Hitler's Invasion of Poland: War Breaks Out

I original attempted to have the post below submitted on Peter Hitchens' blog on the following thread: http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2013/04/and-i-respond-to-mr-jacubss-response.html (there's normally only a 500-word limit to any post submitted on the Hitchensblog but there are exceptions made sometimes - I asked for an exception to the 500-word limit to be made - but was unsuccessful: so I publish what I tried to submit here instead:

[MODERATORS: Please see the request below]

Though initially perturbed by some of Peter Hitchens’ questioning of the ‘standard narrative’ of the Second World War (though I’ve come to different conclusions - which more strongly reinforce the views I did have) I’m indeed grateful to him for his challenging views - as they’ve made me read a lot deeper into  the history of that conflict than I had previously.

If it is permissible with the Moderators could they please see if it is possible to allow the following submission (as it is impossible to - in any way adequately - respond in this matter without recourse to quoting from some historical works at length).

Peter Hitchens writes: ‘Germany did not seek war with us...  Germany, whose ambitions lay in the east, had little interest in us….  [T]he foolish diplomatic bluff of the Polish guarantee failed to convince anyone (except the Poles, who as a result failed to make a territorial compromise with Germany).’

In response to the above statement the following is taken from Gerhard L. Weinberg’s voluminous work on ‘Hitler’s Foreign Policy’:

‘It had originally not been part of Hitler’s plan to attack Poland in 1939. After Munich, he intended to destroy what remained of Czechoslovakia, but that was not expected to involve hostilities. His first war was to be in the west, destroying France and crushing England so that they could not interfere with his ambitions in Eastern Europe. Starting a war in the west, however, meant making sure of quite in the east – just as the earlier plan for an attack on Czechoslovakia had been accompanied by efforts to neutralize the West. The plan to make certain that all was quiet on the eastern front failed. The Hungarians fell into line, but the Poles simply would not do so. From October 1938 on, the German government tried to entice, coax, overawe, and bully the Poles into a position of subservience to Germany… As it became clear to Hitler that the Poles were not willing to give up their status as an independent country without a fight – and this rather than specific details of German-Polish relations was the key issue – he reversed his planned sequence of actions… He was now determined to fight Poland so that the total crushing of Germany’s eastern neighbour would make it safe for Germany to attack in the west. Here would be the lovely little war of which he had been cheated in 1938.’

(Gerhard L. Weinberg, ‘Hitler’s Foreign Policy 1933-1939: The Road to World War II’, (originally published in two volumes) Enigma Books (single volume edition), 2010, p. 801).

On p. 710-711 Weinberg quotes the Führer’s musings as given to his military commanders on 22 August 1939 (from the text in Nuremberg document 798-PS, TMWC, 26:338-39) as follows:

‘[I]t was clear to me that a conflict with Poland had to come sooner or later. I had already made this decision in the spring, but I thought I would first turn against the West in a few years, and only afterwards against the East. But the sequence could not be fixed…. I wanted to establish an acceptable relationship with Poland in order to fight first against the West. But this plan, which was agreeable to me, could not be executed since essential points had changed. It became clear to me that Poland would attack us in case of conflict with the West.’

Also, the following is from the blurb on the inside cover of Esmonde M. Robertson’s ‘Hitler’s Pre-War Policy and Military Plans 1933-39’ (as by ‘E. M Robertson’, Longmans, 1963):

‘[This book] has grown out of a monograph completed in the Cabinet Office Historical Section and which was based principally on official documents, the majority of which had not then been published….’

(During 1951-55 Mr Robertson was a Cabinet Office research worker and had access to German military and diplomatic archives and whilst there he also completed a monograph on Operation Barbarrossa – Hitler’s Invasion of Russia.) But to continue from the blurb:

‘Two general conclusions can be drawn from the book. First, that Mussolini had a much greater influence in stirring up the bellicose state of mind in Hitler than is commonly supposed. Secondly, that there can be little doubt that after November 1937 Hitler was planning a blow against Britain, not Russia.’

Concerning war with Poland and Britain’s figuring in Hitler’s thinking, Robertson writes:

‘After General Keitel had issued the directive of 11 April for Operation White, German planning proceeded on two lines: operations for a localized war against Poland; [and also] for a blockade against Britain. The relation between these two theatres was discussed at length by Hitler at a staff conference of 23 May.’

