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 AND ITS MORAL 
 
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THE GREAT CRIME 
 
 AND ITS MORAL 
 
THE GREAT CRIME 
 
 AND ITS MORAL 
 
 BY 
 
 J. SELDEN WILLMORE 
 
 HODDER AND STOUGHTON 
 
 LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO 
 MCMXVII 
 

 hltffl^ 
 
"Kpe«r<r<ov yap eirotveTos irdA.e;u.os etpijvijs )(aipiZ,ov(nq% OeoC." 
 
 (For better is a praiseworthy war than a peace which 
 separates from God.) 
 
 Gregory of Nazianzus. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The principal features of the Great Crime have been 
 already separately recorded and developed in books and 
 pamphlets without number and in many languages. In 
 the following pages the various counts of the indictment 
 are set out in the form of a short but connected narrative, 
 and, that the story may carry the greater conviction, the 
 details which compose it have been described, wherever 
 possible, in the words of neutrals and of Germans them- 
 selves, the references to whose writings will serve as a guide 
 to readers desiring a closer insight into any particular 
 incident or aspect of the Crime. 
 
 We have indeed been at great pains throughout to present 
 the facts in as convincing a form as possible ; but in some 
 cases we have not been able to describe them in all their 
 horror because, had we done so, we should have produced 
 a work unfit for general reading and so defeated the object 
 we have in view, which is to give an opportunity to every 
 man, woman and child who has any understanding what- 
 ever to realise, once for all, the character of the people 
 who have made war on the world, the motives by which 
 they were actuated in so doing, the appalling nature of the 
 catastrophe which would follow upon the success of their 
 scheme — of their plot against humanity — and the danger 
 of making peace with them before their power for evil is 
 broken. 
 
 For, incredible as it must seem to most of us, there are 
 still people who allow themselves to be persuaded that 
 Germany was provoked, that she invaded Belgium in 
 self-defence, that she had no lust for world-domination, 
 that the atrocities have been exaggerated, that it will be 
 wise to make peace with her at the earliest moment. 
 
 vii 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 It will be said that, in speaking of the aggressors as 
 the people of Germany, we ascribe the guilt to the whole 
 nation. We shall perhaps only know, when their arms are 
 defeated, how far the civil population was in sympathy with 
 its rulers — or how far it would have been out of sympathy 
 with them had the true circumstances of the aggression 
 not been hidden from it. 
 
 Meanwhile, it is clear that the leading men in the country, 
 the so-called " Intellectuals," have, as a body, adopted 
 the principle that Might is Right and that it is Germany's 
 mission to impose her will — or rather, the will of one man, 
 her Emperor and War-lord — on the whole of this planet. 
 
 They have mistaken the times. Engrossed in the con- 
 templation of their war-machinery, they have failed to see 
 that, in the present stage of the evolution of mankind, a new 
 order prevails — ^that, in fact. Right is Might. The moral 
 forces, the feeling ever present, though at times dormant, 
 in the human mind, that good must prevail over evil and 
 justice over tjTanny, that the weak have equal rights 
 with the strong, are more potent to-day than all the hosts 
 of Germany, and they will be her undoing. 
 
 The world of to-day does not want the hideous thing 
 called German Kultur. There is no place for it in the 
 civilisation of the twentieth centtiry, and the nations of 
 the earth are determined that it shall not be imposed 
 upon them. 
 
 It is this determination which has now brought the 
 great peace-loving people of America " to accept " — ^in 
 President Wilson's words — " the gage of battle with this 
 natural foe of liberty," and which animates the ten million 
 of her youth who have answered the call to arms. 
 
 It is important to observe that the characteristics ^ of the 
 German people which have been brought so prominently 
 to our notice of late have been associated -with them 
 throughout their history — in particular, their treachery 
 
 1 Including even some of their tactics in war. Dion Cassius, 
 describing them in battle, says: "Many of them, owing to 
 the closeness of their formation, remained standing even after 
 they were killed." — Roman History, xxxviii. 49. 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 and disregard of treaties. The Roman and Greek his- 
 torians never tire of alluding to this trait. But it is 
 not only in the barbarian Germans of the Roman period 
 that it is so marked. It appears again and again in each 
 succeeding period. This nation has ever made it a principle 
 only to keep a treaty when it is to its own convenience to 
 do so, a circumstance which cannot be too carefully noted 
 by those who will have to decide by what means it will be 
 possible to ensure a lasting peace. I therefore make no 
 apology for having dealt with it at length in the body of 
 the work. 
 
