Agent of Peace

by Jennifer Hobhouse Balme

  And yet the mere physical control of my heart seemed to want all my limited powers.

  Sanatorium at Charlottenburg

  We drove to the Sanatorium in Charlottenburg where Dr. Weiler had his patients – those suffering mentally. There were about sixty patients at that moment – housed excellently in four or five well-furnished villas in a quiet avenue each in a pleasant garden. An Arab, a Jamaican negro etc, were amongst them. I spoke cheerful words to all. Dr. Weiler and an Assistant shewed me all. The treatment seemed excellent – in two classes – those paying for themselves and those paid for thro’ the American Embassy. The former were in a really beautifully furnished villa, with single bedrooms like boudoirs. A group of men were here who made a very bad impression on me – real bounders – mostly suffering from heart trouble for which they had been going through a course at [Bad] Nauheim and there captured – their complaints were childish and ridiculous. I spoke very gently to them and explained matters, the doctor also spoke very gently. We did not forget they were heart patients. But they were unreasonable to an extent which showed they were also suffering mentally. Yet they were enjoying every comfort, even luxury, with the one great exception of their liberty and the need of obeying a few disciplinary rules such as lights out at 9 p.m. and no gambling for high stakes allowed.

  I had far more pity for the men in the second class, who were two or three in a room (large airy pleasant rooms looking on the garden) for they were many of them in a sad condition bordering on insanity. I can’t forget Mr Brakewell – an artist – or old David Lloyd (70) a seaman and others.

  It is impossible in this short account to give any idea of the piled up information gained that long day by my own eyes and ears – apart entirely from the official side put before me, or the prisoners’ side to some extent told me.

  I shall always remember it as one of the fullest and intensist [sic] days of my life – during which every moment was lived by one’s every faculty of mind and body to the fullest possible extent. And through all was the great drain upon one’s sympathy.

  We drove rapidly to the hotel. I was much exhausted – and thankful that the two men departed, appreciating my desire to rest. But I had not been long on my sofa before Elisabeth Rotten arrived bringing the dear old Frau Minna Cauer with her. We talked long and fully. Elisabeth Rotten confirmed that there could be no great need of food in Ruhleben as men allowed out on parole from there had proposed to her a plan for sending out parcels for a help for their families.

  Frau Cauer was so sweet – she thanked me so earnestly for coming – she was deeply moved as she asked with tears streaming down her face: ‘Dear, dear Miss Hobhouse – Why, tell me why, does all the world hate us so?’ She went on: ‘My people are honest, they are industrious and mind their own business and to me it seems without detracting from any other nation much less the English whom I have always admired – that my people are capable and clever and industrious. Why then are we hated?’

  I could only say that I thought the dislike lay in that very fact – they were too capable and successful and the result was fear and jealousy from which hatred had grown.

  They had been with me an hour when Dr. Alice Salomon came to take me to see Heine. It was a fine evening and we took an old open cab such as adorned the streets of Berlin at this moment and drove to a distant restaurant where it would be convenient for him to meet us. Dr. Alice asked me to come afterward and sup with her – about 8.30 p.m. I had had no dinner, only those early sandwiches about 9.30 a.m. outside Ruhleben, and hardly a mouthful for tea and was faint with exhaustion. I felt I should not even hear what Heine said unless I were refreshed. So at the Restaurant while Dr. Alice went upstairs to look for him I asked for a cup of cocoa. I was vexed afterwards for I think she was surprised as if it reflected upon her hospitality and to my regret she insisted upon paying for it and adding biscuits. I was then able to hold out – but I noticed that she remarked several times that it would be a ‘light’ supper. Afterwards I understood more clearly why.

