Zeppelin Kommt! Children play a Zeppelin raid on London. Holding his bomb in the gondola is a doll of the airship's inventor, Count Zeppelin. The other children, playing the English, cower, and the British fleet — folded paper boats — remains in port. Prewar postcards celebrated the imposing airships and the excitement they generated with the same expression, 'Zeppelin Kommt!'. Postcard by P.O. Engelhard (P.O.E.). The message on the reverse is dated May 28, 1915.
P.O.E.? EnglandLondonZeppelin Kommt!Reverse:Message dated May 28, 1915Stamped: Geprüft und zu befördern (Approved and forwarded) 9 Komp. Bay. L.I.N. 5
"The General Confederation of Labour has split. The majority, led by Jouhaux, support the war. Opposed to it there is a minority led by Merrheim, an interesting man, of whom we shall hear more. . . .To sum up, there is considerable feeling which is kept within bound only by use of the Secret Service funds. One agitation, based on the high cost of living, petered out. But it would only need some incident, such as a Zeppelin raid involving many victims, to unloose disorder. Especially as, at the other end of the scale, the Action Française is trying hard to stir up public opinion with the bogy of German spies. Those two influences might easily meet under one flag: 'Treachery.'"
Michel Corday, a senior civil servant in the French government, visited Sûreté Générale, the French national police, on February 10, 1916 where he reviewed information on pacifist movements. Syndicalists called for peace and tended to emphasize that the war was not one of German aggression; Anarchists that workers were sacrificing their lives for a handful of people. Action Française, begun as an anti-Dreyfus movement, was the leading far right group that opposed the legacy of the French Revolution, was staunchly pro-Catholic, and included monarchists. The group supported Georges Clemenceau, who became French Prime Minister in November, 1917.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, pp. 144, 145, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
1916-02-10, 1916, February, labor, antiwar, peace, terror
