Fifty years of Europe, 1870-1919 . civilians, men, women, and lit-tle children, were murdered in cold blood or sub-jected to treatment worse than death. The Germanskilled prisoners, they poisoned wells, they bombardedundefended towns and hospitals. It is no wonderthat Belgiums most distinguished poet and man ofletters, Maurice Maeterlinck, called the German thefoulest invader that the world has ever borne. Aprosperous and peaceful people was ruined, andthreatened with starvation from which it was onlysaved by the charity of the world. The martyrdomof Belgium is the deep damnation of modern mil
Fifty years of Europe, 1870-1919 . civilians, men, women, and lit-tle children, were murdered in cold blood or sub-jected to treatment worse than death. The Germanskilled prisoners, they poisoned wells, they bombardedundefended towns and hospitals. It is no wonderthat Belgiums most distinguished poet and man ofletters, Maurice Maeterlinck, called the German thefoulest invader that the world has ever borne. Aprosperous and peaceful people was ruined, andthreatened with starvation from which it was onlysaved by the charity of the world. The martyrdomof Belgium is the deep damnation of modern mili-taristic Germany. The multitudinous seas would notsuffice to wash out the abysmal guilt. Such was the course of events in western Europeafter the fateful August 4, 1914- Meanwhile eventswere occurring in the east and the southeast. Rus-sia, mobilizing far more rapidly than the Germanshad supposed she could, invaded East Prussia aboutthe middle of August, gaining several Germans were forced to withdraw some of their. 338 FIFTY YEARS OF EUROPE troops from the western front to meet this unex-pected menace, and this contributed to the Germandefeat at the Marne. The victories of the Russianswere short-lived, for under the command of Generalvon Hindenburg the Germans defeated them disas-trously in the battle of Tannenberg (August 26-September l, 1914). Hindenburg was henceforth theidol of Germany. The Russians were more successful against Aus-tria. Invading the Austrian province of Galicia, theycaptured Tarnopol and Lemberg and Jaroslav andbegan the siege of Przemysl, which surrendered inMarch, 1915. An invasion of Hungary was intendedas the next step. As Austria was thus fully occupied with Russia,the Serbians were able to expel the Austrian armieswhich had invaded their country (December, 1914). Other events of those months of 1914, which mustbe chronicled, are: the entrance of little Montenegrointo the war out of sympathy for Serbia, the M(5n-tenegrins being Serbia
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