  Heine came and impressed me very deeply, a grave weighty man. He spoke slowly and very clearly so that I understood nearly all he said and Dr. Salomon interpreted the rest. He is highly thought of in the Reichstag, a fine speaker – a leader of the Majority Socialists – who followed the government to war on account of the danger from Russia. He made me grasp as never before the way in which Germans regard Russia – it looms large in their eyes. He spoke chiefly, however, of the food question – and scouted the idea that it would oblige the government to make peace. He said people were suffering and would have to suffer privation – but that scarcity need never have been if the government had taken it in hand soon enough. He said that at the beginning of the Blockade the Social Democrats had drawn up a scheme of distribution and presented it to the Government. This (like all Governments) took no heed, and luxury and waste continued. Now point by point that scheme was being adopted. Meanwhile there had been a year’s needless waste. He spoke of the ‘great push’ expected to begin in a few days. (It did begin in fact June 25th, two days later.)

  It was a long interesting strangely moving conversation, as we three sat round the little table in the third-rate Restaurant – speaking in low earnest voices. At last he excused himself and bid us farewell and we went out to find a rare cab. With difficulty this was done – a strange old man to drive us and we reached Dr. Salomon’s beautiful little flat. It was interesting this peep of a German ‘professional’ woman’s flat. She had one maid and supper was ordered. While we talked, she told me much of her life, her work, her love for Lady Aberdeen (2nd mother to her) in whose house in Ireland she had been staying when the war broke out. She sent messages to Lady Aberdeen. At last supper was ready – and it certainly was light. In a moment I realised how short food was in private houses. There was an omelet made of one egg for the two of us, there were three very small and very thinly cut slices of bread – there was a very small dish of stewed cherries. In addition there was a small block of butter 3oz the total supply per head for two weeks. I realized I must only make a feint of taking any and just scraped it with my knife. As to the omelet we took tiny mouthfuls and eked them out with much conversation. She said they were content and were learning something fresh every day. Formerly they had cooked with so much butter and fat, now they adopted the English fashion of grilling their meat over the fire and found it enjoyable. She spoke much of the care Municipalities and Societies were taking of the poor and of expectant mothers.

  It was still broad daylight when, after 10 p.m., the old cabman came again and she packed me in and told him to drive me home – which he did and I enjoyed the quiet drive in the late evening light. It was 11 p.m. when I reached the hotel after a very full day.

  Thursday, June 22nd Up early. Falkenhausen ’phoned he would come round about midday and lunch with me. Rieth ’phoned from the Foreign Office for particulars about my English Passport. Baron von Ow also ’phoned from the FO to ask if he might come and see me at 11 a.m. Finally he came but rather late – a nice young man who had been in S. Africa at outbreak and got back from there to find himself under surveillance in London. Spoke of the great kindness he had received from Dr. Markel, whom he said I must see and thank - also the diamond king Ludwig Breitmeyer – messages also to many who had befriended him in England. While we were talking my Baron and his wife came and I had to introduce them. They were a bit stiff. Soon Count Harrach came also and we chatted awhile at length till we separated for luncheon.

  I went with my Baron and Baroness to a Restaurant in the Leipziger Str. and excusing myself early walked back thro’ the big shops. We were to meet at 6.30 p.m. to sup and get to the station when they two would part, poor turtle doves! I felt very sorry for them. She was very young and sweet and feeling it acutely. I did some shopping – or tried to – for my journey and went back to rest and prepare for my interview with Herr von Stumm, Head of the English Department at the Foreign Office.

  I had not long been in before Elisabeth R
otten came and we talked much. She seemed very ill and exhausted. She told me Pastor Siegmund-Schultze was coming at 4 o/c. He was frantically busy. She offered to go and buy me eggs etc for my journey saying I could not get them because it needed a permit to buy eggs which I had not got. While she was gone the Pastor came. A tall fair man – loosely built – and singularly boyish-looking. He spoke English though not with ease. He told me details of the health conditions of women and children answering my questions as to the increase (if any) of mortality and the general enfeeblement of the population. After saying that the classes affected were children under one year and between 10 and 14 [years old] he gave figures saying that as Chairman of the Juvenile Health Society of Berlin all such figures came directly to him and I could quote him anywhere privately in substantiation of these facts. He stated that for the first twelve months of blockade or from the spring of 1915–16 one hundred more children per month died in Berlin – that the country districts were still normal – that the other great towns lumped together showed an increased total of 300 per month making a grand total of 400 a month or near 5,000 for the year. Of course to produce this increase a general enfeeblement was evident.