In these musings Hitler was certain that in the case of Poland: ‘A repetition of the Czech affair was not to be expected. Hitler said there “will be fighting”.’

[From footnote: ‘This passage has been misleadingly translated “There will be war.” According to a Naval Directive of 16 May the government was to do everything to restrict the war to Poland, ND [Nuremberg Documents]: 126-C.’]

To continue back to the thrust of Robertson’s main text:

‘This does not mean that [Hitler] believed there would be a general war, for he went on to say: “There must be no simultaneous conflict with the Western Powers. Germany must not ‘slither’ into war on account of Poland. Should such a conflict arise it would be better to attack in the West and treat the Polish campaign as a subsidiary issue.” Hitler spoke at length on operational conceptions, which had been maturing steadily since his conference of 5 November 1937, for War with Britain. He discussed the relative merits of an air attack on her fleet and a long distance blockade. He did not consider it necessary to land forces in Britain, and he spoke gleefully of the time when German expenditure need no longer be poured into the “bottomless pit” of the army but could go into naval and air expansion. His natural preference for the junior branches of the armed forces, which were capable of striking Britain, rather than for the pedestrian and conservative army, may also have been an additional inducement to plan for a war with Britain. At the end of the conference it was decided that the years 1943-1944 were to be the new target date for the completion of armaments. By that time the ship building programme would have been complete. Although Hitler expressed his preference for a short war, Germany would have to prepare for a long one of perhaps ten or fifteen years.’ (ibid. p. 172-173).

Also, the following information is supplied in the footnotes (p. 173):

‘There is abundant evidence on plans for war with Britain. In March 1938 Raeder addressed German ship builders on a new naval construction programme, ND: 23-C. In naval staff studies for April 1938, war with Britain was taken for granted, and Blitzkrieg tactics for an attack on the British fleet were discussed at an inter-service conference of 20 May 1938. While the Air Force were in favour the Navy were against an occupation of the Low Countries. The Naval High Command was, however, anxious to secure submarine bases off the west coast of France and Norway. See Note on Sources, p. 195. [Where he writes: ‘In accordance with official practice I am not permitted to give the reference numbers of any documents as yet unpublished, with the result that certain statements in my text are not provided with references to the authorities which I have used’]. See also ND: 123-C and ND: 375-PS and Räder, ‘Mein Leben’, Vol. II, Chap XI.’

Concerning the ‘timing’ of the war that did break out in September 1939: The following is taken from Richard Overy’s contribution entitled “Hitler’s War Plans and the German Economy” (to be found in ‘Paths to War: New Essays on the Origins of the Second World War’, edited by Robert Boyce and Esmonde M. Robertson, and published by Macmillan, 1989):

‘The first stage [in Hitler’s war plans] was to create a large, resource-rich area in central Europe, to be achieved without general war. This was to be followed ‘by 1943-45’ by major war with the great powers in order ‘to solve Germany’s problem of Lebenstraum’. Hitler’s strategic plan foresaw a conflict for continental hegemony, and war with Russia for a Eurasian empire. Beyond that lay imperial fantasies: world dominion, war with the United States and the British Empire….’ (p. 107).

‘The new rearmament programmes only made sense in terms of a major war with other great powers; in the east to establish Lebensraum, and in the west, against Britain and the United States, in order to realise Germany's claim to world power status. The naval programme and the strategic bomber plans, including the Amerikabomber on which Messerschmitt began work in 1939, in addition to the range of advanced technological projects on which German research was engaged, all indicate clearly the drift of Hitler's strategy. The important question was one of timing. As Hitler indicated in November 1937, the major programmes would be completed by 1943-5. The air force plans would not be completed until 1942 at the earliest. The Z-Plan covered the whole period from 1939-49. The army motorisation and its training schedules for officers and technicians would run on to 1943. More important, the raw material programmes in oil, rubber, aluminium and iron and steel, including the incorporation of the captured resources of central Europe, would not be finished until the same date. The plans to modernise and strengthen the railway system, begun seriously only in 1939, would carry on until 1944. Had Germany enjoyed a further four or five years of peace, the military forces and economic resources available would have made her, like the Soviet Union and the United States, one of the military super powers of the 1940s.

