Hidden History: The Secret Origins of the First World War.

by Gerry Docherty

  40. Kaiser Wilhelm made a number of observations on the above telegram. He clung to his belief that there was still time for negotiations and that Russia had ‘no reason at all’ for mobilisation.

  41. Ewart, Roots and Causes of the Wars, vol. I, p. 158.

  42. Ibid., p. 159.

  43. Wilhelm II to Nicholas II, Berlin, 29 July 1914, DD359, in Geiss, July 1914, p. 290.

  44. Sergei Dobrorolsky, The Mobilisation of the Russian Army, 1914 at http://www.vlib.us/wwi/resources/archives/txtarchive.html

  45. Moltke to Bethmann, Berlin, 29 July 1914, DD349, in Geiss, July 1914, p. 282.

  46. Asquith, Letters to Venetia Stanley, p. 132.

  47. Illustrated History of the Great War, vol. 1, p. 29.

  48. Neilson, How Diplomats Make War, p. 258.

  49. Goschen to Grey, Berlin, 29 July 1914, BD 293, in Geiss, July 1914, p. 300.

  50. Ibid., p. 301.

  51. Grey, Twenty-Five Years, vol. II, p. 216.

  52. Neilson, How Diplomats Make War, p. 268.

  53. International Situation, Hansard, House of Commons, Debate, 30 July 1914, vol. 65, c1574.

  54. Asquith, Letters to Venetia Stanley, pp. 136–7.

  55. Goschen to Grey, Berlin, 29 July 1914, BD 293, in Geiss, July 1914, pp. 300–1.

  56. Whether or not the relationship was ever consummated, Asquith wrote to Venetia as a lover. His indiscretions in sending her absolutely confidential texts, telegrams, reports and detailed opinion raised serious concerns in official circles about national security.

  57. Barnes, Genesis of the World War, p. 267.

  58. Bethmann to Tschirschky (his ambassador in Austria), 30 July 1914, DD441, in Geiss, July 1914, pp. 305–6.

  59. Barnes, Genesis of the World War, p. 355.

  60. Wilhelm II to Nicholas II, Berlin, 30 July 1914, DD420, in Geiss, July 1914, p. 304.

  61. Nicholas II to Wilhelm II, St Petersburg, 30 July 1914, KD390, in Fay, Origins of the World War, vol. II, p. 430.

  62. Barnes, Genesis of the World War, p. 350; and Fay, Origins of the World War, vol. II, p. 301, footnote 54.

  63. Dobrorolsky, The Mobilisation of the Russian Army in 1914, p. 28.

  64. Thomson, Twelve Days, p. 126.

  65. Dobrorolsky, The Mobilisation of the Russian Army in 1914, p. 29.

  66. Ewart, Roots and Causes of the Wars, vol. II, p. 1165.

  67. Nielson, How Diplomats Make War, p. 293.

  68. Wilhelm II to Nicholas II, Berlin, 31 July 1914, DD 480, in Geiss, July 1914, p. 324.

  69. Ibid.

  70. Barnes, Genesis of the World War, pp. 268–9.

  71. Fay, Origins of the World War, vol. II, p. 523.

  CHAPTER 25 – IRELAND – PLAN B

  1. Quigley, Anglo-American Establishment, p. 312.

  2. Milner Papers, Gell to Milner, 12 July 1899, Bodleian Library, MS.Eng.Hist. c.686.

  3. Ibid.

  4. Pakenham, Boer War, p. 41.

  5. Churchill, World Crisis, p. 148.

  6. Dundee Courier, 31 July 1914, p. 5.

  7. Francis Hackett, The Story of the Irish Nation, p. 338.

  8. Hansard, House of Commons, Debates from 24 to 31 March and beyond.

  9. Asquith, Letters to Venetia Stanley, pp. 135–6. The letters show that he met privately with Carson and Bonar Law, then Redmond and Dillon on 30 July alone.