 The Roman general Germanicus believed that the war 
 with Germany could only end with the extermination of 
 the race. He must have realised the gravity of the 
 German danger of his time, which in the beginning took 
 the form of predatory incursions into the Gallic provinces, 
 and in the end had much to do with the downfall of the 
 Empire. There can be no thought of exterminating the 
 race at the present day, but we shall do well to take 
 warning from the conunent of the historian Floras : 
 " Breve id gaudium, quippe Germani victi magis quam 
 domiti erant" (It was a short-lived joy, for the Germans 
 had been conquered rather than subdued), or Tacitus' lament 
 that they were " triumphati magis quam victi." " It is 
 not impossible," wrote Merivale {History of the Romans 
 under the Empire, vol. v. p. 51), " that the result of one or 
 two more campaigns at this critical moment might have 
 delayed for a hundred years the eventual overthrow of the 
 
 Roman Empire." 
 
 J. Selden Willmoke. 
 
 Jvme, 1917. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAsa 
 L THE CONCEPTION OF THE PLOT .... 1 
 
 n. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT .... 34 
 
 m THE PRETEXT 52 
 
 rv. THE RESPONSIBILITY: SOME GERMAN AND 
 
 NEUTRAL VERDICTS U7 
 
 V. KULTDR AND MORALITY 130 
 
 VI HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR: OFFICIAL RE- 
 PORTS ON ATROCITIES COMMITTED BY THE 
 GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN TROOPS IN EUROPE 144 
 
 Vn. THE TESTIMONY OF GERMAN SOLDIERS AND 
 
 OTHER EVIDENCE 180 
 
 VOL A GERMAN DEFENCE 200 
 
 TX MURDER BY LAND AND SEA .... 204 
 
 X ATROCITIES IN AFRICA 211 
 
 XL THE MURDER OF A NATION: THE EXPLOITS 
 
 OF GERMANTS ALLIES 213 
 
 xi 
 
xii CONTENTS 
 
 FAGB 
 
 XII. THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS . . .226 
 
 XIII. METHODS OF PERSUASION 232 
 
 XIV. THE WORLD UNDER GERMAN RULE ; THE FATE 
 
 OF ISLAM 239 
 
 XV. THE GERMANS AS THEY SEE THEMSELVES AND 
 
 AS OTHERS HAVE SEEN THEM . . .257 
 
 XVI. THE DANGERS OF A PREMATURE PEACE. . 284 
 
 \ 
 
THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS 
 MORAL 
 
 THE CONCEPTION OF THE PLOT 
 
 Two years ago, a writer in a French newspaper likened 
 the conduct of the Prussian troops of the time of Frederick 
 the Great to that of the armies of WiUiam II, concluding 
 in the following words : — 
 
 " Their insolent bearing towards the French a hundred 
 years ago, exhibited the same mentaliti ddlirante of which 
 the German soldiers are giving proof to-day. But directly 
 the disillusionment came at Jena, their valour deserted 
 them and they quickly fell to pieces. And history will 
 repeat itself. The Germans are indomitable as long as 
 they are numerically superior to their enemies, but they 
 are incapable of supporting a reverse.^ When they have 
 sustained a serious defeat and have been brought face to 
 face with the real situation, their bluster will evaporate 
 as it did in 1806, and with it their energy and power of 
 resistance. An immediate and total collapse will follow, 
 and their old god himself will sound a parley." ^ 
 
 Already there are signs that their confidence is failing 
 them, as our advance proceeds in the west, and there 
 
 ^ " As resourceless in reverse as they are impetuous in success," 
 says Tacitus of their ancestors (Annals, i. 68). " Craven in 
 defeat they respect no law, human or divine, in victory" 
 {ibid., ii. 14). 
 
 * Leur vieux dieu lui-mSme battra la chamade. See below, 
 p. 248 seq. 
 
 B 
 
2 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 arises before their vision the spectre of a mighty force, 
 grown of " disorganised battaUons " and " contemptible 
 Httle armies," marching to crush them in its avenging 
 grasp. A leading article in the Munchner Neueste Nach- 
 richten recognised the danger so long ago as October 1916. 
 " On all sides," it wrote, " the ring of our enemies is 
 closing more and more firmly. It is futile to shut our eyes 
 to this. Against us is ranged not only colossal material 
 but immense intellectual and moral force." 
 
