Agent of Peace (15 page)

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 Rotten 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 …

Excellence Baron von Jagow

18th June 1916

Dear Herr von Jagow
2

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 Jagow
4

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.

This movement is daily being reinforced by those who are weary of war or who have learnt to see this war in its true light and it is bringing constant pressure upon the government to begin negotiations for Peace. You can imagine how greatly this movement was helped by the noble speeches of your great Chancellor which in fact are a mighty weapon for its use.

Now, hitherto Asquith etc. has taken the line of ignoring this movement but I have recently heard that it was grown so powerful of late that they, the government, must reckon with it very soon.

Meanwhile, the replies to your Chancellor's speeches which read to you as insults are, I believe, Grey and Asquith's last efforts in what we call ‘playing to the gallery'. The less insistent phrases are intended for you, the bombastic words are for their adherents not in England but amongst the Allies.

Please try and believe this and convey to Herr Bethmann Hollweg what we long to express to him, our deep gratitude and our determination to support him to the utmost.
*

I have profound belief in personal contact and the wonderful way in which difficulties melt away when two people come face to face, finding after all that the points that unite are stronger than those that divide.

It was borne in on my mind last night how good it might be if you or one of your great statesmen wanted change of air and took it, say – at Scheveningen and if Grey or one of his more sympathetic colleagues like Lord Crewe or Lord Robert Cecil had a fancy to visit Holland and you met by chance upon the sands – talking first only as men, till a basis was found for the consideration of statesmen.

Such a plan seems to me more sensible than continued slaughter and if you agreed and wished I could make a similar suggestion to them in London.

If I presume in writing these thoughts, please forgive me.

My visit to Ruhleben is postponed till tomorrow so that I cannot now leave Berlin before Thursday.

I have the honour to be

Yours very sincerely

Emily Hobhouse

B[erlin] 20th June 16

Dear Miss Hobhouse!
5

Many thanks for your kind letter. I quite agree with you that eventual negotiations for peace would be facilitated by preliminary unofficial conversations. But if I am not mistaken about the dispositions of your leading men, I really don't see how any profit could derive at the present moment from such meeting as suggested in your letter. The reception given to the Chancellor's speeches as well as many other sympshomes [
sic
] go a long way to show that any further step on our part in the direction of peace would only be considered in England as another proof of our inability to continue the war and would have, in consequence, the effect of giving a new encouragement to the war-party in your country.

If there is any possibility of realising your suggestion, it seems to me that it would be for England to move in the matter.

Thanking you once more for your kind visit.

Believe me

Very sincerely yours

Jagow

His Excellency Baron von Jagow

21st June, 1916

Dear Herr von Jagow:
6

I quite agree that the proposal to meet privately which I suggested should not come from you.

My idea was that the suggestion should be made by me to the men at home and if by chance I found a willingness, I would try to let you know via Switzerland and Herr von Romberg.

You see, it would give me confidence in making the suggestion in England if I knew that you would not reject it on your side. That knowledge, however, would be for myself alone.

I feel sure my first work is to insist on the fact that Germany is quite able to go on with the war from all points of xxx [ileg] and that her desire for peace is based on reason and Humanity and not on lack of food, money or men. That truth when learnt should go far to clear the way.