A Higher Form of Killing (47 page)

• For the UK National Archives, Kew, UK, individual file numbers are given with prefixes ADM, AIR, CAB, FO, DT, PREM, and WO to denote respectively the Admiralty, Air Ministry, Cabinet Office, Foreign Office, Department of Trade, Prime Minister, and War Office.

SPECIFIC DOCUMENTS

Mayer (O). Opinion of Judge Mayer.

Mayer (T). Transcript of Mayer Limit of Liability Hearings.

Mersey (R). Report of Mersey inquiry.

Mersey (TO). Transcripts of open sessions of Mersey inquiry.

Mersey (TC). Transcripts of closed sessions of Mersey inquiry.

Parliamentary Debates (Official Report) of the House of Commons (1914–18) published by HMSO.

Wynne (T). Transcripts of evidence given before Commissioner Wynne in London for the Mayer Limit of Liability Hearings in New York.

War Diary of the
U-20
. Daily diary kept by Walther Schwieger, commander of the
U-20
. All quotes for the voyage of April–May 1915 are from the version on file in the German Military Archive, Freiburg. My English translation is based on that in the Hoover Institution, with some modifications.

SPRING 1915—THE LEGACY

 
“During . . . country.”: Quoted I. Novak,
Science: A Many Splendored Thing
.

 
“In . . . killing.”: R. Harris and J. Paxman,
A Higher Form of Killing
, p. xv. (It is sometimes suggested that Haber made this comment in his Nobel Prize for Chemistry acceptance speech. However, he actually made these remarks later in 1923. (See “Killers in White Coats” by Efraim Karsh, King’s College, London University,
Daily Telegraph
, March 12, 2002.)

 
“
Lusitania
 . . . Queenstown.”: NARA, Nora Bretherton.

 
“The principal . . . can.”:
Times
, June 2, 1915.

 
“The humanising of war . . . violence!”: Admiral Jacky Fisher, quoted Admiral R. Bacon,
The Life of Lord Fisher
, vol. 1, p. 121.

 
“a poison . . . frightfulness.”:
Observer
, May 2, 1915.

 
“While . . . virulence.”: Ibid., May 9, 1915.

 
“frightfulness . . .
Lusitania
”:
Washington Herald.

 
“a piece of ‘frightfulness.’ ”:
Manchester Guardian
, June 1, 1915.

 
Syria’s . . . civilization . . . it takes . . . poison gas”: Andrew Roberts,
Wall Street Journal
, August 25, 2013.

CHAPTER ONE—“A FLASH OF LIGHTNING FROM THE NORTH”

 
The quotes from the Old Testament Book of Deuteronomy are from chapters twenty and twenty-one.

 
Sun Tzu,
The Art of War
, chapter 2, e-book.

 
“mild . . . cruelty”: Cicero, quoted A. C. Grayling,
Among the Dead Cities
, p. 220.

 
“with a . . . vengeance . . . in a just cause”: Saint Augustine quoted C. Moorehead,
Dunant’s Dream
, p. 23.

 
“the advancement . . . evil”: Saint Thomas Aquinas,
Summa Theologica,
part 2, quoted Grayling,
Among the Dead Cities
, pp. 211–12.

 
“rules . . . battlefield . . . Do not . . . inhabited place.”:
Al-Muwatta
, the first written collection of hadith compiled by the Imam Malik Ibn Anas, book 21 (p. 174 of edition in the bibliography).

 
The Koran reference is Sura Al-Baqara 2:190–93.

 
“that there . . . crimes.”: H. Grotius,
Prolegomena to the Law of War and Peace
, p. 21.

 
“people . . . impunity . . . becoming . . . character.”: A. C. Grayling,
Among the Dead Cities
, p. 218 quoting Grotius,
De jure belli ac pacis
, book 3, chapter 1, section 4; chapter 4, section 2.

 
“The received . . . must be.”: H. Lushington,
A Great Country’s Little Wars in Afghanistan and Scinde
, p. 27.

