The city of Sarajevo in Bosnia was the seat of the Austro-Hungarian government for Bosnia and Herzegovina. in 1878 the leading governments of Europe sent representatives to a Congress in Berlin to settle the Balkan question. The work that this congress was to do was like that of the Peace Conference which met at Versailles in 1919, at the close of the World War. But the congress of Berlin did not take into consideration the interests of oppressed peoples and arranged matters to suit their own selfish interests. The mistakes made in Berlin were underlying causes of the recent war. Austria was invited to "occupy" Bosnia and Herzegovina. The people of Bosnia and Herzegovina resisted the Austro-Hungarians but were unsuccessful. On September 20th, 1878, Austria-Hungary took over their government. This arrangement was supposed to be only temporary and she was supposed to evacuate when order and prosperity had been restored. But for selfish reasons Austria-Hungary became unwilling to do this and in 1908 Emperor Francis Joseph sent autograph letters to the various rulers of Europe stating that Austria-Hungary had annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina to her territory. Servia had for a long time hoped to unite with her Slavic kinsmen of Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro in a greater state. Naturally she did not like this plan of Austria-Hungary.

On June 28, 1914, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his consort, the Duchess of Hohenberg, were shot by a Serbian boy, who was a Bosnian subject of Austria. Because of this act Austria declared war on Servia and the great war was begun.

The Prussian system of military training required that every able-bodied male citizen serve in the army for a number of years.

The army was made up of three ranks: the First Line, the Second Line (Landwehr), and the Third Line (Landsturm). In the First Line, each man served 2 years in the ranks and 5 years in reserve; that is, between the ages of 20 and 22 years each young man spent 2 years of actual service. During the succeeding 3 years he was called out at least twice to train from a month to two months. Men from the ages of 27 to 32 made up the Landwehr army. The Landsturm was made up of all soldiers from 17 to 45 years of age, whether trained or untrained, and not included in the First Line and Landwehr. The Landsturm was designed for use only as a home defense reserve.

By this system of training the Empire had constantly at its call about 2 million soldiers, with partially trained reserves amounting to nearly 2 million more. As a matter of fact, under the strain fo the World War, Germany actually put under arms about 11 million men. Plainly, the Empire had in its hands the most tremendous weapon ever created for either defense, or conquest and oppression. The German army represented the power of National militarism carried to the extreme.

When Germany suddenly declared war in 1914, the Prussian war machine moved forward with precision. Every detail had been carefully worked out. Germany had been preparing for this war for many years. It is small wonder that this great machine crished the defenses of sturdy little Belgium.

In this array of bayonetted rifles stretching as far as the eye can look, one sees the evidence of the spirit of militarism which animated all the imperialistic nations of Europe for many years before the World War. In this race for military superiority Russia fully kept pace with Germany and Austria-Hungary, having a peace time army of about two million men, with as many more trained reserves. The upkeep of such huge armies was a very heavy financial and economic burden on the nations maintaining them and it is hoped that after the terrible lesson of the World War such armies will never again be brought into existence.

Nevertheless, conditinos being as they were, it was fortunate for the democratic nations of the world that Russia's armies were so large and that they did so well on the Eastern front immediately after Germany and Austria declared war in 1914. Otherwise Germany might have gathered enough troops in the West to have overwhelmed France and Great Britain before they could have brought their full strength into the field. Russia suffered terrible defeats but she also won great victories under such able generals as the Grand Duke Nicholas, General Brussilov and General Russky. She forced the Germans and Austrians to keep great masses of troops in the East and so enabled France and England to develop their full power on the Western front and to hold it until 1918, when the United States came into the war with enough men to finally turn the scales.

After the Germans were defeated on the Marne in 1914 they did everything consistent woth a hasty retreat, to hamper the pursuing French. In this case they have wrecked a railway bridge to cut what would otherwise be the route of the supply trains for the French Army. The fact that a Red Cross train was on the bridge was not considered of any consequence.