 The collapse may be postponed, or it may be imminent ; 
 it may be unexpectedly hastened by the economic con- 
 ditions now prevailing in Germany and Austria; in any 
 case it is inevitable. And when it comes, will this nation 
 be ready to do its duty, or shall we be as little prepared 
 for the end of the war as we were for its outbreak ? There 
 is a danger that, by that day, some of us will have suffered 
 the memory of the circumstances to which this war owes 
 its origin, and the appalling barbarity with which our 
 enemies have conducted it, to become dimmed, and will be 
 ready to accept a " halting peace," the very peace which 
 Germany is already striving by every means to obtain, 
 namely, conditions which would enable her to recuperate 
 her forces, and prepare for a still more powerful attack 
 upon the rights of man and the freedom of the nations, 
 and an attack which we may well fear would be successful. 
 " After our armies have won the war, our statesmen will 
 have to win the peace, and their task will indeed be difficult 
 imless public opinion is alert, organised, and eager to 
 support them in a clearly-defined and enlightened policy." ^ 
 The present, therefore, is a fitting moment to review the 
 events which brought about the unparalleled carnage of 
 the past years and the r61e which the Central Powers, 
 and in particular, Germany, have played therein from the 
 beginning to the present date. 
 
 The war arose, in one word, out of Prussian megalomania, 
 or the mad ambition of a section of the Teutonic race to 
 see the peoples of the earth bow down to Germany. This 
 
 ^ The New Europe, October 19, 1916. 
 
THE CONCEPTION OF THE PLOT 3 
 
 ambition had been growing for forty years, unheeded by 
 the public of this country, in spite of the warnings uttered 
 from time to time by men who were sufficiently clear- 
 sighted to recognise its true significance. Of one of these, 
 the late Lord Salisbury, Professor Cramb wrote in 1913 — 
 
 " In this very matter of Germany he foresaw, point by 
 point, her development; at the beginning of his career 
 in one brilliant article after another in our quarterlies, 
 Lord Salisbury, then Lord Robert Cecil, marked out the 
 exact lines which that development took from the Kiel 
 Canal right on to those batteries and ' Dreadnoughts ' 
 concentrated there in the North Sea, which are already, 
 whether we regard them as such or not, the first conflict 
 between England and Germany. ... If ever a great 
 warning was given to a people it was contained in those 
 words, in his reference to dying empires and dying nations, 
 to the passing of kingdoms, the vicissitudes of states and 
 the mutation in things; and, above all, in his appeal to 
 Englishmen to arm and prepare themselves for war, for 
 a war which might be on them at any hour and a war for 
 their very existence as a nation and as a race. . . . 
 
 " And to the words of the last great Englishman in 
 politics there have been added the message and solemn 
 warning of perhaps the greatest living leader of men in 
 the field of battle . . . Lord Roberts." ^ 
 
 For twenty years, as he reminds us, in his Inner History 
 oj German Diplomacy, Dr. Dillon had been stating his 
 conviction " that Germany's energies, military, naval, 
 financial, commercial, diplomatic, and journalistic were 
 fixed upon exhaustive preparations for the tremendous 
 struggle to establish Teutonic supremacy in Europe; 
 that that struggle was unavoidable; that the German 
 war machine was in all respects worthy of the money, 
 time and energies that had been spent in creating and 
 perfecting it, and that no European army could compete 
 with it." ^ In the Contemporary Review of October, 1911, 
 
 1 Germany and England, pp. 37, 38, 39. 
 * A Scrap of Paper : The Inner History of German Diplomacy, 
 pp. 50, 51. 
 
4 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 he wrote : " The plain truth is in this country we fail 
 utterly to fathom the German psyche, just as in the 
 Fatherland they misunderstand the working of the national 
 British soul. What is meanwhile clear enough is that the 
 peace of Europe is at the mercy of well-armed, restless, 
 ill-balanced Germany ; that no section of that gifted and 
 enterprising people differs sufficiently in its mode of 
 thought and feeling from any other section, to warrant 
 our regarding it as a check upon rash impulses or pre- 
 datory designs; that treaties possess no binding or de- 
 terrent force, and that friendly conduct on the part of 
 Great Britain or France has no propitiatory effect. Brute 
 force is the only thing that counts." 
 
