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Old Europe's Suicide; or, The Building of a Pyramid of Errors / An Account of Certain Events in Europe During the Period 1912–1919 cover

Old Europe's Suicide; or, The Building of a Pyramid of Errors / An Account of Certain Events in Europe During the Period 1912–1919

Chapter 2: BRIGADIER-GENERAL CHRISTOPHER BIRDWOOD THOMSON
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About This Book

A former brigadier-general and eyewitness offers a retrospective of European events from 1912 to 1919, beginning with the Balkan conflicts and ending with the Paris peace negotiations. He traces how rival imperial ambitions, secret intrigues, and diplomatic inertia turned a local war into a continental conflagration, contends that autocratic Central Empires undermined themselves through militarism and reckless policy, and argues that the postwar settlement perpetuated earlier mistakes rather than establishing a stable order. The account blends descriptive narrative of campaigns and diplomacy with a moral appeal for progressive statesmanship and nonmilitary remedies to heal the continent’s fractured politics.

General Thomson comes of an English family of soldiers. He is about forty-five years old, and has a career of active service behind him, having served as subaltern four years in the Boer War, then having passed the Staff-College, and subsequently having been employed by the War Office in Balkan service.

At the very beginning of the Great War he was engaged in Staff work at the French front, and in 1915 to 1917 was the British military representative in the Balkans. In the Palestine campaign he saw active service in the field until the occupation of Jerusalem.

When the Supreme War Council was convened at Versailles, Thomson was recalled and was attached as British Military Representative in 1918 remaining until the conclusion of its peace negotiations. In 1919 he retired with rank of Brigadier General—Royal Engineers.

He has now entered the field of politics as a member of the Labour Party and is the selected candidate for Parliament, standing for Central Bristol. He was a member of the Labour Party commission which recently visited Ireland; and his services in the intensive campaign work of the Labour Party in Great Britain have occupied the past year.


THE PYRAMID OF ERRORS


OLD EUROPE’S
SUICIDE

OR

THE BUILDING OF A PYRAMID
OF ERRORS

An account of certain events in Europe during
the Period 1912–1919

By
BRIGADIER-GENERAL
CHRISTOPHER BIRDWOOD THOMSON

New York
THOMAS SELTZER
1922


Copyright, 1922, by
THOMAS SELTZER, Inc.

All Rights Reserved