A group stereoview taken during the Spanish-American War of military attachés at the United States military headquarters at Santiago de Cuba. Standing left to right are the representatives of Sweden (Captain Arvid Mauritz Wester), the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Lieutenant J. Roedler), Japan (Major Shiba Gorō), and Great Britain (Captain Arthur Hamilton Lee, R.A.). Seated is that of Russia (Colonel Nikolai Yermoloff) and the white uniformed German (Count Gustav Adolf Graf von Götzen). Several members of the delegation are missing from the photo including the French attaché Major Clément de Grandpré and the Ottoman representative Enver Pasha.
Except for Sweden, all of the represented nations would shortly be involved in wars either allied with or against each other. Two years later Germany, Russia, Japan, Austria, and Great Britain would fight as allies in China's Boxer Rebellion of 1900. In 1905 Japan and Russia would confront each other in the Russo-Japanese War. In 1914 Britain, Russia and Japan would face Germany and Austria in World War One.
Stereo View
Underwood & Underwood - Photographer
New York, London, Toronto - Canada, Ottawa _ Kansas
c. 1898
Left: Captain Arthur Hamilton Lee (1868-1947) of the Royal Artillery. Graduate of Sandhurst, his first overseas posting was as adjutant of the Royal Hong Kong Regiment. Later assigned to several political positions, he never saw active duty in the field. For his service as attaché to American forces in Cuba, he was made an honorary member of Teddy Roosevelt's "Rough Riders" and granted the U.S. Spanish-American War Campaign Medal. Elected to Parliament in 1900, he was to serve on Kitchener's staff early in WWI. During the war, we were appointed to the Order of the Bath and Order of the British Empire. Raised to the Peerage in 1918. He served as 1st Lord of the Admiralty (1921-2). He would later leave his country estate Chequers in trust to the British people to serve as a country retreat for successive British Prime Ministers.
Right: Major Shiba Gorō (1860-1945). An artillery officer, he served during the First Sino-Japanese War (1895). He gained international notoriety as commander of the Japanese detachment during the siege of the foreign legations at Peking (Beijing) in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion. He would see further action during the Russo-Japanese War (1905). He served as a military attaché to Britain and commanded the Army of Taiwan before his retirement. He took his own life many years later in the wake of Japan's defeat in World War II.
Left: Lieutenant J. Roedler. An officer in the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Little biographical information has been found regarding him.
Right: Count Gustav Adolf Graf von Götzen (1866-1910) was born in Prussia and commissioned in 1887. An explorer of some repute, he led an expedition that traversed Africa from Tanganyikan coast to the Congo's Atlantic shore (1893-95). He was appointed the first governor of German East Africa where he suppressed the Maji Maji Rebellion with great severity. His health was broken by the African climate he retired in 1906. He remained an active champion of German colonialism but died in Hamburg in 1910.
Left: Captain Arvid Mauritz Wester (1856-1915). In 1885 Wester was one of ten Swedish officers hired by Leopold II to help establish the Belgian colony in the Congo. He was apparently quite effective in this task. After his experiences in Cuba, he authored the book Santiago Fä Lttåget 1898 (Santiago Campaign of 1898).
Right: Colonel Nikolai SergeyevichYermoloff (1853-1924). Educated in St. Petersberg, he was serving as Imperial Russian attaché London when he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (1915). The same London Gazette entry shows he had previously been invested a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order. He apparently remained in exile in Britain after the Russian Revolution and died in London in 1924.
