28
"our God, as of old, I undertook my heavy office, knowing well that the Army was the main "support of my country, the main pillar of the Prussian throne." The main pillar is now being severely shaken, and-will the Prussian throne be shaken to the ground with it? Goodness and justice-these, not armies, are the only pillars that can long support a throne.
This idea of the people's duty of blind servitude to autocratic power may be seen in the following:-"May the main pillars of our Army ever be unassailed. These pillars are bravery, sense of honour, and absolute iron blind obedience." This ruthless war has at least destroyed the sense of honour, and blind obedience cannot be avoided when death by machine guns is as sure behind as in front.
$
By comparing the two following statements it will be easy to see the Kaiser's determination to extend his Empire abroad:-"I am well aware that by the public at large, and particularly in foreign countries, I am represented as entertaining a wanton and **ambitions craving for war. May God keep me from such criminal folly," Yet he says:- What my grandfather did for his land Army, that will I do for my Navy. that by its means the German Empire may be in a position to win abroad a place it has never yet altained.” And elsewhere he says: "I will never rest until I have raised my Navy to a position "similar to that occupied by my Army." For what other purpose but for aggression ?
Again he says: "Wherever a German has fallen while faithfully fulfiling his duty to "the Fatherland, and there lies buried, and wherever the German Eagle has thrust his talons "into a country, that country is German and will remain German.' Therefore China might have looked in vain for the rendition of Tsing-Tao at the end of the terms of its lease.
In this war the Kaiser thinks he is conferring a divine boon upon Belgium and whatever country he may conquer by enabling it to share in the blessing of German Kultur, and this bombastic pride has led him to say: "Our German people will be the "granite rock on which Almighty God will complete his building of the civilisation "of the world."
..
His ambitions in the Far East may be judged from the following: Only those powers who have great navies will be listened to with respect when the future of the Pacific "comes to be solved, and if for that reason alone Germany must have a powerful fleet." Again he says in reference to the defeat of Russia by a nation of the Yellow Race": "Now that Russia has shown her weakness in face of the Yellow Peril, it becomes the duty of Germany to face this danger."
The abject servitude of the German soldier, that is of the German people, for they are all soldiers, is seen in this declaration :-The soldier must not have a will of his own.... "they must all have only one will, and that will mine." Again he says: "There is only one "master in the country: I am he, and I will not tolerate another." That is, the people must have no will of its own. And again: There is only one law-my law; the law which "I myself lay down." What, then, is the use of a Parliament?
29
He will not have it that the best word is "li," reason, for he says: "The best word is "a blow the Army and Navy are the pillars of the State."
His warlike intentions may be surmised from the following:-"Hurrah for the dry powder and the sharp sword, for the end we have in sight and the forces we are bending towards it, for the German Army and the General Staff!" It has long been the custom of German officers to drink to The Day--the day of War, and here we have the Kaiser's clear alliance with them in "the end they had in sight." Again, "We are now in the position "to raise the visor of our helmet, and to look with the fearless eyes of a courageous German "at anyone who may block the path we have mapped out for ourselves."
What need of more? The Kaiser stands before the reader portrayed with his own pen. Let the reader observe the portrait, then let him cast his eyes over Europe and see the myriads of bodies of young men lying unburied, and let bim smell the odour of the burning flesh of the myriads whose bodies have been piled in heaps and burnt, because the Kaiser's army was unable to dig graves for them. Can man forgive him? Can Heaven forgive him?
V.
Germany and Belgium.
Belgium is a small country containing 7 million inhabitants, bounded by Germany on the east, France on the south, Holland on the north, and the sea on the west. After the Napoleonic period, Holland and Belgium were formed into one kingdom, but in 1831 Belgium sought, and was granted, separate autonomy under its own ruler, Since that time it has become one of the most prosperous little countries in Europe. Its prosperity is due to the industry of its people both as farmers and manufacturers.
Belgium suffered greatly in the wars of a hundred years ago. French and Germans fought their battles there. It was at Waterloo in Belgium that the British General Wellington finally broke the power of Napoleon. In order to save Belgium from wars of this character, and also to maintain it as a neutral State between France and Germany, a treaty was entered into in 1839, in which Prussia, France, Britain, Austria and Russia, contracted perpetually to preserve the neutrality of Belgium. It was agreed that if any Power invaded Belgium the others would unite to resist.
When Germany and France went to war in 1870, Britain demanded from each of them whether they would guarantee to observe the sanctity of their treaty, and both readily consented to do so. The time came when the French troops were in great danger from the Germans. They were hard pressed against the Belgian frontier. It would have been easy and natural for them to save themselves by withdrawing to Belgian soil; but such was the honour of France, and so high her regard for her treaty obligation, that rather than break that treaty her troops remained fighting within her own territory, though she was beaten thereby. The temptation to break her word was as unequalled as was the loyalty she showed to her honour.
487
: