The Blackest Page ofModern HistoryFOREWORD
The Blackest Page ofModern History
THE war that started on August 1, 1914, has gradually involved nations, large and small, not originally participants. Other nations, large and small, while still managing to maintain an official neutrality, have found themselves drawn into diplomatic controversies with both groups of belligerents. With the exception of South America, the continents of the world have sent contingents to fight in Europe. The destinies of Africa, Asia, and Australia are at stake, and the destiniesof the western hemisphere will, long before the end is reached, be influenced vitally by the tremendous events that are taking place in Europe. We can, then, without exaggeration, call the war that was provoked by the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum to Servia, a world war.
Still in the midst of war, still prejudiced by our sympathies and our interests, neither participants nor spectators are in a position to form a definitive judgment upon the many problems of the origin of the war, and upon controversial points that have arisen between the belligerents and between belligerents and neutrals, because of acts of war.
But can we assume the attitude of suspending judgment in regard toallthat has happened since August, 1914, andallthat is happening to-day? The world at heart is not cold-blooded. The world at heart is nothopelessly selfish. The world at heart is not deaf to the appeal of the innocent and helpless. Else we should have reason indeed to believe in the complete disappearance of our twentieth-century Christian civilization. If some issues are debatable, if some events are obscure, if some charges and counter-charges cannot be determined, there are others that can be determined.
It is because the Armenian massacres in Turkey are clearly established, because responsibilities can be definitely fixed, and because an appeal to humanity can be made on behalf of the remnant of the Armenian race in the Ottoman Empire without the slightest suspicion of political interest, that I feel it advisableandimperativeat this moment to call attention to what is undoubtedly the blackest page in modern history, toset forth the facts, and to point out the responsibilities.
Herbert Adams Gibbons.
Paris, December 1, 1915.