 
“Corpses . . . ground.”: H. Dunant,
A Memory of Solferino
, p. 41.

“some . . . wounded.”: Quoted C. Moorehead,
Dunant’s Dream
, p. 8.

 
“quite harmless . . . it with.”: Ibid., p. 47.

 
“any act . . . difficult . . . Men . . . God.”: F. Lieber quoted ibid., p. 38.

 
“in violation . . . war.”: Transcripts of the trial and the judgment are available on many websites, including the BBC’s and archive.org.

“a flash . . . north”:
Le Temps
, August 30, 1898.

“the grave problem . . . military . . . unknown . . . The intellectual . . . themselves.”: Count Muraviev, quoted Tuchman,
The Proud Tower
, p. 229.

“an omen . . . century . . . the most . . . history.”: Quoted ibid., p. 230.

“some new . . . Tsar’s head.”: Frances, Countess of Warwick,
Life’s Ebb and Flow
, p. 119.

 
“put a . . . democracy . . . what . . . workers with?”: Quoted B. Tuchman,
The Proud Tower
, p. 241.

 
“he . . . stage.”: quoted Prince B. von Bulow,
Memoirs
, vol. 1, p. 233.

 
“I’ll go . . . the waltz.”: M. Macmillan,
The War That Ended Peace
, p. 279.

CHAPTER TWO—“HUMANSING WAR”

 
“in a spirit . . . result.”: A. White,
Autobiography
, vol. 2, p. 256.

 
“favour the . . . civilised.”: Quoted Macmillan,
The War That Ended Peace
, p. 280.

 
“The conference . . . fanatics.”: Quoted B. Tuchman,
The Proud Tower
, p. 257.

 
“suicide”: Quoted Macmillan,
The War That Ended Peace
, p. 270.

 
“a condition . . . necessity.”: Ibid., p. 269.

 
“the queer . . . indeed.”: A. White,
Autobiography
, vol. 2, pp. 261–62, 271.

 
“for the . . . work.”: Ibid., p. 347.

“deepened . . . nation?”: Quoted A. J. Marder,
From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow
, vol. 1, p. 17.

 
“The humanizing . . . clear of you.”: Quoted Admiral Sir R. Bacon,
The Life of Lord Fisher of Kilverstone, vol. 1
, p. 121.

“Suppose that . . . still less.”:
Review of Reviews
, February 1910.

 
“control of . . . nations.”: Quoted L. E. Livezey,
Mahan on Sea Power
, p. 281.

 
“prevented . . . appears.”: A. White,
Autobiography
, vol. 2, p. 347.

 
“the object . . . the sea”: Quoted Livezey,
Mahan on Sea Power
, p. 274.

“that the . . . mankind.”: G. Best, “Peace Conferences and the Century of Total War: The 1899 Hague Conference and What Came After,”
International Affairs
, vol. 75, no. 3, July 1999, p. 631.

“not to . . . period”: Quoted Tuchman,
The Proud Tower
, p. 261.

“the great danger . . . wrong.”: Quoted Livezey,
Mahan on Sea Power
, p. 272.

“a hoax . . . I consented . . . decisions.”: Quoted Tuchman,
The Proud Tower
, p. 266.

The conference . . . assault”: All quotes in this paragraph are from
The Hague Convention Regarding the Laws and Customs of War.

“under . . . conscience.”: Quoted G. Best, “Peace Conferences and the Century of Total War,” p. 627.

Alfred Nobel made his initial fortune from the oil fields of Baku, now in Azerbaijan, as did the Rockefellers.

“un-Christian weapons.”: Quoted E. A. Roberts and R. Guelff, eds.,
Documents on the Law of War
, p. 29.

 
“murderous . . . warfare.”: Quoted Grayling,
Among the Dead Cities
, p. 226.

 
“you have . . . to play”: Quoted G. Best,
Humanity in Warfare
, p. 137.

“The civilised . . .your head.”: Ibid.

“a sad . . .miscreants.”: Quoted K. Coleman,
A History of Chemical Warfare
, p. 7.