 The Hungarian, Dr. Emil Reich, warned us in 1907 : 
 " Infinitely more consonant," he said, " with the dignity, 
 past and future prestige of Great Britain would it be if all 
 men of leading spirit, all preachers, teachers, statesmen, 
 journalists, or thinkers of this country joined in bringing 
 before the nation the necessity of preparations which, if 
 properly made, would indeed retard, or eventually frustrate, 
 any attempt on the part of Germany. To talk of universal 
 military service, even if it is done by Lord Roberts, is 
 hateful to the majority of British citizens. Where the 
 victor in so many battles can carry no conviction, we 
 should be only foolishly presumptuous in trying to con- 
 vince our readers. The facts of the near future will 
 convince them." ^ 
 
 " World domination," wrote the Sociahst leader, Mr. 
 Robert Blatchford in 1909, " is the dream of Germany 
 to-day, as it was in bygone days the dream of Babylon, 
 of Persia, of Greece, and of Rome ; the policy of Germany 
 is the Bismarckian pohcy of deliberate and ruthless con- 
 duct, with world domination for its goal. ... All Europe 
 is to be Teutonised; we are all to be drilled and schooled 
 and uniformed and taxed by Prussian officials . . . that 
 is the Pan-Germanic dream. That is the ambition which 
 is driving Germany into a war of aggression against this 
 
 ^ Germany's Swelled Head, pp. 142-3. 
 
THE CONCEPTION OF THE PLOT 5 
 
 country. But the British people do not believe it. . . . 
 The danger is very great, and is very near. It is greater 
 and nearer than it was when I began to give warning of it 
 more than five years ago. . . . Serious warnings have been 
 uttered publicly by Mr. Asquith and by Mr. Balfour, by 
 Sir Edward Grey, by Lord Lansdowne, by Lord Cromer, 
 by Lord Roberts. These warnings have not been sufficiently 
 gross or sufficiently explicit to be understanded of the 
 people. . . . Let us look at the evidence . . ." ^ 
 
 And in what did this evidence consist ? What authorised 
 these men to issue their anxious warnings? In the first 
 place they had perceived unmistakable signs — signs which 
 should have escaped no one who did not wilfully close 
 his eyes to them — ^that Germany was bent on bringing 
 about a general war in Europe from which she hoped to 
 emerge as the mistress of the world ; that she was preparing 
 to work out her destiny, as Bismarck said it must be 
 worked out, by blood and iron. Since 1871 she had been 
 consolidating with an ever-increasing energy the role she 
 then assumed of the predominant military Power in 
 Europe. By a series of Army Acts her peace establish- 
 ment was gradually raised from 427,000 to over 800,000 
 men. In the five years between 1904 and 1909 her annual 
 war budget was increased from twenty-seven million pounds 
 to forty-one millions until finally it reached the figure of 
 sixty millions. In 1913 she passed an Act by which the 
 war strength was raised to 5,400,000. This force was 
 superior to the other armies of Europe in the organisation, 
 training and equipment of all its units, and measures 
 were provided by the Act to render it capable of immediate 
 mobilisation. 
 
 But the creation of this mighty army was a direct 
 menace to the peace of Continental Europe only. The 
 menace to Great Britain and Greater Britain, came with the 
 German Navy Bill of 1898, and the Kaiser's telegram to 
 his brother, in connection with the scheme it foreshadowed. 
 " I will never rest," he said, " until I have raised the 
 
 1 Germany and England, p. 47. 
 
6 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 German navy to the position which the German army holds 
 to-day," which was equivalent to saying : " I will build 
 a fleet which shall be as greatly superior to that of Great 
 Britain as my army is to that of France or Russia." 
 
