Post by dodger on Aug 8, 2013 8:38:11 GMT
Splendidly-researched account of the origins of the First World War., 7 Aug 2013
This Will Podmore review is from: Hidden History: The Secret Origins of the First World War (Hardcover)
www.amazon.co.uk/Hidden-History-Secret-Origins-First/dp/1780576307/ref=cm_aya_orig_subj
Gerry Docherty, a former head teacher, and Jim Macgregor, a former doctor, have written a most remarkable book about the true origins of the First World War. They write, "What this book sets out to prove is that unscrupulous men, whose roots and origins were in Britain, sought a war to crush Germany and orchestrated events in order to bring this about."
They note, "A secret society of rich and powerful men was established in London in 1891 with the long-term aim of taking control of the entire world." This was the real ruling class, led by Cecil Rhodes, Prime Minister of Cape Colony, Lord Nathaniel Rothschild, the world's richest man, Lord Esher, advisor to the monarchy, Alfred Milner, later high commissioner in South Africa, and William Stead, the top journalist of the day. Prime Ministers Lord Rosebery and Lord Salisbury, and Balfour, Grey and Asquith, the elected cover, carried out the demands of this tiny minority.
Milner, using Jan Smuts, instigated the Boer War. Milner wrote, "I precipitated the crisis ... and ... have been largely instrumental in bringing about a big war." 102,000 people were killed.
Britain's 1904 entente with France gave Morocco to France, and drew France into an alliance pointed against Germany. Britain's 1907 Convention with Russia secretly offered Russia control of the Black Sea Straits, and also drew Russia into the alliance against Germany.
The British government backed King Leopold of Belgium's annexation of the Congo. In return, Belgium agreed to secret military cooperation with Britain and France. From 1905 onwards, these three states jointly planned war against Germany.
As the authors state, "Belgium's behaviour violated the duties of a neutral state ... Professor Albert Geouffre de Lapradelle, the renowned French specialist on international law, explained: `The perpetually neutral state renounces the right to make war, and, in consequence, the right to contract alliances, even purely defensive ones, because they would drag it into a war ...'" So Belgium was not neutral. As Albert J. Nock wrote, "Belgium ... was one of four solid allies under definite agreement worked out in complete detail ..."
The authors point out, "On four separate occasions over the previous two years [1912-14], Grey and Asquith stood at the despatch box in the House of Commons and solemnly assured Parliament that Britain was entirely free from any secret obligations to any other European country. In a private letter to his ambassador in Paris, Grey noted: `there would be a row in Parliament here if I had used words which implied the possibility of a secret engagement unknown to Parliament all these years committing us to a European war ....'"
On 3 August 1914, Grey read out to the House of Commons a letter to the French, but left out its last sentence: "If these measures involved action, the plans of the General Staffs would at once be taken into consideration and the governments would then decide what effect should be given to them." The authors comment that if he had read this out, "All of Prime Minister Asquith's previous statements in Parliament denying that secret agreements tied Britain to France in the event of war with Germany would have been revealed as deliberate deceptions."
Revanchist lawyer Raymond Poincaré said, "I could discover no other reason why my generation should go on living except for the hope of recovering our lost provinces ..." He became Prime Minister of France in January 1912, then President in February 1913.
The authors write, "Poincaré's first concern was `to prevent a German movement for peace'. Under his direction, the nature of the Franco-Russian agreement changed from a defensive alliance to open support for aggressive Russian intervention in the Balkans." Poincaré extended national service from two to three years and sharply increased the size of France's army. Docherty and Macgregor observe, "By 1914, over 80 per cent of Russian debt was owed to French banks. Poincaré and his backers insisted that these loans were conditional on increases in the Russian military and a modernised railway infrastructure that would speed up mobilisation against Germany."
The Russian ambassador in Bulgaria wrote in November 1912 that a representative of The Times claimed `very many people in England are working towards accentuating the complications in Europe' to bring about the war that would cause the `destruction of the German Fleet and of German trade'. King George V reportedly told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov in September 1912, "We shall sink every single German merchant ship we shall get hold of."
