Page:EB1922 - Volume 30.djvu/666

620 was surprised in the middle of his preparations for a retreat, which he had intended to carry out the following day. He was hustled without respite along all the front of the X. Army before he had time to complete the destructions which he had prepared. The St. Gobain massif was taken and Laon at last freed. The X. Army advanced 18 km. in 36 hours.

On Oct. 15 Gen. Mangin addressed his troops: " You have won the battle of the Ailette. On the N. bank of the Aisne the enemy waited for your attack after your victory at Soissons, and he had withdrawn still farther his line of resistance. On the 17th and i8th you defeated his advanced posts; and then on the 2oth, after your strong artillery had been brought up, you defeated him on the field of battle which he had selected himself; you have pursued him beyond the Oise and the Ailette. After the 29th of August, the struggle became fiercer, the front facing E., for the conquest of those plateaux which overlooked Soissons. It was necessary to conquer them step by step after having crossed the Aisne and the Ailette by means of force. There you defeated the best divisions of the German army, who exhausted themselves in defending the approaches to the Hindenburg line. On September I4th, the Laff aux mijl was carried by assault and the Hindenburg line crumbled right up to the Ailette on an 8-kilometre front. In vain did the enemy, by bloody coun- ter-attacks, attempt to retake that important position. You have not ceased to advance and have driven him back, compelling him to abandon the line of the Vesle. On October ist, after you reached the Chemin des Dames, he has been forced to retire, in front of your left, to the Ailette. In the meantime the victorious advance of the Allied armies on your right and on your left threatened the communications of the German armies in position before you and they had to withdraw. You were waiting for this moment, on October i2th, surprising once more the enemy in the very act of moving. With your right and centre you crossed the Ailette, and with your left you seized the borders of the St. Gobain forest, and with a single bound, breaking the resistance of the rear-guards and then hustling them, you have covered 18 kilometres in 36 hours. This was done fighting and in spite of forests and marshes and a most thorough destruction of roads and bridges. You have captured 26,000 prisoners, more than 400 guns and an immense quantity of war material that can never be replaced. Laon, ancient city of communal freedom, and 10,000 French whose joy is for you a wonderful reward, have been freed from the most terrible slavery that has ever weighed upon the human race. The pressure of the adjoining armies has caused the enemy to retreat before you; the position which you have just taken forces the enemy to retire before them. Thus the hour of deliverance and justice draws near, with the punishment of the perjured, shame- less thieves, murderers of our wounded, butchers of women and children, who must expiate their crimes and build up with their hands the ruins brought about by their insensate ferocity. But you have done nothing since. There remains more for you to do, as the sacred soil of our country is still fouled by the unclean foreigner, as thousands of Frenchmen are still in slavery, and since the world is awaiting its salvation through your courage. Soldiers of Freedom! Forward! " (C. M. E. M.)

CHANTAVOINE, HENRI (1850-1918), French man of letters (see 5.847*), died at Galuire (Rhone) Aug. 15 1918.

CHAPLIN, HENRY CHAPLIN, 1ST VISCOUNT (1841- ), English statesman (see 5.852), was generally welcomed on his return to the House of Commons in 1907 as a type of parliamentarian fast disappearing. He intervened with effect on questions of land and of social and tariff reform, but otherwise was not so prominent in debate as in past years. As a thoroughgoing Tariff Reformer, he deplored the change of policy with regard to food taxes which was forced on the Unionist leaders in the winter of 1912-3. When the first Coalition Government was formed in May 1915, he was left the solitary conspicuous Unionist on the Opposition front bench; and it was felt to be a fitting close of a distinguished career in the Commons when at the age of 75 he was raised on the recommendation of that Government to the peerage in April of the following year.

CHARLES (KARL FRANZ JOSEF) (1887- ), Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary from 1915 to 1918, was born Aug. 17 1887 at Persenbeug in Lower Austria. His father, the Archduke Otto (1865-1906), the younger brother of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, was a clever man of easy morals; his mother, Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony (1867- ), was a zealous Catholic. Charles spent his early years wherever his father's regiment happened to be stationed; later on he lived in Vienna and Reichenau. He was privately educated, but, contrary to the custom ruling in the imperial family, he attended a public gymnasium for the sake of demonstrations in scientific subjects. On the conclusion of his studies at the gymnasium lie entered the army, spending the years from 1906-8 as an officer chiefly in Prague, where he studied law and political science concurrently with his military duties. In 1907 he was declared of age and Prince Zdeuko Lobkowitz was appointed his chamberlain. In the next few years he carried out his military duties in various Bohemian garrison towns. At that time no opportunity was given him of gaining a closer insight into affairs of State, although the death of his father in 1906 and the re- nunciation by his uncle, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, on the occasion of his marriage with the Countess Chotek, of any right of succession for the children of this union, made him heir presumptive to the Emperor Francis Joseph. In 1911 he repre- sented the Emperor at the coronation of King George V. in London. In October of the same year he was married at Pianore (Italy) to the Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma. Of this marriage, which is everywhere described as a happy one, there were several sons and daughters, the eldest of whom, Otto, was born in 1912.

Charles's relations with his great-uncle, the Emperor, were not intimate; and those with his uncle Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the throne, not cordial, the differences between their wives increasing the existing tension between them. For these reasons Charles up to the time of the murder of Francis Ferdi- nand, obtained no insight into affairs of State, but led the life of a prince not destined for a high political position. It was only after the death of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand that the old Emperor, moved by an innate sense of duty, took steps to initiate the heir to his crown in affairs of State. But the out-break of the World War interfered with this political education. Charles spent his time during the first phase of the war at head-quarters at Teschen, but exercised no military influence.

In the spring of 1916, in connexion with the offensive against Italy, he was entrusted with the command of the XX. Corps, whose affections the heir to the throne won by his affability and friendliness. The offensive, after a successful start, soon came to a standstill. Shortly afterwards Charles went to the eastern front as commander of an army operating against the Russians and Rumanians. On Nov. 21, the day of his great-uncle's death, he succeeded to the throne.

Seldom has a ruler on ascending the throne been faced with a more difficult situation. The struggle between the nations had been going on for more than two years; for more than two years the troops of the monarchy had been fighting heroically against the superior forces of their enemies. The military and economic resources of the monarchy were beginning to fail. Behind the front, especially in the towns of Austria, there was want of the necessaries of life, and already it was clear that anti-dynastic feeling was spreading widely especially in the non-Austrian and non-Magyar territories.

His programme on his accession was to combat this feeling, to renew the splendor of the dynasty, to give to the peoples under his rule the longed-for peace, and to bring about a settlement between the different nations composing the Habsburg Monarchy. But how was this programme to be carried out?

The Emperor Charles thought that for this purpose he needed new men; he therefore dismissed many of his predecessor's most influential advisers, and replaced them by persons from his own circle of friends and that of the late Archduke Francis

' These figures indicate the volume and page number of the previous article.