‘Unparalleled Opportunities’: The Indian Y.M.C.A.'s Army Work Schemes for Imperial Troops During the Great War (1914–1920)

The present article aims to contribute to the global history of the First World War and the history of ‘imperial humanitarianism’ by taking stock of the Indian Young Men's Christian Association's Army Work schemes in South Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The outbreak of the war was hailed by some American secretaries of the Y.M.C.A. working in India as presenting overwhelming opportunities for their proselytising agenda. Indeed, the global conflict massively enlarged the organisation's range of activities among European soldiers stationed in South Asia and for the first time extended it to the ‘Sepoys’, i.e. Indian and Nepalese soldiers serving in the imperial army. Financially supported by the Indian public as well as by the governments of Britain and British India, the US-dominated Indian Y.M.C.A. embarked on large-scale ‘army work’ programmes in the Indian subcontinent as well as in several theatres of war almost from the outset, a fact that clearly boosted its general popularity. This article addresses the question of the effects the Y.M.C.A.'s army work schemes had for the imperial war effort and tries to assess their deeper societal and political impact as a means of educating better citizens, both British and Indian. In doing so, the article places particular emphasis on the activities of American Y-workers, scrutinising to what extent pre-existing imperial racial and cultural stereotypes influenced their perception of and engagement with the European and South Asian soldiers they wanted to transform into ‘better civilians’.     

五代巡检研究

巡检作为官称大体始于中晚唐,五代时,已逐渐形成按行政级别分层设置的模式;此外,在盐池产地、交通要道和军队中也大量设置。充任巡检使者的身份地位高低不等,但都由武将充任。五代巡检使所带之兵由几百至几千人不等,甚至有带上万名兵士的;所带兵种有禁军、州兵、乡社兵(民兵)等不同种类。五代巡检作为一种差遣,其设置、任命都体现出政府加强中央集权的意图,这一制度对宋代也产生了深刻影响。     

亚述帝国的“拉科苏”士兵探析

亚述帝国的"拉科苏"(raksu)士兵是宦官长麾下国王卫队的精锐。尽管"拉科苏"士兵主要由被征服地区的人员组成,但是他们享受免赋役的特权。公元前9世纪末和公元前8世纪初,实力雄厚的亚述高官企图挑战国王的权威,国王依靠宦官长及其统帅的国王卫队保住了王位。国王论功行赏,擢升宦官长,豁免其麾下忠勇士兵的赋役,"拉科苏"士兵于是应运而生。随着大量俘虏的收编,国王卫队的规模不断扩大,进而发展成为亚述帝国的常备军,并在对外扩张中大显身手。国王奖赏常备军表现卓异的士兵,"拉科苏"士兵不时出现。亚述帝国末期,实力膨胀的宦官长觊觎王位,国王的近卫军可能是其谋逆的帮凶,"拉科苏"士兵或卷入其中。"拉科苏"士兵的出现及其功能的异化与亚述政局的变化密切相关。     

Drawing (on) women’s military experiences and narratives – Israeli women soldiers’ challenges in the military environment

This article utilizes arts-based methods as a feminist methodology for understanding women’s experiences in military service, according to theories of feminist security studies. It explores how non-combatant women in the army retrospectively narrate stressful situations that happened during their military service. Using arts-based methods, we examine how they derive meaning from their experiences in a masculine, military environment, affected by ongoing conflict. This article analyzes twenty images drawn by Israeli women who served in the army in the previous 2–4 years. The women drew a stressful event from their military service, explained the image, and elaborated on how they coped with the situation. A content analysis of the pictures and the narratives produced three themes: the responsibility for others in life threatening situations, the military as a first professional work experience and the interaction between military and gender hierarchies. In general, women soldiers experienced the army as complex as they encountered their first adult work space in which they learned responsibility and skills of the ‘adults’ world’. However, they were also exposed to a rigid hierarchy and to stressful security situations typical of army contexts. While non-combat women soldiers were allegedly protected from the violence of the army, they are also indirectly exposed to the danger inherent in an army context. This analysis goes beyond the hero narrative, and moves into taboo territories of young women’s narratives and experiences in the military.     

The role of morbidity in the mortality decline of the nineteenth century: evidence from the military population at Gibraltar 1818-1899

The causes of the nineteenth-century decline of mortality, characterized by lower mortality rates and increased longevity, have been the subject of debate among researchers for the past half-century. Because of a paucity of reliable data, little is understood about the role of morbidity, or illness episodes, in the mortality decline. This article introduces the results of a study that looks at the relationship of morbidity in the mortality decline during this portion of the epidemiological transition. The data are comprised of hospital admissions and deaths collected by the British army on the soldiers of the Gibraltar garrison from 1819 to 1899. Morbidity dropped during this period, but at a slower rate than mortality, and all categories of disease did not fall in concert; in some categories, morbidity rose as mortality dropped. Statistical modeling is used to analyze the categories of diseases that were most influential in the decline of mortality in this group. This research shows that there are discernible relationships between morbidity and mortality and that the two parameters are responding to different driving forces. Because changes within the military medical system may have had an effect on the relationship of the morbidity and mortality rates of the soldiers, surviving medical reports are used to reconstruct the medical care of the troops during the study period.     

