Riddle of the Rhine | Page 6

we have not yet
grasped the simple technical facts of the case, and these are merely the
outward signs of a deep-rooted menace whose nature, activities, and
potentialities are doubly important because so utterly unsuspected by
those whom they most threaten.
How many of us, for example, realise that the Germans relied mainly
on gas for success in the great March assault of 1918, which threatened
to influence the destinies of the world. Yet Ludendorff goes out of his
way to tell us how much he counted upon it. How many understand that
the 1918 hostilities were no longer a war of explosives. German guns
were firing more than fifty per cent. of gas and war chemical. But a
deep study of such war facts reveals a much more significant matter.
All are aware of the enormous national enterprises built to fulfil our
explosives programme. With mushroom-like growth chemical
establishments of a magnitude hitherto unknown in England arose to
meet our crying needs. What was the German equivalent, and where
were the huge reservoirs of gas and war chemical which filled those
countless shells? Krupp, of Essen, loomed large in the mind of every
Allied citizen and soldier. There lay the sinews of war in the making.

But the guns were useless without their message. Who provided it? A
satisfactory answer to this question demands an examination of the
great German I.G., the Interessen Gemeinschaft, the world power in
organic chemical enterprise, whose monopoly existence threatened to
turn the tide of war against us. This organisation emerges from the war
with renewed and greater strength. Our splendid but improvised
factories drained the vital forces of the nation, and now lie idle, while
German war chemical production fed new life blood and grafted new
tissue to the great pre-war factories of the I.G., which, if she will, she
can use against us in the future. I do not claim that this German
combine has at present any direct economic or military policy against
world peace. In any case, the facts must speak for themselves. But the
following pages will prove that the mere existence of the complete
German monopoly, represented by the forces of the I.G., however free
from suspicion might be the mentality and morals of those directing its
activities, constitutes, in itself, a serious menace. It is, if you will, a
monster camouflaged floating mine in the troubled sea of world peace,
which the forces of reconstruction have left unswept. The existence of
this giant monopoly raises vital military and economic questions, which
are, indeed, "The Riddle of the Rhine."
Impersonal Examination of Fact.--In a sound examination of the
subject it becomes necessary to examine the activities of our former
enemies very closely. Even adopting a mild view of the case, their
reputation has not been unattacked, and is not left untarnished. We,
however, have no desire to renew such attacks, but we wish our
statement to be coldly reliable. National and international issues are at
stake which require a background unprejudiced by war emotion.
Placed in a similar predicament, in reporting to his Government of the
methods of German economic aggression in the United States of
America, Mr. Mitchell Palmer, the Alien Property Custodian, expressed
himself as follows:
"I do not advocate any trade boycott out of spirit of revenge or in
retaliation for injuries done to the United States. I do not want to
continue the war after the war. I am for peace. I believe that the great

overshadowing result which has come from this war is the assurance of
peace almost everlasting amongst the peoples of the earth. I would help
to make that an absolute certainty by refusing to permit Germany to
prosecute a war after the war. The military arm of her war machine has
been palsied by the tremendous hammering of the allied powers. But
her territory was not invaded, and if she can get out of the war with her
home territory intact, rebuild a stable government, and still have her
foreign markets subject to her exploitation, by means no less foul and
unfair than those which she has employed on the field of battle, we
shall not be safe from future onslaughts different in methods, but with
the same purpose that moved her on that fateful day in July when she
set out to conquer the world."
Ours is a fair standpoint. Let us know the facts of the chemical war into
which Germany impelled us. Let us examine its mainsprings, in
conception and action, see how far they can be explained in terms of
pre-war Germany, and how far they remain ready to function in the
much desired peace which they threaten. If the result be unpleasant, let
us not hide our heads in the sand, but exercise a wise vigilance,