  10. Ryan, Mutiny at the Curragh, p. 76.

  11. Quigley, Anglo-American Establishment, p. 176.

  12. Patrick Buckland, James Craig, p. 8.

  13. The Carson Papers, The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) (D1507), p. 4.

  14. Ibid.

  15. The Carson Papers, The Third Home Rule Bill, The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) (D1507), p. 5.

  16. The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) (INF/7A/2/8).

  17. Quigley, Anglo-American Establishment, p. 31 and p. 86.

  18. Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘Ulster 1912’ was unadulterated Secret Elite propaganda. Its emotional appeal to endangered Unionism was whipped into a frenzy of imagined consequence: ‘Rebellion, rapine, hate, Oppression, wrong and greed, Are loosed to rule on fate, By England’s act and deed …’

  19. The Protestant Dutchman, King William of Orange, defeated the army of the Catholic King James II in 1690 at the Battle of the Boyne. It ensured the Protestant ascendancy in Ireland and is celebrated annually on 12 July by the Orange order. The Boyne Standard has an orange background with the cross of St George in the top left-hand corner and a purple star in the lower right.

  20. The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) (INF/7/A/2/47).

  21. Bardon, A History of Ireland, pp. 431–2.

  22. The Carson Papers, The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) (D1507), p. 4.

  23. Ronald McNeill, Ulster’s Stand for Union, chapter XV, letter of 4 June 1914.

  24. Ibid.

  25. Gollin, Proconsul in Politics, p. 180.

  26. Ian Colvin, The Life of Lord Carson, vol. II, p. 241.

  27. Gollin, Proconsul in Politics, p. 188.

  28. Ibid., footnote.

  29. Quigley, Anglo-American Establishment, p. 312.

  30. Gollin, Proconsul in Politics, p. 188.

  31. Alfred Milner considered that one way to ‘paralyse the arm’ was to block the annual Army Act and bring about a constitutional crisis. The act, which had been passed routinely since 1688, was a reminder to the army that Parliament held the purse strings and the army was subordinate to parliamentary authority.

  32. Brevet Colonel Hacket Pain served throughout the Boer War and was among the select group of officers specifically selected by Roberts for duty with the UVF.

  33. Geoffrey Lewis, Carson: The Man Who Divided Ireland, p. 136.

  34. McNeill, Ulster’s Stand for Union, chap. XVI.

  35. The Times, 18 March 1914.

  36. Wilson Diaries, 14 November 1913, cited in C.E. Callwell and Marshal Foch, Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, Vol. 1: His Life and Diaries, p. 132.

  37. Milner Papers, Carson to Milner, 18 March 1914, in Gollin, Proconsul in Politics, p. 200.

  38. K.W.W. Aikin, The Last Years of Liberal England, 1900–1914, pp. 112–13.

  39. Ryan, Mutiny at the Curragh, p. 120.

  40. Jeffery, Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, p. 39.

  41. Robert Kee, Ireland: A History, p. 149.

  42. Gollin, Proconsul in Politics, p. 202.

  43. Hansard, House of Commons, Debate, 7 April 1914, vol. 60, cc1787–9.

  44. Hansard, House of Commons, Debate, 2 April 1914, vol. 60, cc1359–64.

  45. Ibid.

  46. Jeffery, Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, p. 39.

  47. Kee, Ireland, p. 149.

  48. Haldane, An Autobiography, pp. 267–8; Hansard, House of Lords, Debate, 23 March 1914, vol. 15, cc619–53, gives verbatim report.

  49. David, Inside Asquith’s Cabinet, p. 168, citing Hansard, House of Commons, 16 April 1914, vol. 61, cc322–5.

  50. Iain McLean and Tom Lubbock, The Curious Incident of the Guns in the Night Time, p. 11.

  51. Churchill, World Crisis, p. 148.

  52. The Times, 23 March 1914.

  53. Toye, Lloyd George and Churchill, p. 116.

  54. Major Fred Crawford, who played a leading role in the Ulster arms smuggling, was a Boer War veteran who served in South Africa as an artillery captain.

  55. The precise number of weapons imported varies with the persons recording this incident. The weapons were not all of uniform type.