‘Hitler's problem was to avoid a major conflict until these programmes were complete, and it is here that his strategic competence and political judgement proved seriously flawed. Until late in August 1939 he expected that Britain and France would not fight for Poland.’ (p. 113).

And goes on to say that: ‘From the point of view of German military and economic preparations, the war that broke out in the autumn of 1939 was the wrong war.’ (p. 121).

 

[Addenda:]

[Since writing the above I've since found the following additional items of interest in a couple of other works:

‘[Hitler] wanted to have the war at his supposedly most favorable moment, while at the same time he failed to adequately prepare for it. He regarded England as he once stressed, as “our enemy Number One,” while at the same time hoping to come to an arrangement with that enemy.

‘I do not think that in those early days of September [1939], Hitler was fully aware that he had irrevocably unleashed a world war. He had merely meant to move one step further [in his planned sequence]. To be sure, he was ready to accept the risk associated with that step, just as he had been a year before during the Czech crisis; but he had prepared himself only for the risk, not really for the great war. His naval rearmament was obviously planned for a later date; the battleships as well as the first large aircraft carriers were still under construction. He knew that they would not attain full military value until they could face the enemy on more or less even terms. Moreover, he had spoken so often of the neglect of the submarine arm in the First World War that he probably would not have knowingly begun the Second without preparing a strong fleet of U-boats.’

(Inside the Third Reich, by Albert Speer, Phœnix Paperback edition, 2000; p. 239-40).

Concerning Hitler’s statement that England was Germany’s “enemy Number One”; the following information is given by Speer in the Notes section:

‘On November 23, 1937, at the dedication of the Sonthofen Ordensberg [Order Castle], tremendous cheers erupted when Hitler – after a speech that had been received quietly – unexpectedly shouted to the assembled party leaders: “Our Enemy Number One is England!” At the time I was astonished by the spontaneity of this cheering. I was also surprised at Hitler's suddenly turning against England, for I had assumed all along that England still held a special place in his wishful thinking.’ (Ibid. P. 710).

And also the following which supports the above:

‘[T]he [German] navy's conception of preparing for a major struggle by the mid-1940s was completely upturned when the Polish crisis led to war between Germany and Great Britain in September 1939. In a remarkable memorandum of 3 September 1939, the very date that Britain and France declared war on Germany, the Commander-in-Chief of the navy, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, coming close to criticizing Hitler for taking Germany into war prematurely, admitted that the navy, which according to the Z-Plan was arming for a war “on the ocean” at the turn of the year 1944-5 was still in autumn 1939 nowhere near sufficiently armed for the “great struggle with England”.

(From Ian Kershaw's, Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions that Changed the World 1940-1941, Penguin Books, 2008; p. 72).]

“Memphis Belle”

“Here it comes – the enemy coast. From up here it looks the same as any other: houses, roads, green fields, factories, waterways – but they are the houses and fields of those who invade and oppress; they are the factories and roads of the people, who twice in one generation, have flooded the world with suffering - suffering in such quantities that the history of the human race has never known.”

From the commentary of the WWII United States War Department movie The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress.

“Gott mit uns”?

The first work quoted below was published whilst the First World War was still raging:

‘Houston Chamberlain, one of the best known of [the popular German writers, has written] . . . a ponderous compilation entitled Die Grundlagen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts [The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century], for which he is said to have been paid a large sum out of the privy purse by his appreciative Emperor. This work gratifies German pride beyond all measure, and has therefore been very successful, though as a matter of fact, the author's views are not at all original. In a fawning way he reiterates the statements that Germany is the foremost of nations, and bitterly regrets that in former invasions:

“The Teuton has not exterminated his enemies root and branch wherever he has stretched out his conquering arm . . .”

‘The traditional methods for organizing conquest are [seen as being] rather slow, and so an ingenious professor by the name of Vierordt has written an article for the Badische Landeszeitung [‘Baden State Newspaper’] to show the urgent necessity of killing off Germany's enemies by the million in order that conquered territories may be transformed into deserts, to be populated subsequently by virtuous Germans.

‘These publications give most interesting indications with regard to the mentality of their authors, who long for a far more complete destruction of Europe that that which took place in Attila's day. [And who] would no doubt organize the unravished portions of the Continent into immense factories, where the unsparing lash of the Prussian corporal would keep millions of serfs toiling to enrich the Germans in general and the professors in particular.’

