is here apparently all that bomba scientifically guided to an exact
state In this he obeys his Prussian science demands"
Twenty such hospital spot. It is hardly an encouraging sign
teaching.-E. G Lowry in They are a gay, songful, chaffing com Evening Post, ship In
Saturday in 1015 might have saved thousands of the growth of moral opinion in Gerpany, the Alpinwhen they have no It needs only a reference to the many that such an articlo should appear fighting to do Bet them to fight, whether brief COMMUNIQUÉ for War last week to show that he has reputation.
issued by the Secretary in a review which has a world-wide it be against bad weather or against the accomplished something
Austriana, and they are changed men. Snowstorms lasting for days may delay The sickness during the last half of May shows s
They harden, they become fierce. On the food supplies. There are rate and decrease of 55.85 per cent, as compared
march they are more like Condottieri of vermin even among the eternal snows, with similar figure for 1916.
the Middle Ages than modera troops, undesirable alicas, surreptitious travel They set their green felt feathered lers by Teleferica The cold in winter The real reason is that, instead of
Alpine has spenstock as dits & pain. In summer the dazels of sun drinking diluted dysentery," the troops
care are now provided with gallons of germ
sa rifles, one on either shoulder, they if goggles are not regularly worn. It... Carrying sipenstocks as well on snow makes eyes painful, and blind, free water, that Carter's idea a mare
rest their packs on the cross formed beExistence is for the most part uneventful. fad of having vegetable gardens for
hind necks. They look like soldiers of The tedium of being thrown catirely upon the supply of fresh vegetables from Baara
fortune, like ment feet of their trade, he
on the whole, their own resources is wearing, upon he suggested is in working order. Mare would have shown an enormous deficit. fads when life counts. There is a golden which would have been misinterpreted rale in medicine that means Life before abroad, and would have placed Austria anything, and that golden rule Carter in a most painful situation before the bus followed---Luigiz
whole world.
BUDGET WITHOUT FIGURES.
The Budget speech recently made by the new Austrian Minister of Finance, Dr. Spitzmüller, contained little more detailed information than the Budget itself, which is entirely without figures By way of explaining this omission, the Minister said, in effect, that the presenta
Their gaiety is streaked with discom almost black fort, and even suffering in their high robust physique, which gives many of They have developed Alpine position. Drinking mow water, then the appearance of prizefighters in for example, causes internal irritations training. But for active-minded men it
(Comuned at font of next column.) is a truncated kind of life
WAR SAVINGS.
In the good old days when your great
grandpapa was stopped on the high-road nnil
two horse-pistols were levelled at his head.
the demand was :---
Your
Money
or
Your
Life.
To-day, when your country is fighting
for its existence, the same demand is made
The highwayman, however, is
YOUR CONSCIENCE, and the two pistols
of you.
are called HONOUR and SELF-RESPECT,
No frightful ness" is needed, but the
demand is insistent and you cannot escape
it.
If therefore, you have not already joined.
the War Savings Association, you will
FILL IN THE ATTACHED FORM
and
SET YOUR CONSCIENCE AT EASE.
UNION INSURANCE SOCIETY OF CANTON, LTD., Honorary Secretaries and Treasurers, HONGKONG AND SOUTH CHINA WAR SAVINGS ASSOCIATION,
Queen's Building, Hongkong.
I enclose
Cheque
Notes to the value of $imi.
and shall be glad if you will enrol me as member of the Hongkong and South China
War Savings Association, by the rules of which
I hereby agree to abide.
Signatore. Address
[000]