  56. McLean and Lubbock, The Curious Incident, p. 13, citing PRONI D/1700/5/17/2/4 Fred Crawford, ‘Diary of the gunrunning’.

  57. Alvin Jackson, Home Rule: An Irish History, 1800–2000, p. 133.

  58. McLean and Lubbock, The Curious Incident, p. 13, citing PRONI D/1700/5/17/2/4.

  59. Bardon, A History of Ireland, p. 444.

  60. Wilfred Spender was a promising British soldier who served on the Com
mittee of Imperial Defence in London. He was allowed to retire from his army commission and went to help the UVF. His cousin, A.J. Spender, was editor of the Westminster Gazette and close to many in the Secret Elite.

  61. Ryan, Mutiny at the Curragh, p. 182.

  62. Warre B. Wells, John Redmond: A Biography, p 122.

  63. Diarmid Ferriter, The Transformation of Ireland, 1900–2000, p. 125.

  64. Jackson, Ireland, 1798–1998, p 167.

  65. Ibid.

  66. Childers, The Riddle of the Sands, p. 281.

  67. Frederick Bridgham, The First World War as a Clash of Cultures, pp. 55–6.

  68. K.O. Morgan, ‘The Boer War and the Media, 1899–1902’, Twentieth Centruy British History, vol. 13, no. 1, march 2002, p. 6.

  69. Erskine Childers, War and the Arme Blanche, pp. v–xvi.

  70. Quigley, Anglo-American Establishment, p. 313.

  71. Boyle, The Riddle of Erskine Childers, p. 118.

  72. Ibid., p. 71.

  73. Ibid., p. 144.

  74. Angus Mitchell, Casement, p. 85.

  75. Leonard Piper, The Tragedy of Erskine Childers, p. 124.

  76. Quigley, Anglo-American Establishment, p. 314.

  77. Rodger Casement was knighted in 1911 for his humanitarian campaigns.

  78. John M. Bourne, Who’s Who in World War I, p. 264.

  79. Erskine Childers’ log book at http://www.rmg.co.uk/explore/sea-and-ships/in-depth/erskine-childers/

  80. Asquith, Letters to Venetia Stanley, p. 84.

  81. Ibid., pp. 129–30, letter to Venetia Stanley, Monday, 27 July 1914.

  82. Bardon, A History of Ireland, p. 438.

  83. Ibid., p. 82.

  84. Boyle, Riddle of Erskine Childers, p. 196.

  85. Ibid., p. 200.

  CHAPTER 26 – AUGUST 1914 – OF NEUTRALITY AND JUST CAUSES

  1. Isvolsky to Sazonov, 31 July 1914, in Fay, Origins of the World War, vol. II, p. 531.

  2. Fay, Origins of the World War, vol. II, p. 532.

  3. Lawrence Lafore, The Long Fuse: An Interpretation of the Origins of World War, p. 261.

  4. Thomson, The Twelve Days, p. 152.

  5. Hamilton and Herwig, Decisions for War, p. 140.

  6. Fay, Origins of the World War, vol. II, p. 532.

  7. Barnes, In Quest of Truth and Justice, p. 87.

  8. Lichnowsky to von Jagow, London, 1 August 1914, DD596, in Geiss, July 1914, p. 346.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Ibid., p. 347.

  11. Ewart, Roots and Causes of the Wars, vol. I, p. 136.

  12. Hamilton and Herwig, Decisions for War, p. 141.

  13. David, Inside Asquith’s Cabinet, p. 179.

  14. Morel, Truth and the War, pp. 47–9.

  15. Morel, The Makers of War, p. 47.

  16. David, Inside Asquith’s Cabinet, p. 179.

  17. Hamilton and Herwig, Decisions for War, pp. 138–9.

  18. Grey, Twenty-Five Years, vol. II, p. 175.

  19. Strachan, The First World War, p. 50.

  20. Arthur Ponsonby, Falsehood in Wartime, p. 53.

  21. Ewart, Roots and Causes of the Wars, vo1. I, pp. 541–2.

  22. Ibid., pp. 542–6.

  23. Minutes of the conference between General Jungbluth and Colonel Bridges, 23 April 1912, as cited in ‘The Case of Belgium, etc.’, Document 2, in The International Monthly Inc., New York, 1914.