(From: The Psychology of the Great War, by Gustave Le Bon, translated by E. Andrews; published New York, The Macmillan Company, 1916. pp. 164, 166).

In a chapter on ‘Kaiser Wilhelm II and German anti-semitism’ in one of his works on the Kaiser, John Röhl clarifies the different levels of anti-semitism suffered by the Jews in Germany between unification in 1871 and the Götterdämmerung of 1945. He classifies them as ranging from the first (lower) form being: ‘the anti-semitism of the salon, consisting of personal prejudice and collective but still informal discrimination’; and finally at the other extreme (number five): ‘there is the ultimate horror, the anti-semitism of extermination, the anti-semitism of the holocaust.’

And he then goes on to write that: ‘In examining the anti-semitism of Kaiser Wilhelm II, we shall need to be mindful of these five different types of anti-semitism. The baneful truth, however, is that at one time or another in the course of his long life he subscribed to all five.’

Röhl writes that after his abdication and flight to exile in Holland the Kaiser wrote the following to General August von Mackensen on 2 December 1919:

“The deepest, most disgusting shame ever perpetrated by a people in history, the Germans have done onto themselves. Egged on and misled by the tribe of Juda whom they hated, who were guests among them! That was their thanks! Let no German ever forget this, nor rest until these parasites have been destroyed and exterminated [vertilgt und ausgerottet] from German Soil! This poisonous mushroom on the German oak-tree!”

Röhl then goes on:

‘He [the Kaiser] called for a ‘regular international all-worlds pogrom à la Russe’ as ‘the best cure’. ‘Jews and Mosquitoes’ were ‘a nuisance that humanity must get rid of in some way or other’, he proclaimed, and added, again in his own hand: ‘I believe the best would be gas!’ [From notes: ‘Kaiser Wilhelm II to Poultney Bigelow, 15 August 1929. Bigelow Papers, New York Public Library. Two years earlier, Wilhelm had instructed a member of his entourage to ask Fritz Haber whether the Totalvergasung [‘Total Gasification’] of large cities had become a practicable possibility. Wilhelm von Dommes to Fritz Haber, 14 June 1927, Gutssche, Ein Kaiser im Exil, p. 92.’]

(From: The Kaiser and His Court: Wilhelm II and the Government of Germany, by John C. G. Röhl, Cambridge University Press, 1994 [originally published in Germany as Kaiser, Hof und Staat: Wilhelm II. Und die deutsche Politik by Verlag C. H. Beck, Munich 1987]; p. 194-195, p. 210, and notes p. 266).

In line with extremist Germanic thought of the time the Kaiser didn’t envision genocide as being solely reserved and warranted by the Jews as Röhl writes:

‘In September 1914, after the German victory at Tannenberg, the Kaiser proposed that the 90,000 Russian prisoners of war be driven onto a barren spit of land in the Baltic and kept there till they died of thirst and hunger: it was left to one of his generals to point out that that would be ‘genocide’.’ [From notes: ‘Admiral Georg Alexander von Müller, diary entry for 4 September 1914, BA-MA Freiburg. This entry was omitted in Walter Görlitz (ed.), Regierte der Kaiser? Kreigstagebücher, Aufzeichnungen und Briefe des Chefs des Marine-Kabinetts Admiral Georg Alexander von Müller 1914-1918 (Göttingen 1959), pp. 54f.’] (ibid. p. 207, and notes p. 229)

The following is from a late eighteenth-century work first published in 1796:

'Thus the wars, in which the tyrants of the European world are to be subdued, with their widely scattered partisans, being of such mighty influence in deciding the condition of the human race, are foretold, in several parts of the apocalypse, and under different emblems. Such appears to be the import of THE HARVEST and THE VINTAGE, described in the xivth chapter [of the Revelation].’

According to this prophetic interpretation the subduing of these ‘tyrants of the European world’ (also being ‘the enemies of the church and the adversaries of [God’s] people’) would consist of:

‘two most signal slaughters, between which some space of time would intervene, which agreeably to analogy may be represented by the interval, which separates a harvest from a vintage.’