The "Nord" one sees on the engine is the French word for "North," and alludes to the railway system to which it belongs, the Chemin de Fer du Nord. There are only six great railway companies in France and the systems of the Northern and Eastern companies are the ones whose lines cover the country which was devastated in the war.

But without them neither the Allies nor the Germans could have carried on the war or supplied their vast armies as they did. After gaining possession of large portions of these systems, the Germans repaired them and kept them in a high state of efficiency. It was a combination of some of the double track main lines of the Chemin de Fer du Nord and the Chemin de Fer du l'est running from Metz to Lille which connected the whole central and northern sections of the German battle front and enabled them to shift their troops rapidly from one place to another as they might be needed. When the first American Army attacked in the Meuse-Argonne in 1918, it struck at the portion of this line lying between Metz and Sedan, and before the armistice came it had forced its way to Sedan and broken the line there, literally splitting the German armies in two.

La Basse lies southwest of Lille and about ten miles from the Belgian border. Here in the autumn of 1914 was fought one of the bloodiest battles of the Great War. Strictly speaking the fight at La Basse was a prolongation of the terrific contest at Ypres, the battle line, shaped like a horseshoe, extending through Lille to that city.

Thrown back on the Marne in its initial drive on Paris, the German army, after a few weeks' rest to recuperate and to mass artillery, lunged westward towards the sea, hoping to capture the channel ports and thus prevent British troops and supplies from reaching France. A million Germans participated in this drive, which lead to a succession of great battles known collectively as the Battle of Flanders. The struggle for the trenches of La Basse was a part of this battle, which from beginning to end lasted nearly two months with never a day unmarked by desperate struggles. It is estimated that at La Basse alone the Germans fired $500,000 worth of shells into the trenches within a few days. Life in these trenches became terrible beyond description. The dead lay thick, bodies without heads, without arms or legs, human flesh plastered by the explosion of shells against, and actually into, the walls. The dead lay for days, decomposing under the feet of the living.

Throughout these battles the Germans advanced in solid formation, often six or seven deep, and their losses were almost beyond belief. They carpeted the ground. Not a shell hole but had its quota.

Look as carefully as you can over this field of desolation and carnage and you will find hardly an inch of ground that has not been blasted over and over again by explosive shells. Those stumps, the remains of a beautiful orchard, show what kind of ground this No Man's Land was before the Allies and their foe came to grips here in the tremendous battle that raged for the channel ports in Northern France and Belgium.

Shell holes without number as far as the eye can reach, filled with stagnant gas-filled water, as deadly as the wells that the Germans poisoned as they retreated. At the edge of the hole nearest to you is discernible a rifle and bayonet; at your feet is a helmet still covering the head of its owner.

Farther on toward the largest tree stump you can see the body of one of the dead. Hundreds like this soldier have lain between the lines of the armies, for days, weeks, months, when the fighting, fiercer than ever before, raged all about them. On the extreme right there are the remains of another of the men who strove in the dusk of some grey morning to make his way to the enemy's lines.

If you had gone the length of the line held by the British in France you would have seen miles and miles of terrible desolation like this, "where all is still and cold and dead."

On this shell-torn waste, pitted and pimpled by high explosives, with the barbed wire curling dangerously around, and the blackened stumps of trees rising here and there, we see the fallen flower of Scotia's manhood.

The men of Scotland have through all history distinguished themselves by the love of a just cause and their readiness to sacrifice their lives for freedom. Their blood has mingled with the land of every continent. They have been leaders in the cause of liberty wherever it was endangered, whether the offender was a royal Edward or a Prussian William.

Here before us is the mute evidence that the blood of heroes still flows in Scotch veins, for these men died facing the machine guns of the enemy. Statistics show that the losses of those famous Scotch regiments were among the very heaviest. The Germans spoke of the Scotch as the "Ladies from Hell" because of their fierceness in attack and their bravery under fire, alluding also to their peculiar attire.

The strange dress they insist on wearing has been an inspiration to many a harassed people. The French loved them, and a story is told of a tribe of Afghans who, wishing to show unflinching valour under fire, dressed in kilts and marched to the tune of improvised bagpipes.