  I asked why Dr. Lewandowski had failed to tell me this. He said because he was under military oath and unable to reveal such facts but he said ‘it is nevertheless true’. Later on as he rose to go he said very gravely: ‘We consider those 5,000 children to have been deliberately murdered by the British Government’. I said: ‘Yes, I agree, but we consider that your Zeppelins and yr Submarines have murdered a large number of our children; it is murder on both sides’. He was a bit startled but agreed that it was so – and we shook hands solemnly. I liked him much. He spoke also of the lack of food, especially amongst his people in East Berlin where he lives and works. ‘We are hungry, we are often very hungry; but we don’t mind,’ so he said.

  When he was gone I walked to the Wilhelmstrasse and found awaiting me the ubiquitous Herr Reith. He quickly shewed me in to the office of Herr von Stumm – to whom I spoke much of Ruhleben. He told me the past history of the negotiations, and how anxious they were for total exchange – had indeed proposed it themselves twelve months before and been refused. But it must be all for all. They could not leave some there without hostages so to say on their side. He spoke of Herr von Bülow and others in our Camps about whom they were anxious. I told him I thought there was not much to complain of materially in Ruhleben but that the men needed a mental and spiritual tonic. We discussed all this and then spoke of peace and the prospects of negotiation. He was very anxious for peace but very angry that the Chancellor’s feelers put out had met only with insults. He ended by saying that if we would not make peace then they could go on and they would. He asked a good deal about the Labour and Peace movements in England and their strength and extent – but I had been too long away to be able to speak with certainty. He was an able man much younger than von Jagow, but lacking his gentleness and moderation.

  I walked back in the sunny evening light – and finished packing and paying my bill etc. I could not forget von Stumm. He was angry and vehement – against his will inclining to the Military School – whose policy must come in if Bethmann Hollweg [the government] fails.

  The Falkenhausens came and we supped in the hotel on eggs (me) fish (they). She was in tears poor girl, sick with grief – he quiet and calm. I hurried thro’ and excusing myself to collect my things left them to themselves. Also I was looking out for Elisabeth Rotten who had promised to bring me boiled eggs. In the end we left the hotel a bit early and she had not come. I heard after she was only two minutes late – but I am glad because she would have had the precious eggs to eat. She had brought me chocolate and biscuits earlier. At the station Rieth turned up again. I am sure he was a spy, he had spies’ eyes, small, piercing, wary, watchful – giving nothing, searching always. And he wasn’t a gentleman. My Baron let out that his wife could not bear him and I knew she felt too his inferiority and probably knew he was a spy. Having nothing to conceal I did not mind. However on this occasion he was useful to talk to while the young couple took what might be their last farewell.

  Then we left in the long midsummer evening and sped across the plain. We passed Wittenberg, notorious for its typhus [PoW] Camp, obviously an ill-chosen site, for the Elbe and tributaries wound about – the ground a dead level and pools and marshes seemed evident. I could see the camp and men walking about in it. And then a Zeppelin came into view – practising in the still, sunny air – a fine sight their Leviathan of the skies, swerving and dipping and diving and curvetting and above all dropping no bombs. A vision of the future therein. And dark fell and heavy with fatigue I slept soundly enough – and woke to exquisitely served coffee hot and fragrant at some town, I think not Stuttgart but one before that. It was later perhaps 9 a.m. when we reached Stuttgart and coiled round the picturesque town. Then on again through prettier country – where the crops of hay were being gathered in and the air grew ever warmer – on and on till we reached the frontier village of Singen. There the Swiss train would meet me and the Courier from Berne young Rosenberg take me across. But there were hours to wait. I had dinner in the little restaurant, there seemed plenty to eat. And had a wash in a ridiculously small outside lavatory and got rid of the extra clothing I had needed in the north. Then I sauntered out and sat on a bench in the dusty hot street, my Baron was hob-nobbing with the officers and had hinted we should be wise to keep apart. My money had lasted to a mark.

