100 Years Ago: Quotes from March 1914

The war against the powers of the Triple Alliance has become necessary. . .
General Schtcherbetchew, Director St. Petersbury Military Academy, March 1914

At present the Volunteer Aid Detachments are wasted organisations. In time of war, mobilisation would be next to impossible. There should be some… official equivalent to the German Imperial Commissioner, who with a staff should devote the whole of his time to the matter of voluntary aid.

First Aid Journal of the British Red Cross, March 1914

It is my firm conviction that Germany's two neighbors [Russia and France] are carefully proceeding with military preparations, but will not start the war so long as they have not attained a grouping of the Balkan states against us that confronts the monarchy with an attack from three sides and pins down the majority of our forces on our eastern and southern front.

Hungarian Premier István Tisza to Emperor Franz Josef, March 1914

I hear an army charging upon the land,
And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their knees:
Arrogant, in black armour, behind them stand,
Disdaining the reins, with fluttering whips, the charioteers.

They cry unto the night their battle-name:
I moan in sleep when I hear afar their whirling laughter.
They cleave the gloom of dreams, a blinding flame,
Clanging, clanging upon the heart as upon an anvil.

They come shaking in triumph their long, green hair:
They come out of the sea and run shouting by the shore.
My heart, have you no wisdom thus to despair?
My love, my love, my love, why have you left me alone? 
James Joyce, Published in Des Imagistes, 2 March

The Russian Scare
Mobilization of German Interests
Demand for a Firm Policy
The Times Berlin Correspondent, 9 March

We do not want sentence of death with a stay of execution for six years.
Edward Carson, Speech in Commons, re: Ulster counties being allowed out of Home Rule for six years, 9 March

I should say that the future lies with Ibn Sa'ud.  If it is true — as we hear — that he has driven the Turks out of the Hasa, he is a formidable adversary.

Gertrude Bell, Diary, 17 March

General Henry Wilson
Behind the Scenes Instigator of Curragh

OFFICER COMMANDING 5TH LANCERS STATES THAT ALL OFFICERS, EXCEPT TWO AND ONE DOUBTFUL, ARE RESIGNING THEIR COMMISSIONS TODAY. I MUCH FEAR SAME CONDITIONS IN THE 16TH LANCERS. FEAR MEN WILL REFUSE TO MOVE. REGRET TO REPORT BRIGADIER-GENERAL GOUGH AND FIFTY-SEVEN OFFICERS 3RD CAVALRY BRIGADE PREFER TO ACCEPT DISMISSAL IF ORDERED NORTH.

 Sir Arthur Paget, Commander-in-Chief in Ireland, Reporting Curragh Mutiny, 20 March