During the second of these ‘two most signal slaughters’ the grapes are described not just as being solely ‘ripe’ but as now being ‘fully ripe’. To continue from the quoted work:

‘The symbolic grapes are described as fully ripe “That is,” says Vitringa, “the period of the divine forbearance had expired, and villanies, no longer to be tolerated, had arisen to their utmost height. The measure of crimes was filled up. — Punishment therefore could no longer be deferred, but the destroyers of the earth were at length to be destroyed, and were in their turn to meet with their reward.” ’

(From: Illustrations of Prophecy, by the Rev Joseph Towers; published London, MDCCXCVI [1796]*. pp. 298, 300).

*For lengthier quotes from this work by the Rev Joseph Towers see the World War Armageddon blog posts ‘The two world wars; & the “Harvest of the earth”, from April 2010; and ‘The best laid schemes of FROGS and men . . .’ from March 2010.

Das Ritter Telegramm

The following post is a fuller translation of “The Ritter Telegram” from Bavarian Documents to the Outbreak of War and the Versailles Verdict, on behalf of the Bavarian State Parliament, ed. by Dr. P. Dirr; from the 1924 edition (p. 206).

“Das Ritter Telegramm”

“Der bayerische Gesandte beim Vatikan, Herr von Ritter, sandte am 24. Juli 1914 folgende Chiffredepesche an die Münchener Regierung:

Telegramm Nr. 216. Rom, den 24. Juli 1914, 18 Uhr 35 Min.

Papst billigt scharfes Vorgehen Österreichs gegen Serbien und schätzt im Kriegsfalle mit Rußland russische und französische Armee nicht hoch ein. Kardinalsekretär hofft ebenfalls, daß Österreich diesmal durchhält und wüßte nicht, wan es sonst noch Krieg führen wollte, wenn es nicht einmal eine ausländische Agitation, die zum Morde Thronfolgers geführt hat und außerdem bei jetziger Konstellation Österreichs Existenz gefährdet, entschlossen ist, mit den Waffen zurückzuweisen. Daraus spricht auch die große Angst der Kurie vor dem Panslavismus.

Ritter.”

{The Pope} {approves} {sharp/harsh} {proceedings/action/approach} {Austria} {against} {Serbia} {and} {estimates} {in the} {event of war} {with} {Russia} {Russian} {and} {French} {army} {not} {high} {one}. {Cardinal Secretary} {hopes} {likewise}, {that} {Austria} {this time}

{holds out/perseveres} {and} {intuited} {not}, {when} {it} {at other time} {still} {war} {conduct} {want/desire} {if} {it} {not} {once} {a} {foreign} {agitation}, {the} {to} {murder} {heir apparent/Archduke} {led} {has} {and} {in addition/as well} {at} {of present}

{political situation} {Austria’s} {existence} {endangered/threatened} {determined} {is}, {with} {the} {arms/weapons}

{must reject/point back to/repel}. {From this} {speaks} {also} {the} {great} {fear} {the} {curia} {before} {the} {Pan-Slavism}.

{Ritter}.

FULL TRANSLATION:

The Bavarian Envoy to the Vatican, Herr von Ritter, sent the following encrypted telegram to the Munich Government on 24 July 1914:

Telegram No. 216, Rome, 24 July 1914, 18 H 35 min.

The Pope approves of Austria’s harsh treatment of Serbia. He has no great opinion of the armies of Russia and France in the event of war. The Cardinal Secretary of State hopes likewise that this time Austria will hold firm; and intuited that he could not see a more desirable time for Austria to make war if she does not do so now in the face of such foreign agitation, which has led to the murder of the Archduke and also to the present political situation which threatens Austria’s very existence - unless she determines to repel this threat by force of arms. Also, from my discussions: it is evident that the great fear amongst the Roman Curia is that of Pan-Slavism.

Ritter.

Bavarian Documents on the Outbreak of War

Das Ritter Telegramm

“Der bayerische Gesandte beim Vatikan, Herr von Ritter, sandte am 24. Juli 1914 folgende Chiffredepesche an die Münchener Regierung:

Telegramm Nr. 216. Rom, den 24. Juli 1914, 18 Uhr 35 Min.

Papst billigt scharfes Vorgehen Österreichs gegen Serbien und schätzt im Kriegsfalle mit Rußland russische und französische Armee nicht hoch ein. Kardinalsekretär hofft ebenfalls, daß Österreich diesmal durchhält und wüßte nicht, wan es sonst noch Krieg führen wollte, wenn es nicht einmal eine ausländische Agitation, die zum Morde Thronfolgers geführt hat und außerdem bei jetziger Konstellation Österreichs Existenz gefährdet, entschlossen ist, mit den Waffen zurückzuweisen. Daraus spricht auch die große Angst der Kurie vor dem Panslavismus.