  At last came the Swiss train and von Rosenberg. The Baron came and delivered me up – and much moved grasped my hand – ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ – a bow to the evidently astonished local Commandant – and I was whisked away and the wonderful visit was over. I thanked him, so I said, ‘There are ways and ways of doing a thing and you have done it beautifully and with tact. My love to your wife, some day we shall meet again.’

  And Germany will always live in my mind as I saw her those seventeen days – suffering – quiet – patient but calm and confident. I felt rather than knew that she could never be conquered. The whole country is at war there in a way that it is not even yet dreamed of in England.

  It was sadly beautiful to watch – and awful to feel one was part of the enemy nation that was causing the wounds. One wanted to stretch forth ones arms and heal the wounds of soul and body. Peace, to help on Peace was the only way and I had that hope. My desire to get to London was great – my agitation lest I should be prevented very distressing, it affected my heart. I tried to keep calm …

  Correspondence Between Emily Hobhouse and Baron Gottlieb von Jagow, German Foreign Secretary

  Excellence Baron von Jagow

  18th June 1916

  Dear Herr von Jagow2

  Five or six years have passed since I used to meet you at Marchesa de Viti de Marco’s house in Rome and much has happened since then to blot those calm days from our memory.

  I believe, however, that I am indebted to you, ultimately, for this unprecedented privilege that has been granted to me of visiting Belgium and Berlin in wartime. I want to thank you with all my heart for this privilege.

  It is my great and passionate desire to do all that a single individual can do, to draw our two countries together once more and to this end I believe (as far as my own country is concerned) a knowledge of the truth is the first step necessary. Hence, my desire to see Belgium, Ruhleben, etc.

  Further, I believe it to be a point of supreme importance to be able to convey to the English Government my belief that Germany cannot be overcome by the food difficulty – if I can obtain sufficient data to support and justify that opinion.

  It would, I fear, be unjustifiable to ask to see you personally in this stress of work and thank you by word of mouth as I should wish to do; but at any rate I do not like to be in Berlin without giving you this bare outline of my purpose and without sending a direct word of gratitude for your chivalrous understanding of my wishes.

  Both in Berne and Brussels I have received the
greatest kindness and I hope to carry home a point of view that shall have real weight and value.

  I have the honour to be

  Yours faithfully

  Emily Hobhouse

  Jagow’s letter in reply is shown in plate 9 and transcribed below:

  Auswärtiges Amt

  Monday 19th [June 1916]

  Dear Miss Hobhouse!3

  Many thanks for your kind letter. I was so glad to hear you still remember our meeting at Mesa. di Viti’s.

  Happy times!

  It would give me great pleasure to see you and, if it suits you, you will find me at the Foreign Office this afternoon between 6 and 7 o’clock.

  Hoping that this won’t be too much trouble for you, I remain

  Very sincerely yours

  Jagow

  June 20, 1916

  Dear Herr von Jagow4

  Thinking over our interview, I suddenly remembered that I failed to put before you one of the most important factors in the English political situation – one which you are hardly likely to know of, since it is studiously kept out of or distorted in the Times and kindred papers.

  The Peace Movement in England (which developed amongst those who stood for our neutrality in 1914) is growing by leaps and bounds. It is not an insignificant movement nor is it confined to a body like the Independent Labour Party, but embraces men of all parties and class from Lord Loreburn and Lord Courtney and other people through the House of Commons down to the rank and file.