  24. Barnes, Genesis of the World War, p. 559.

  25. Goschen to Grey, Berlin, 29 July 1914, BD 293, in Geiss, July 1914, p. 300.

  26. Ewart, Roots and Causes of the Wars, vol. I, p. 137.

  27. Swain, Beginning the Twentieth Century, p. 368.

  28. Neilson, How Diplomats Make War, pp. 265–6.

  29. Ewart, Roots and Causes of the Wars, vol. I, p. 432.

  30. Crowe to Grey, BD 369, memo by Sir Eyre Crowe, 31 July 1914, in Geiss, July 1914, pp. 330–1.

  31. Ibid.

  32. Thomson, The Twelve Days, p. 171.

  33. Barnes, Genesis of the World War, p. 515.

  34. John Burns was a truly remarkable individual and the first working-class man to hold a government ministry. He resigned from Asquith’s Cabinet in 1914, declaring the war to be a ‘universal crime’.

  35. David, Inside Asquith’s Cabinet, p. 180.

  36. Asquith, Letters to Venetia Stanley, Sunday, 2 August 1914, p. 146.

  37. Ibid.

  38. Ibid., p. 140.

  39. Thomson, The Twelve Days, p. 173.

  40. Toye, Lloyd George and Churchill, p. 125.

  41. Hamilton and Herwig, Decisions for War, p. 143.

  42. Ferguson, Pity of War, p. 161.

  43. Geiss, July 1914, p. 231.

  44. Fay, Origins of the World War, vol. II, p. 541.

  45. Barnes, Genesis of the World War, pp. 558–9.

  46. Ibid., p. 464.

  47. Churchill, World Crisis, p. 174.

  48. The Times, 3 August 1914, p. 7.

  CHAPTER 27 – THE SPEECH THAT COST A MILLION DEAD

  1. ‘The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our time’ was attributed to Sir Edward Grey, as claimed in his autobiography, Twenty-Five Years, vol. 2, chapter XVIII, p. 223.Isvolsky to Sazonov, 31 July 1914, in Fay, Origins of the World War, vol. II, p. 531.

  2. Stephen Lucius Gwynn, John Redmond’s Last Years, p. 128.

  3. Haldane, An Autobiography, pp. 275–6.

  4. Statement by Sir Edward Grey, Hansard, House of Commons, Debate, 3 August 1914, vol. 65, cc1809–32.

  5. Morel, Secret History of a Great Betrayal, p. 11.

  6. Leo Amery, The Leo Amery Diaries, 1896–1929, vol. I, p. 106.

  7. Statement by Sir Edward Grey, Hansard, House of Commons, 3 August 1914, vol. 65, cc1809–32.

  8. Ibid. His fraudulence was to become the official British government position.

  9. Crowe to Grey, 31 July 1914, BD 369, in Geiss, July 1914, p. 330.

  10. Statement by Sir Edward Grey, Hansard, House of Commons, 3 August 1914, vol. 65, cc1810. According to The Guardian of 4 July 1914, this promise was greeted by ministerial cheers.

  11. Fay, Origins of the World War, vol. I, pp. 14–15.

  12. Morel, Secret History of a Great Betrayal, pp. 11–12.

  13. Asquith in Hansard, House of Commons, Debate, 27 November 1911, vol. 32, cc106–107, and in Morel, Secret History of a Great Betrayal, p. 16.

  14. Grey, Twenty-Five Years, vol. II, pp. 218–19.

  15. Nicolson to Grey, London, 1 August 1914, BD 424, in Geiss, July 1914, p. 349.

  16. The Committee of Imperial Defence concluded in September 1905 that ‘Recent history shows … that the value of a collective guarantee of the neutrality and independence of a State must be largely discounted. Whatever may be the legal interpretation of the obligations involved in such a guarantee, nations usually act mainly in accordance with their real or supposed interests at the moment, and independently of their Treaty engagements.’ CAB 38/10/67, p. 7.

