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Alliance was formed in 1883 between Germany, Austria, and Italy, that Alliance was cemented for defensive purposes only. The three countries pledged themselves to support each other in case any one of them was attacked, but not in case any of the three was the aggressor. This fact it is very important to remember. Italy has been in the counsels of Germany and Austria for thirty years. She knew what was the mind and purpose of this war, and in Italy's attitude towards it the crime of Germany stands clearly forth. For when Germany and Austria cailed on Italy to engage with them in the war Italy declined to do so because she well knew, and openly declared, that the war was not a war of defence, but of aggression, and moreover that the aggressor was Germany. What clearer proof of the guilt of Germany can be required than this attitude taken by Italy. No nation on earth desired to attack Germany, Italy knew this. Germany alone is the real criminal. Italy knew this also, and that Germany's sabre-rattling had rattled her brain.
In concluding this Introduction let it again be emphasised that good men, both East and West, find no gratification in the moral declension of Germany. They bave no quarrel with individual Germans, but only with the barbarism of Prussian militarism. What they desire to see is the menace of armaments destroyed, and the right reason of the German people restored, so that Germany and the world may realise not that "Might is Right," but rather that Right is true Might. That the War will end in victory for Right over Might is as certain as that there is a Moral Ruler of the Universe. The pity is that so many must suffer or die to prove so manifest a law to Germany. The war would never have been begun had Germany been willing to submit the cause in dispute to the arbitrament of Reason. It could be stopped to-morrow if Germany would cease to rely upon the arbitrament of the sword, which she has for so long a period been sharpening against others, but which Heaven is now turning back upon herself. Never has any nation worked so zealously for its own ruin. Alas! Alas!
II. Germany and Prussia.
Why has Germany entered upon this War? The real reason is that she has devoted herself to the cult of Mars for so long, has always in the past been so easily successful, has been so saturated with the Spirit of War, and so assured of rapid success, that she wanted War in order to exhibit the value of her War-machine, overcome or strike fear into the other nations, and aggrandise her power and possessions.
In order to understand the spirit that is behind this War, let us enquire briefly into the history of modern Germany. German history, on its political side, is in essence the history of the Kingdom of Prussia, for Prussia is the largest of the German States, and its King is Emperor over them all. It is not uncommon to discriminate And it is Germany from Prussia, meaning by Germany the States outside Prussia.
It is not important to note that the German spirit is very different from that of Prussia,
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the German spirit which has given rise to this war, but the harsh Prussian spirit. Germany is undoubtedly a Land of Culture, which has produced men famous in letters and science. Not so Prussia, which has added little to the wisdom or culture of the world. Even its most famous philosopher Kant, though he lived in Prussia, was not a Prussian, but a German. Germany, as distinguished from Prussia, contains a kindly, generous people, with whom other nations have found it easy to be on terms of friendship. Prussia, on the contrary, contains a hard, over-bearing people, whose treatment of her Eastern Slav race has been intolerant to a degree. Let us briefly review the history of Germany and especially of Prussia.
A bundred years or so ago, when Napoleon dominated Europe, he found Germany to consist of three hundred States under the hegemony of Austria; some of these States were only a town and its environs, others were large States. The position was somewhat analogous to that which obtained in China at the end of the Chou period, when Chin-Shih-Huang destroyed the baronial system and welded China into one Empire.
Napoleon was not able to unify the whole of Europe or even of Germany, but he reduced the numerous states of Germany to thirty-eight. At this number they remained after his defeat, with Austria as head, as she had been for hundreds of years.
Prussia was the most northern of the States, but for a hundred years had been steadily growing in power, until after the collapse of Napoleon it became rival to the power of Austria. Prussia gradually drew under its influence a number of its neighbouring States. It strengthened this influence under Bismarck, who was a statesman of great ability and power, but unscrupulous in character.
In 1864 Bismarck found a pretext for war against the small kingdom of Denmark, and, with a secret plan against Austria, induced the latter to join Germany. Success against so smal! a nation as Denmark was a foregone conclusion, and Denmark was robbed of the two important provinces of Schleswig and Holstein, Germany taking Schleswig and Austria Holstein. Then the real object of Bismarck's design was disclosed, which was to find a quarrel with Austria and divide the Austro-German Empire. So, two years later, in 1866, Prussia again contrived a pretext for war, this time using the province of Holstein as the reason for warring against Austria. In seven weeks Austria was beaten, Prussia annexed Holstein, and induced several of the other states formerly linked to Austria to enter into an alliance with Prussia, separating themselves from Austria. But this was not the end of Bismarck's design, for the Alliance was still a very loose one, which might easily be broken. Each German State was independent under its own Ruler, and there was no Emperor. The only Emperor any of them had known was the Emperor of Austria, from whom they had separated. Nor did they want another Emperor. But this did not suit Bismarck's policy. The States must be united under an Emperor, so that there should be no going back to Austria. Thus was the old German Empire to be divided into two. Bismarck has been called the " Empire-Builder." He may rather be known as the Empire Divider, for he split the German race into two parts.
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