Ritter.”

(From: Bavarian Documents to the Outbreak of War and the Versailles Verdict, on behalf of the Bavarian State Parliament, ed. by Dr. P. Dirr; 1925 edition, p. 206)

Partial translation of the above as it appears in The Vatican Against Europe:

“The Pope [Pius X] approves of Austria's harsh treatment of Serbia. He has no great opinion of the armies of Russia and France in the event of a war against Germany. The Cardinal Secretary of State [Cardinal Merry del Val] does not see when Austria could make war if she does not decide to do so now.”

[Author's Note: This despatch from Baron Ritter appears in, Bayerische Dokumente zum Kriegsausbruch, III, p. 206.]

“The Wonders of Foretold History” (1890)

A GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE

‘Har-Magedon (or Armageddon) is simply the “hill of Megiddo,” marking the great battle plain where the fate of armies has so often been decided. And so through the telescope of prophecy we see looming up in the not [too] distant future, a great world-crises, a mighty and decisive conflict between the forces of good and evil.

‘And as a result and culmination of this conflict we see approaching a period of tremendous social convulsion, war and revolution. This is inevitable. “Think not,” said Christ, “that I am come to send peace on earth; I come not to send peace but a sword.” Error will never consent to quit the field without an appeal to the sword, and by the sword it must finally perish.

‘Apostate Judaism fell in a mighty war. The great Reformation triumphed only through fields of blood. And slavery in America was overthrown in a conflict that shook the continent. And the crowning conflict, like others before it, must be accompanied by a social convulsion proportionate to its greatness.

‘And no sooner does the prophet see the hosts gathered in the “valley of decision,” than he writes: “AND THE SEVENTH (angel) POURED OUT HIS BOWL UPON THE AIR; AND THERE CAME FORTH A GREAT VOICE OUT OF THE TEMPLE, FROM THE THRONE, SAYING, IT IS DONE: AND THERE WERE LIGHTNINGS, AND VOICES, AND THUNDERS; AND THERE WAS A GREAT EARTHQUAKE, SUCH AS WAS NOT SINCE THERE WERE MEN UPON THE EARTH, SO GREAT AN EARTHQUAKE, SO MIGHTY.”

‘If the tremendous Thirty Years War is spoken of as merely “an earthquake,” and that mighty and most bloody revolution by which Constantine overthrew the pagan emperors is still only “a great earthquake,” how surpassingly great must that revolution prove whose symbol is an earthquake such as never was since there were men upon the earth!

‘We are not surprised that the next feature that rises upon our view is a scene of unexampled horror and carnage. “AND EVERY ISLAND FLED AWAY,” (we are told) “AND THE MOUNTAINS WERE NOT FOUND. AND GREAT HAIL, EVERY STONE ABOUT THE WEIGHT OF A TALENT, COMETH DOWN OUT OF HEAVEN UPON MEN: AND MEN BLASPHEMED GOD BECAUSE OF THE PLAGUE OF THE HAIL; FOR THE PLAGUE THEREOF IS EXCEEDING GREAT.”

‘If the terrible raids and sack of Rome by the Goths is called a “hail,” and the tumult and carnage of thrice ten years of blood is only “great hail,” what must be the scene that shall be witnessed on the earth when war's destruction shall become so stupendous and overwhelming that it can only be compared to the showering down out of heaven of solid globes of ice of a hundred pounds weight!

‘And yet we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that already the conditions exist for just such a conflict. The weapons of destruction have been brought to a point of tremendous energy. Armored ships, rifled cannon, sea-coast guns that hurl six hundred pounds of iron fifteen miles, dynamite bombs, repeating rifles, Maxim guns, capable of discharging sixty balls per minute, are fast revolutionizing the art of war. Steam and electricity have almost annihilated time and space, so binding the nations together that any great shock is instantly felt to the world's end. Europe is an armed camp. Sixteen millions of trained soldiers are ready at the war-signal to fly at each others throats.