Poincaré went to St Petersburg on 20-23 July 1914. France's ambassador to Russia, Maurice Paléologue, wrote in his account of the banquets held to honour Poincaré that "the Grand Duchesses Anastasia and Melitza, the respective wives of Grand Duke Nicholas and Grand Duke Peter, were ecstatic at the prospect that `War is going to break out. Nothing will be left of Austria. You will get Alsace-Lorraine back. Our armies will meet in Berlin. Germany will be annihilated.'"
The British ambassador, Sir George Buchanan, sent a telegram to the Foreign Office on 24 July, summarising the result of Poincaré's visit: "France would not only give Russia strong diplomatic support, but would, if necessary, fulfil all the obligations imposed on her by the alliance." The authors comment, "Poincaré and Sazonov had agreed the deal. When Russia went to war against Germany and Austria, France would fulfil her commitment to Russia. This telegram explicitly proved that by 24 July Sir Edward Grey knew that his world war was ordained. The document was concealed from the world for ten years."
The authors point out that, "Buchanan did not suggest that Sazonov should stop the Russian mobilisation, far from it, but urged him to keep it well hidden from German view." Paléologue recalled Buchanan telling him, "Russia is determined to go to war. We must therefore saddle Germany with the whole responsibility and initiative of the attack, as this will be the only way of winning over English public opinion to the war."
On 24 July, Russia, France and Belgium all mobilised. The first to mobilise was the aggressor. The chief of Russian general staff for mobilisation explained why - after the first mobilisation `no further diplomatic hesitation is possible'.
Alexander Isvolsky, Russia's ambassador to France, told St Petersburg on 1 August, "The French War Minister informed me, in hearty high spirits, that the Government have firmly decided on war, and begged me to endorse the hope of the French General Staff that all efforts will be directed against Germany ..." This was almost 24 hours before Germany had announced mobilisation or declared war on Russia.
Docherty and Macgregor sum up, "Germany was the last of the continental powers to take that irrevocable step [mobilisation]. How does that possibly fit with the claim that Germany started the First World War?"
This Will Podmore review is from: Hidden History: The Secret Origins of the First World War (Hardcover)
www.amazon.co.uk/Hidden-History-Secret-Origins-First/dp/1780576307/ref=cm_aya_orig_subj
Gerry Docherty, a former head teacher, and Jim Macgregor, a former doctor, have written a most remarkable book about the true origins of the First World War. They write, "What this book sets out to prove is that unscrupulous men, whose roots and origins were in Britain, sought a war to crush Germany and orchestrated events in order to bring this about."
They note, "A secret society of rich and powerful men was established in London in 1891 with the long-term aim of taking control of the entire world." This was the real ruling class, led by Cecil Rhodes, Prime Minister of Cape Colony, Lord Nathaniel Rothschild, the world's richest man, Lord Esher, advisor to the monarchy, Alfred Milner, later high commissioner in South Africa, and William Stead, the top journalist of the day. Prime Ministers Lord Rosebery and Lord Salisbury, and Balfour, Grey and Asquith, the elected cover, carried out the demands of this tiny minority.
Milner, using Jan Smuts, instigated the Boer War. Milner wrote, "I precipitated the crisis ... and ... have been largely instrumental in bringing about a big war." 102,000 people were killed.
Britain's 1904 entente with France gave Morocco to France, and drew France into an alliance pointed against Germany. Britain's 1907 Convention with Russia secretly offered Russia control of the Black Sea Straits, and also drew Russia into the alliance against Germany.
The British government backed King Leopold of Belgium's annexation of the Congo. In return, Belgium agreed to secret military cooperation with Britain and France. From 1905 onwards, these three states jointly planned war against Germany.
As the authors state, "Belgium's behaviour violated the duties of a neutral state ... Professor Albert Geouffre de Lapradelle, the renowned French specialist on international law, explained: `The perpetually neutral state renounces the right to make war, and, in consequence, the right to contract alliances, even purely defensive ones, because they would drag it into a war ...'" So Belgium was not neutral. As Albert J. Nock wrote, "Belgium ... was one of four solid allies under definite agreement worked out in complete detail ..."
