Wednesday June 12th, 1918
Reveille 5:30. ?? fatigues. Still signs of us leaving country. Very hot. Groggy. No night parade. Quiet walk after dinner.
Business as Usual
After the bombshell that the 13th is leaving Salonika, not much is being disclosed. Frank believes that there are ‘still signs of us leaving country’. However nothing is forthcoming in the Battalion’s Diary of any preparations.
Reasons for War
Anyone who has read anything about WWI knows the incidents and treaties that triggered it. However, establishing the objectives of winning the war once it had started proved to be more complex. Once the initial indignation at the invasion of Belgium and France had passed, people and nations needed to be motivated with a higher purpose. While each nation had a shopping list of the territories it would like to acquire – these could never be worthy of the sacrifice being called upon or be classed as an ennobling vision of victory and peacetime.
War Aims (mark I)
On January 10th, 1917, partly to appease President Wilson and sway the American public, the British and French governments published their war aims. The easiest statements were about restoration of territories to Belgium, France etc. and the neutralization of any future threat of German aggression. The more noble, but contentious, ambition they identified was ‘national self-determination‘.
As AJP Taylor noted, ‘The Allies demanded ‘the liberation of the Italians, as also of the Slavs, Rumanians and Czechoslovaks from foreign domination’ and the ‘freeing of populations subject to the bloody tyranny of the Turks’. This was an extraordinary outcome. … War-aims had formerly been chosen in order to make victory easier. This demand did the opposite. It became more difficult to detach Austria-Hungary, or even Turkey, from the German side, though doing so would obviously help towards victory.’
War Aims (mark II)
On January 5th, 1918, Lloyd George addressed Parliament. He took pains to let the House know that he had consulted with political parties and labour groups in Britain as well as the Dominions: ‘I am glad to be able to say, as a result of all these discussions, that, although the Government are alone responsible for the actual language I propose using, there is national agreement as to the character and purpose of our war aims and peace conditions, and in what I say to you to-day, and through you to the world, I can venture to claim that I am speaking, not merely the mind of the Government, but of the nation and of the empire as a whole.’
‘We may begin by clearing away some misunderstandings and stating what we are not fighting for. We are not fighting a war of aggression against the German people.’ Later he says, ‘Nor are we fighting to destroy Austria-Hungary or to deprive Turkey of its capital, or of the rich and renowned lands of Asia Minor and Thrace, which are predominantly Turkish in race’.
The Prime Minister then reiterated much of the contents of the declaration of the previous year and called for an international agency to settle disputes between nations.
In summary he concluded: ‘If, then, we are asked what we are fighting for, we reply as, we have often replied: we are fighting for a just and lasting peace, and we believe that before permanent peace can be hoped for three conditions must be fulfilled; firstly, the sanctity of treaties must be established; secondly, a territorial settlement must be secured, based on the right of self-determination or the consent of the governed, and, lastly, we must seek by the creation of some international organization to limit the burden of armaments and diminish the probability of war.
‘On these conditions the British Empire would welcome peace; to secure these conditions its peoples are prepared to make even greater sacrifices than those they have yet endured.’
Three days later President Wilson addressed Congress with his ‘Fourteen Point Plan for Peace’. In many respects, they were similar. Not all would be achieved.
13th (Service) Battalion War Diary – 12th June 1918 – La Marraine
Work and fatigues as before. 2Lt CS Rushton is struck off the effective strength of the Battalion in accordance with GRO 1011 with effect from 11-6-18.
References & Further Reading
² Various articles in both the Times and Guardian newspapers on June 12th, 1918
³ Speech by Prime Minister Lloyd George, January 1918