A Journalist's Diplomatic Mission: Ray Stannard Baker's World War I Diary

6. Great Battle in France

33 6 Great Battle in France. French Labour Leaders, and British Opinion. MARCH 24 Anxiety over the great battle in France continues to deepen. No one thinks or talks of anything else. Special editions of the newspapers were on the streets all day and the headlines are most alarming—as these from the London Times. BACK TO THE SOMME. — BRITISH ARMIES ON THE DEFENSIVE. — PERONNE AND HAM LOST. — PARIS BOMBARDED. The War: 4th Year: 234th Day. A friend told me of seeing a long, heavy train of Red Cross cars coming toward London, loaded with the wounded. They are discharged at night so that the sights and sounds will not too much affect the crowds in the streets. It is said that American and French reserves have been thrown into the battle. The Germans are bombarding Paris with a new kind of gun that will shoot 34 | Reporting on Public Opinion in Great Britain, France, and Italy almost seventy miles. It seems as though the genius of mechanism was truly being mishandled to destroy civilization. This was the gist of the message sent to the German Empress by the Kaiser , who, with Hindenburg47 and Ludendorff,48 was watching the battle: “By the grace of God the battle has been won. The Lord has graciously aided. May he further help.” His God is not ours! His God is a bloody and savage god, a god of hatred and revenge. The British are taking it all with a magnificent spirit. They have a quality of doggedness that is beyond admiration. No one I have seen, whether of the labor group or any other, will admit for a moment that the British will give way. “There’s one consoling thing,” a man said to me today, “the British know how to take a punishment without flinching—and it’s going to save us this time as it has in the past.” About five o’clock I went around to tea at the [Walter Hines] Pages’ and was fortunate in being there to meet the Secretary of War, Newton Baker. He called out when he saw me, “Hello there, Ray Stannard Baker!” He is just over from Belgium with his staff—most of which was with him at the Ambassador’s—and is going back tomorrow after seeing Lord Derby49 and Mr. Lloyd George. He referred to the battle in France and said earnestly: “The British are going to hold them.” Later, one of the secretaries came in with the telephone news that the Germans had Peronne50 and that more American troops had been thrown into the battle. Secretary Baker is the same light-footed, active little man as ever—all wires and energy, his eyes very black and his face full of little wrinkles, some of which are assuredly war wrinkles—a kindly, smiling, eager, able man. Lord Albermarle51 and his lady, Sir Walter Lawrence, just back from a speaking trip in America, and many others were there. General Black of our army, locally 47. Paul von Hindenburg (1847–1934), a distinguished military leader, was Germany’s chief of the General Staff from 1916 to 1919. He later served as president of Germany from 1925 to 1934. 48. Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (1865–1937) was Hindenburg’s chief deputy during World War I, until his resignation in late 1918. 49. Edward George Villiers Stanley (1865–1948) served as British minister of war from 1916 to 1918. 50. Peronne, in northern France, was the site of the Somme Offensive, March 21–April 4. 51. Arnold Allan Cecil Keppel (1858–1942) was a decorated former British military officer and former Conservative Party member of Parliament. Great Battle in France | 35 in command, came in late—a big, bronzed old general, about twice the size of Secretary Baker. I had quite a talk with Sir Walter Lawrence, who is a member of the King’s household, and who told me of the keen interest of the King in the labor question . He said it was the King who had really settled the recent labor disputes in England. “He is close to the workers and often invites them to see him. They all like him.” (I wondered what Henderson and the others would say to this! I suspect they would do far more for the King than for the Prime Minister.) MARCH 25 Another day of great anxiety. The Germans are still pressing forward...