1935年萨尔全民公决与英国外交

根据《凡尔赛和约》,德国的重要工业基地萨尔划归国联管理15年,期满后将通过全民投票的方式决定萨尔的归属。1933年希特勒在德国上台后萨尔地方治安日趋动荡,公决能否顺利进行一度成了悬案。在如何维护萨尔地区秩序、确保公决顺利实施的问题上,英国起初反对法国准备动用军队的主张,其后又转变态度,同意组建以英意军队为主的国际部队负责萨尔公决期间的秩序。英国在是否出兵维持萨尔秩序这个问题上所做的政策调整是贯彻其对德绥靖政策的需要,其根本目的是希望萨尔问题的顺利解决能够为恢复与德国的裁军谈判创造条件。但是,萨尔的顺利回归助长了德国毁约扩军的野心,最终使英国的盘算落了空。     

The siege of Barbastro 1064–65: a reassessment

In 1064 a large army of foreign troops, especially Normans and Catalans, fought against the Muslims at the fortress city of Barbastro, located in Zaragoza. The siege of Barbastro is, for several reasons, one of the most controversial battles of the early reconquest in Spain. Some of the problems that historians of the crusades and the reconquest have struggled with are: the indulgence letter that Alexander II allegedly granted to the soldiers at Barbastro and whether this makes Barbastro the ‘First’ crusade preceding the one called by Pope Urban II. In addition, the extent of involvement by Pope Alexander and the Cluniacs in propagating the ‘crusade’ has been debated. Equally problematic has been the identification of the leader of the Christian soldiers. Candidates chosen for the enigmatic leader have been Duke William VIII of Aquitaine, William of Montreuil, and the Norman, Robert Crispin. A review of the secondary and primary sources reveals that many long-held conclusions are in need of re-evaluation. A complete reassessment of these and other related problems is the intent of this study.     

RAF Ein Shemer: A Forgotten Case of Jewish and Arab Work in a British Army Camp in Palestine during the Second World War

This article explores lingering recollections of a marginalised sphere of participation by Jewish and Arab citizens of Mandatory Palestine in the Allied war effort. During the war, Palestine became a major staging ground for Allied troops in the Middle East. Some 15,000 Jewish and 35,000 Arab workers worked in administrative, construction, catering, and maintenances roles within the newly built army bases. The story of civilian labour in RAF Ein Shemer reveals previously neglected normative and non-normative patterns of inter-communal relations between British soldiers and Jewish and Arab workers on the social, economic, ideological, and romantic levels within the context of a colonial-era military installation.     

The siege of Barbastro 1064–65: a reassessment

In 1064 a large army of foreign troops, especially Normans and Catalans, fought against the Muslims at the fortress city of Barbastro, located in Zaragoza. The siege of Barbastro is, for several reasons, one of the most controversial battles of the early reconquest in Spain. Some of the problems that historians of the crusades and the reconquest have struggled with are: the indulgence letter that Alexander II allegedly granted to the soldiers at Barbastro and whether this makes Barbastro the ‘First’ crusade preceding the one called by Pope Urban II. In addition, the extent of involvement by Pope Alexander and the Cluniacs in propagating the ‘crusade’ has been debated. Equally problematic has been the identification of the leader of the Christian soldiers. Candidates chosen for the enigmatic leader have been Duke William VIII of Aquitaine, William of Montreuil, and the Norman, Robert Crispin. A review of the secondary and primary sources reveals that many long-held conclusions are in need of re-evaluation. A complete reassessment of these and other related problems is the intent of this study.     

试论安史乱军的民族构成及其民族关系

安史乱军的民族构成比较复杂,既有安禄山那样的混血儿,又有一大批少数民族将士,也有高丽残部及扶余、新罗人,还有许多汉族官和将士,但从多方面加以考察,安禄山、史思明所重用的以及在安史乱军中起主要作用的多为汉族人;唐代的河朔地区既有胡化趋向,也有汉化保持和提高的趋向;安史乱军中的民族关系比较缓和,少数民族和汉族将士在化、心理素质等方面渐趋一致,少数民族和汉族将士在许多方面能够积极配合。这些是唐中央平叛工作进展缓慢以及安史之乱持续8年之久的重要原因之一。     

Nationalism, racism and propaganda in early Weimar Germany: contradictions in the campaign against the "black horror on the Rhine"

During the early 1920s, an average of 25,000 colonial soldiers from North Africa, Senegal and Madagascar formed part of the French army of occupation in the Rhineland. The campaign against these troops, which used the racist epithet ‘black horror on the Rhine’ (schwarze Schmach am Rhein), was one of the most important propaganda efforts of the Weimar period. In black horror propaganda, images of alleged sexual violence against Rhenish women and children by African French soldiers served as metaphors for Germany’s ‘victimization’ through the Versailles Treaty. Because the campaign initially gained broad popular and official support, historians have tended to consider the black horror a successful nationalist movement bridging political divides and strengthening the German nation state. In contrast, this essay points to some of the contradictions within the campaign, which often crystallized around conflicts over the nature of effective propaganda. Extreme racist claims about the Rhineland’s alleged ‘mulattoization’ (Mulattisierung) increasingly alienated Rhinelanders and threatened to exacerbate traditional tensions between the predominantly Catholic Rhineland and the central state at a time when Germany’s western borders seemed rather precarious in the light of recent territorial losses and separatist agitation. There was a growing concern that radical strands within the black horror movement were detrimental to the cohesion of the German nation state and to Germany’s positive image abroad, and this was a major reason behind the campaign’s decline after 1921/22. The conflicts within the campaign also point to some hitherto neglected affinities between the black horror and subsequent Nazi propaganda.     

