The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg, one of Aesop's fables updated for the war by F. Sancha. In Aesop, a farmer slaughters the goose that lays a daily golden egg in expectation of seizing all its wealth at once. Sancha holds Germany responsible for the war that has destroyed its international trade, the source of its prosperity.
Comercio Aleman1912 1913 1914Signed: F. SanchaReverse:La Gallina de los Huevos de oro.Un avaro labrador que esperaba obtener por ese medio mayores proventos, mató una gallina que ponia cada dia un huevo de oro, y sólo descubrió que habia perdido una fuente de riqueza.El comercio ultramarino alemán que habia hecho tan rica a Alemania, ha quedado completamente destruido por la loca avaricia que le impulsó a desencadenar la guerra en Europa.The hen lays golden eggs.A miserly farmer who hoped to obtain by an even greater fortune, killed a goose that laid a golden egg every day, and only discovered he had lost his source of wealth.The German overseas trade that had so enriched Germany, has been completely destroyed by the mad greed that prompted him to launch the war in Europe.Actualidad de EsopoAesop TodayCopyright LondonPrinted in England.
"S——— also mentions the extreme exhaustion of the German soldiers, who were so weakened that a retreat of twenty miles in twenty-four hours tired them out. Their only food was coffee (made with roasted barley and maize) morning and night, with a vegetable soup in the middle of the day. They tried to steal from the local population the supplies furnished by the American Relief.The whole tract is a desert. Not a single animal left alive."
Entries from March 29 or 30, 1917 from the diary of Michel Corday, French senior civil servant, living and writing in Paris. The 'retreat' of the German soldiers was part of Operation Alberich, a withdrawal to a shorter line and stronger defensive position, the Siegfried Zone, or Hindenburg Line. The winter of 1916–1917 was bitter, with coal and food shortages across Europe. The American Relief Committee had been founded in October, 1914 for the relief of the citizens of occupied Belgium. Its establishment by the energetic Herbert Hoover under the patronage of the Ambassadors of neutral Spain and United States is related in Hugh Gibson's animated Journal from our Legation in Belgium.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 241, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
1917-03-29, 1917, March, Operation Alberich, strategic retreat, food, American Relief, goose that laid the golden egg