The authors point out, "On four separate occasions over the previous two years [1912-14], Grey and Asquith stood at the despatch box in the House of Commons and solemnly assured Parliament that Britain was entirely free from any secret obligations to any other European country. In a private letter to his ambassador in Paris, Grey noted: `there would be a row in Parliament here if I had used words which implied the possibility of a secret engagement unknown to Parliament all these years committing us to a European war ....'"
On 3 August 1914, Grey read out to the House of Commons a letter to the French, but left out its last sentence: "If these measures involved action, the plans of the General Staffs would at once be taken into consideration and the governments would then decide what effect should be given to them." The authors comment that if he had read this out, "All of Prime Minister Asquith's previous statements in Parliament denying that secret agreements tied Britain to France in the event of war with Germany would have been revealed as deliberate deceptions."
Revanchist lawyer Raymond Poincaré said, "I could discover no other reason why my generation should go on living except for the hope of recovering our lost provinces ..." He became Prime Minister of France in January 1912, then President in February 1913.
The authors write, "Poincaré's first concern was `to prevent a German movement for peace'. Under his direction, the nature of the Franco-Russian agreement changed from a defensive alliance to open support for aggressive Russian intervention in the Balkans." Poincaré extended national service from two to three years and sharply increased the size of France's army. Docherty and Macgregor observe, "By 1914, over 80 per cent of Russian debt was owed to French banks. Poincaré and his backers insisted that these loans were conditional on increases in the Russian military and a modernised railway infrastructure that would speed up mobilisation against Germany."
The Russian ambassador in Bulgaria wrote in November 1912 that a representative of The Times claimed `very many people in England are working towards accentuating the complications in Europe' to bring about the war that would cause the `destruction of the German Fleet and of German trade'. King George V reportedly told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov in September 1912, "We shall sink every single German merchant ship we shall get hold of."
Poincaré went to St Petersburg on 20-23 July 1914. France's ambassador to Russia, Maurice Paléologue, wrote in his account of the banquets held to honour Poincaré that "the Grand Duchesses Anastasia and Melitza, the respective wives of Grand Duke Nicholas and Grand Duke Peter, were ecstatic at the prospect that `War is going to break out. Nothing will be left of Austria. You will get Alsace-Lorraine back. Our armies will meet in Berlin. Germany will be annihilated.'"
The British ambassador, Sir George Buchanan, sent a telegram to the Foreign Office on 24 July, summarising the result of Poincaré's visit: "France would not only give Russia strong diplomatic support, but would, if necessary, fulfil all the obligations imposed on her by the alliance." The authors comment, "Poincaré and Sazonov had agreed the deal. When Russia went to war against Germany and Austria, France would fulfil her commitment to Russia. This telegram explicitly proved that by 24 July Sir Edward Grey knew that his world war was ordained. The document was concealed from the world for ten years."
The authors point out that, "Buchanan did not suggest that Sazonov should stop the Russian mobilisation, far from it, but urged him to keep it well hidden from German view." Paléologue recalled Buchanan telling him, "Russia is determined to go to war. We must therefore saddle Germany with the whole responsibility and initiative of the attack, as this will be the only way of winning over English public opinion to the war."
On 24 July, Russia, France and Belgium all mobilised. The first to mobilise was the aggressor. The chief of Russian general staff for mobilisation explained why - after the first mobilisation `no further diplomatic hesitation is possible'.
Alexander Isvolsky, Russia's ambassador to France, told St Petersburg on 1 August, "The French War Minister informed me, in hearty high spirits, that the Government have firmly decided on war, and begged me to endorse the hope of the French General Staff that all efforts will be directed against Germany ..." This was almost 24 hours before Germany had announced mobilisation or declared war on Russia.
Docherty and Macgregor sum up, "Germany was the last of the continental powers to take that irrevocable step [mobilisation]. How does that possibly fit with the claim that Germany started the First World War?"