Cameroonian Schutztruppe Soldiers in Spanish-Ruled Fernando Po during the First World War: A ‘Menace to the Peace’?1

When the German forces were ousted from Cameroon in early 1916, they fled south to neutral Spanish Guinea. Tens of thousands of Cameroonians joined them. Over 20,000 African soldiers and hangers-on were eventually accommodated by the Spanish authorities on the island Fernando Po, off the Cameroonian coast. Despite mounting Allied pressure on Spain to disband and repatriate the troops, they remained on the island until after armistice. They were largely under German control, and received military training during their internment. The delayed repatriation of Cameroonian soldiers, in 1919, had a pronounced effect on their communities at home.     

“Charcoal scribblings of the most rascally character”: conflict,identity, and testimony in American Civil War graffiti

Civil War soldiers’ graffiti survive at more than 60 sites, predominantly in Virginia, including churches, court houses, caves, and houses. Although often terse and fragmentary, they provide an intriguing insight into soldiers’ experiences. This essay offers a tentative framework for analyzing how the graffiti functioned: as informal commemoration of wartime experiences; as a social activity, displaying the loyalties, frustrations, and humor of army life; and as an invasive act, vandalizing southern property.     

Ben Quilty: the fog of war

ABSTRACT

This essay looks at the war paintings of Ben Quilty, who in October 2011 was stationed with Australian troops fighting against the Taliban in Afghanistan as part of Australia’s Official War Art Scheme. Quilty’s portraits, in fact made back at home in his studio after he returned, show soldiers naked, in pain, reliving traumatic episodes from their war experiences. They have been almost universally praised as providing a new and compelling image of war for those who have not experienced it themselves. We examine these portraits closely, arguing that they express a new post-modern ideology of “interpassivity”, allowing the spectator to exhibit signs of concern for soldiers, without actually doing anything to change their situation. In this we suggest that Quilty’s paintings contain a meaning that goes against the intentions of the artist and the understanding of their audience. Contrary to their dominant reading, they express something about our culture that our culture is unable to admit about itself.     

‘Access to Women’: Securing Mormon Whiteness in the US Army's Regulation of Commercial Sex in Chihuahua, 1916

This article argues that Mormon colonists – once refugees who had sought freedom from persecution for their sexual practices – asserted a white middle-class respectability as they cooperated with the US Army and corresponded with officers on the management of the soldiers’ sexual conduct. Their success depended heavily on shared understandings of the race and gender of the people involved. That is, they leveraged prevailing assumptions about Black soldiers’ bodies as aggressive and in need of sex, about white Mormon women's bodies as vulnerable and about Mexican women's bodies as racially in-between and thus suitable for the sexual service-work of enlisted men, pliable and ready to be made ‘accessible’ to soldiers. John Pershing, when asked to explain his decision to build the brothel, justified his choice by saying he had all Black troops at the camp and that nearby Mormon colonists had complained of these Black men meeting women outside for sex. This article explains how, why, for whom and to what end Pershing's explanation worked.     

南京粤军阵亡将士墓九十年祭

民国元年广东北伐军为主体的东线北伐的胜利,对于捍卫南京临时政府、促使清帝退位,起了重要的作用。今年3月,是南京粤军阵亡将士墓建墓90周年。为了存史,本就粤军的兴建、征战、墓冢、勋绩,分别作了考证,藉以缅怀革命先烈。     

野外宿营地区位问题研究

部队野外宿营地区位直接影响着部队执勤效果的好坏,论文将层次分析法和模糊综合评价法的优点进行有机融合,首先通过对部队野外宿营地区位选取的影响因素进行分析,用层次分析法确定各影响因素的权重,用模糊综合评价法确定各方案指标,然后利用模糊层次分析法构建出部队野外宿营地区位选取决策模型,得出各指标因素相对于部队野外宿营地区位选取的重要性排序,并结合部队遂行任务的性质、出动兵力多少、预期持续时间而进行具体、科学、全面分析,进而提出具体位置实施宿营,确保部队勤务的顺利完成,最后用实例验证了模型的有效性。     

日伪时期淮南煤矿的经营管理(1938-1945)

淮南煤矿是国民政府建设委员会创建的官办煤矿.日军侵占淮南煤矿,目的在于掠夺淮南煤炭资源,为其侵华战争服务.为此,日本帝国主义采用高度垄断的方式和掠夺式的开采方法经营管理淮南煤矿,使日伪时期淮南煤矿的经营管理具有垄断性、掠夺性和残酷性特征.