  17. Morel, Secret History of a Great Betrayal, p. 16.

  18. Statement by Sir Edward Grey, Hansard, House of Commons, 3 August 1914, vol. 65, cc1822–23.

  19. Arthur Conan Doyle, The Crime of the Congo, 1908, is a noted work on this subject.

  20. ‘A Fateful Sitting of the House of Commons’, The Guardian, 4 July 1914.

  21. Ibid., p. 6.

  22. Statement by Sir Edward Grey, Hansard, House of Commons, 3 August 1914, vol. 65, cc1823–24.

  23. Amery, Leo Amery Diaries, p. 106.

  24. Ibid.

  25. Joseph King in Hansard, House of Commons, War in Europe Debate, 3 August 1914, vol. 65, cc1864.

  26. Mr Bonar Law in Hansard, House of Commons, Foreign Office Debate, 10 July 1914, vol. 64, cc1438–9.

  27. Churchill, World Crisis, p. 174.

  28. Asquith, Letters to Venetia Stanley, Monday, 3 August 1914, p. 148.

  29. Ibid., p. 149, footnote 6.

  30. Gwynn, John Redmond’s Last Y
ears, p. 129.

  31. The Times, 1 August 1914, p. 6.

  32. Asquith, Letters to Venetia Stanley, p. 149, footnote 4.

  33. Ramsay MacDonald in Hansard, House of Commons, Debate, 3 August 1914, vol. 65, cc1830.

  34. Grey, Twenty-Five Years, vol. II, p. 211.

  35. Churchill, World Crisis, p. 178.

  36. Haldane, An Autobiography, p. 278.

  37. This was the second of three parts to the sitting of the House of Commons that day. Hansard, House of Commons, Debate, 3 August 1914, vol. 65, cc1833–48.

  38. Paul Cambon to Vivani, 3 August 1914, FYB 143, in Geiss, July 1914, p. 356.

  39. Philip Morrell was Liberal MP for Burnley. Strongly opposed to the war, he was part of the Union of Democratic Control organised to oppose the secrecy of foreign policy and military influences on government. The UDC included Ramsay MacDonald, E.D. Morel and Charles Trevelyan.

  40. Edmund Harvey, Liberal MP for Leeds West, was a Quaker and pacifist who worked to have conscientious objectors permitted to take on non-combatant duties in the army.

  41. Germany and Belgium, Hansard, House of Commons, Adjournment Debate, 3 August 1914, vol. 65, cc1839.

  42. Keir Hardie was MP for Merthyr Tydfil. Hansard, House of Commons, Germany and Belgium Adjournment Debate, 3 August 1914, vol. 65, cc1840.

  43. Hansard, House of Commons, War in Europe Debate, 3 August 1914, vol. 65, cc1848–84.

  44. Percy Molteno, Liberal MP for Dumfriesshire, in Hansard, House of Commons, War in Europe Debate, 3 August 1914, vol. 65, cc1848–51.

  45. Ibid.

  46. Llewellyn Williams, Liberal MP for Carmarthen Boroughs, in Hansard, House of Commons, War in Europe Debate, 3 August 1914, vol. 65, cc1856–58.

  47. Joseph King, Liberal MP for North Somerset, Hansard, in House of Commons, War in Europe Debate, 3 August 1914, vol. 65, cc1865–66.

  48. Ibid., cc1868.

  49. Arthur Balfour in Hansard, House of Commons, War in Europe Debate, 3 August 1914, vol. 65, cc1881–82.

  50. Ibid.

  51. The Guardian, 4 August 1914, p. 6.

  52. Amery, The Leo Amery Diaries, p. 106.

  53. After hours of debate, all that The Times reported was: ‘The sitting was suspended for a time, and later on the adjournment motion, several Radicals criticised the government after Sir Edward Grey had acquainted the House with the terms of the German ultimatum to Belgium.’ The Times, 4 August 1914.