‘. . . The antitypical Euphrates, the Turkish empire, is rapidly drying up; and it is easy to see that the rich prize which is slipping from her grasp is liable at any hour to prove the spark which shall fire the train, and when the explosion comes (from this cause or some other) then shall begin a carnival of blood and death such as the world has never witnessed – a mighty hailstorm of retributive judgment.’ (pp. 317-319).

WHEN? OR PROPHETIC DATES

‘. . . [T]he papacy is not the only form of false religion dealt with in prophecy. There is another “little horn” (and only one other) which is mentioned in Dan. 7: 9-14, as destined to “take away the daily sacrifice,” and “give the sanctuary to be trodden under foot.” This is Mahometanism which arose simultaneously with the papacy, and keeps pace with it till both perish at the advent. But before Mahomet arose in the East the Syrian kings appeared, of whom was Antiochus Epiphanes, known as the bitter enemy and persecutor of the Jews. He was a precursory “little horn;” the prophetic symbol evidently including both. And the whole period thus defined is declared to be two thousand three hundred years. From what point do they begin? Not earlier certainly than the decree of Artaxerxes B.C. 457, from which begin the seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years to the resurrection of Christ. From this date two thousand three hundred years bring us to A.D. 1844, noted as the very year when by the determined intervention of England the Turkish government reluctantly consented to cease persecuting its Christian subjects, and actually issued (for the first time) an edict of toleration. In thus yielding to foreign dictation it virtually surrendered its independence, and appeared as already practically fallen.

‘But there is another point from which it is still more natural to reckon this period, and that is B.C. 312, the date of the rise of the Syrian kings (called the Seleucidæ) just referred to. And from this point (reckoning by lunar years, because this was customary with Mahometans) the period extends to 1919 – exactly seventy-five years later than in the first case – indicating this date as likely to be a marked one in the decline of the Turks, the freeing of Palestine from Mahometan thraldom, and the restoration of the Jews; but if solar years are reckoned we are brought to 1988. . . .

‘Thus the very nature of prophetic dates renders it impossible to lay down with rigid certainty the time of the end. We are not sure which one of several starting points is to be preferred; and we do not certainly know whether we are to reckon by lunar or by solar years. Still the variations of reckoning thus caused are all comprised within comparatively narrow limits; and so we are well assured that the “time is at hand” – it may be at the very doors.

‘If it shall be (according to the reckoning already given) that the dawning years of the next century shall see the fall of the Turkish powers; [it could be most likely] that by 1919 the ancient people of God shall again possess the promised land . . .’ (pp. 343-345).

The Kings of the East

British India: Colour Party of the 15th Sikhs

IV. Britain extends her Eastern possessions westward, prevents the immediate occupation of Judea by Russia, and initiates its colonization by the Jews.

‘The many and severe wars which our country has had to sustain, in order to preserve her Eastern territories, have by many been considered as too dear payment for their possession. We do not here however, enter on this question, but beg to inform such, that a far higher purpose than commercial interest or extended empire is to be served by the presence of the British power in the East. So far, indeed, as she herself is concerned, this may have been the real aim; and now that she is in possession, the commercial advantages which accrue from them will be a sufficient incitement to their retention. To preserve the East India market, and keep a path open to it, Britain will strive much and do much; but while her rulers may think they are merely serving the nation, they are really accomplishing one of the grand designs of God, and evolving events, while they cause her to take measures for the preservation of this distant part of her empire, will really and only produce occurrences which will facilitate the great design of Jehovah. Both God and Britain had a special design in the annexation of the Indian territory to the lion power, but these designs were as different in nature and object as the finite is from the infinite. While Britain thought only of wealth and conquest, God thought of his ancient people, and of his covenant, and placed the British Lion in the East to prepare a way for his ransomed, and to become their protection in the infancy of their restoration. Such is God's design, and he has enlisted the energy of the Anglo-Saxons in its accomplishment, by making it their interest to bring it to pass. The value of these lands to the nation is the inducement he has given it to retain them at all risks; and one means of their retention, which will by-and-bye become very obvious, will be to do that which will tend to introduce the accomplishment of Jehovah's long promised purpose — the restoration of the Jews. The idea has long been held, by those few who do believe in a restoration, that it must be preceded by a conversion. This is erroneous. The Jews, to some extent, will return to their own land as faithless in Jesus as the Christ as when they left it. . . .

