these measures do not mean War, and that we shall continue to negotiate for the welfare of our two countries and the universal peace which is so dear to our hearts................
"
That was conciliatory, was it not? Apparently Berlin wishes however to make out that this and the other telegrams of the Czar were not sincere. The title of the White-Book clearly implies this. Russia's Ruler is stated to have betrayed Germany's confidence.
Of course, Germany's peremptory demand for Russia to stop:
"every measure of War against Germany and Austria-Hungary within 12 hours and to notify her definitely to this effect"
could have only one possible effect, namely War- which Germany declared upon Russia on the following day (in the afternoon of the 1st of August). I ask again, as in the case of the Austrian ultimatum to Servia, did and could Germany expect of Russia to stop every measure of War against Austria?
The Imperial Chancellor is reported to have stated in the Reichstag on the 4th of August:
"It is true that the French Government has declared at Brussels that France is willing to respect the neutrality of Belgium, so long as her opponent respects it. We knew, however, that France stood ready for the invasion.
could wait, but we could not."
France
Was it perhaps Germany's impatience, coupled with the knowledge of a ready and hitherto invincible Army, which caused the war? That would be an
alternative.
If so, and right as it was that Germany should have as large an Army and Navy as she cared to, in order to prevent possible aggression by her neighbours, then those people who held that the temptation to use these forces for other than preventive purposes might one day prove too strong for Germany, have after all
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been right. Germany's war-machine was indeed so perfect and powerful that the slightest jar was apt to start it!
X... writes that he does not know what Prussian militarism is. In my letters, I differentiated between the individual peaceful German and the Prussian militarist. If X. has read Prince von Bülow's "Impe- rial Germany," he will know that this Prince makes almost the same distinction. He describes Prussia as: "this rude and thoroughly prosaic State" which "is still (in 1913) in all essentials a State of soldiers and officials"; whilst, according to this German high authority: "German intellectual life is the work of the Southern and Western German domains." You see, I am in good company.
These are at any rate the honest conclusions-- come to after a study of Germany's own White-Book- of one who would be only too glad to see the German people re-installed in the respect of all those who, like him, have admired their great attainments when, in patient pursuit and study, bent upon developing the industries and arts of peace; of one, who continues in his regret that the German Emperor, with all his manifold virtues and proved desire for peace, has after all been unable to escape the traditions of the Prussian Kings. Men cannot escape their fate! and, of all the tragedies of this lamentable War, this is perhaps one of the greatest.
I
agree with X... that some of our papers have been printing a good deal of nonsense. However, printers' ink is cheap and one only reflects how some people like to be fed with sensational news. This does not necessarily mean that they believe what they read, X... must not overlook however the German papers (and the pro-German ones in America), parti- cularly their preaching of Hatred; most inconsistent for a people who are so confident of their superior Kultur, and whose Ruler invokes (and claims) the
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