‘It is needless, therefore, to look for the conversion of Israel as an indication of the coming of the latter days. It is the preadventural partial colonization of Judea that becomes an evidence of this; and we can imagine with what surprise the conversion-theorists will witness the approaching colonization of the land of Israel by its former inhabitants. . . . [The Jews will] be colonized [again] there, and . . . Britain [will] become the principal agent in the work . . . .’

(From: The Coming Struggle Among the Nations of the Earth . . . Described in Accordance with Prophecies in Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Apocalypse, Shewing also the Important Position Britain will Occupy During and at the End of the Awful Conflict; by John Thomas; published Toronto: Thomas MacLear, 45, Yonge Street, 1853; pp. 24-25).

‘Britain . . . [will] favor the formation of a Jewish colony in Palestine; and thus, it will appear, that the Euphrates is drying up in order “that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared.” The drying up of the river, which is in part the destruction of Turkey, will render it necessary for the British power, which then extends to the Euphrates, to promote the return of the Jews to their own land, by extending its protection over it, and holding out every inducement for the sons of Abraham to repair to it. Be this, however, as it may, it is Britain that favors the return of the sons of Judah, as we learn from the eighteenth chapter of Isaiah, where the prophet is furnished with a command to “the land shadowing with wings, that sendeth ambassadors by the sea,” enjoining it to render service in the presentation to the Lord of “a nation scattered and peeled, a nation terrible from their beginning hitherto, a nation rooted out and trodden down, whose lands the rivers have spoiled.” What a powerful and graphic description is this of the present and past state of the Jews! How their former greatness and present degredation and desolation is associated and contrasted! But how, it may be asked, do we identify the “land widely over-shadowing with wings?” We are told that it is from beyond to the rivers of Cush. Now, going east, from Judea, across the Euphrates and Tigris, we reach to the “beyond,” that is, to Hindostan, the most important of our Indian possessions and therefore governed by a power that “sendeth its ambassadors by the sea,” in other words, by an island state, which shows that the reference is to Britain, and to her alone. The allusion will, however, become more apparent in a short time, when our empire is greatly extended in that quarter, and when the lion-flag waves o'er many an island and country, proving as much its protector as its ruler. There can then be no doubt as to the fact that this country will open up a way for the despised and persecuted race of Abraham, to stand once more in their father-land, and raise anew the songs of David upon the holy hill of Zion . . . But, first of all, this country must seize a great amount of territory adjacent to the Holy Land. In the present state of affairs, there would neither be peace nor safety for the Jews in their own country. The Sultan has “divided it for gain,” and his pachas lay it waste and hold it waste at their pleasure. It will, therefore, be necessary to occupy Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba, besides other places, in order to make these a wall of defence for the Jewish colony, and hence the language of Jehovah to his restored people — “I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.” By possessing these she will also lay her hands upon Edom, Moab, Ammon, and other places on the Red Sea, till at length shadowing “to the rivers of Cush,” and on every side the new colony, under the wings of this great maritime power, will grow and prosper, like a cedar on their own mountain of Lebanon.’ (ibid. pp. 27-28).

BRITAIN'S STEAM MARINE FORETOLD BY ISAIAH.

‘ “Which sendeth by sea whirling things even upon vessels of fleetness on the surface of waters.” Tzirim uvkli-gma ol-pni-mim pronounced tzirim uviklai gome al-penaimayim, — This is the orginal which I have rendered “whirling things even upon vessels of fleetness on the surface of waters.” Could any thing be more descriptive of steamers as they appear to a spectator when gliding over the water? He sees a vessel moving with rapidity, and observes something on its sides whirling with remarkable velocity. After beholding such a vessel for the first time in motion from a position exterior to it, its fleetness and whirling things would be the two characteristics by which he would describe it to others, I do not doubt the prophet understood that in the evening time there would be a great maritime power sending swift vessels by sea to its possessions in India, propelled by whirling things instead of by sails: It is a fact, that such a power exists, and navigates the waters of the Red Sea with fleet vessels without sails; which before his day bore on their surface the sluggish craft of Solomon and his Tyrian ally in their voyages to the Indian Tarshish. The fact is foretold in the prophet's description of the shadowing land.’ (ibid. pp. 108).

(For other posts on the “Kings of the East” click on the link in the Index below).