 At the same time, a semi-official Navy League was 
 formed which made no secret of its aim to obtain for 
 Germany the supremacy of the seas. It had a million 
 members, and a revenue of £50,000. The numerous 
 publications of this League displayed a violent hostility 
 to England, and the famous toast of its members " zum 
 Tage " {to the Day) gave expression to their aspirations.^ 
 Other naval Acts were passed. That of 1900 doubled the 
 programme of the preceding one ; and a reduction of the 
 naval budget in England was invariably followed by 
 renewed activity in Germany. An attempt on our part to 
 economise between 1906 and 1908 resulted in the passing 
 by the Reichstag of a naval Bill which, unless we had 
 quickly awakened to the situation, would have secured to 
 Germany a preponderance in capital ships over the British 
 fleet. It provided for a new fleet of battleships of the 
 Dreadnought and Super-Dreadnought class. In 1912 a fur- 
 ther Bill again increased the naval expenditure, and placed 
 four-fifths of the fleet in such a position that it could be 
 immediately mobilised at a short distance from our coasts. 
 How could the presence of this new and powerful fleet 
 in the North Sea fail to constitute a permanent menace 
 to the British Empire, seeing that that Empire must 
 inevitably cease to exist the moment it loses its supremacy 
 on the sea? In 1906 the British Government proposed 
 at the Hague Conference that there should be a mutual 
 restriction of naval armaments, and a similar proposal 
 was made by the Admiralty in 1913 ; but in each case the 
 
 ^ " In the Pangerman Union {Alldeutscher Verband), in 
 the Navy League XFlottenverein), the Defence League {Wehr- 
 verein), and similar associations Germany already possessed 
 gigantic organisations, extending over the whole Empire, which 
 were preparing her, in accordance with a definite programme, 
 for the ' inevitable ' war for world-supremacy." — ^Hermann 
 Fernau, Gerade well ich Deutscher bin! (authorised English 
 Translation p. 44). 
 
THE CONCEPTION OF THE PLOT 7 
 
 scheme met with a cold reception at the hands of Germany. 
 It did not suit her purpose ; and moreover German states- 
 men looked upon such proposals as a sign of England's 
 decadence. " Now that she feels her strength leaving 
 her," they argued, " now that her day is over, she talks to 
 others of disarmament." ^ 
 
 And whilst these preparations were going on, and 
 previously to them, Germany's agents were busy in Eng- 
 land, France and in other countries, furnishing their 
 Government with information which would sooner or later 
 be turned to account. A marvellous system of espionage 
 was organised throughout the world and maintained by a 
 secret service fund of milliards of marks. 
 
 It would not be surprising to learn that every German 
 abroad was expected to supply his Government with any 
 " useful " information which he might be able to obtain, 
 and that every resident of that nationality in this country 
 held instructions as to the duties to be performed by him 
 in the event of a sudden descent of German armies on our 
 coasts. I think it was in 1907 that a letter was published 
 in a London newspaper in which the writer recounted how 
 he had sought to verify this view which he had long held. 
 He seated himself one day at a table in the dining-room 
 of a hotel, where a German was breakfasting alone, and 
 engaged in conversation with him. Speaking German 
 perfectly, he was able to make his companion believe that 
 he was one of his countrymen. Suddenly he said to him : 
 " Wo mobilisieren Sie ? " (Where do you mobilise ? ), and 
 the answer came : " Zu Portsmouth " {At Portsmouth). 
 
 Some interesting details concerning the German spy 
 system in France are given by M. Paul Lanoir, in a work 
 published in 1908.^ " Why is it," he says, " that such 
 works as the following, viz. Stieber's Memoirs, Doctor Burch's 
 Notebook, German Amours, Zerniki's Recollections, Con- 
 versations oj Eckermann and Goethe, Chevalier Wolheim's 
 
 ^ Germany and England, p. 31. 
 
 2 L'Espionnage Allemand en France: Son Organisation, Ses 
 Dangers, Les Rem^des Necessaires. English translation by an 
 English officer (Mills & Boon, Ltd.) 
 
8 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 Indiscretions, The Active Service Police in the Wars of 1866 
 and 1870, and other most instructive publications of a 
 specialised character, are so little known, not only to the 
 general public in France, but, what is more distressing still, 
 to those Frenchmen who are specially charged with the 
 duty of frustrating, as far as is possible, the destructive 
 activities of the innumerable agents of the German Secret 
 Police? These latter at the present moment comprise 
 not less than 30,000 individuals of both sexes, Germans, 
 Swiss, and Belgians, distributed throughout our territory, 
 in our garrison towns, at railway junctions, and in localities 
 in the neighbourhood of strategic points and places of 
 concentration of troops. . . . 
 
 " From such reading will be drawn the conclusion that 
 since the time of Frederick, who used often to say, ' I 
 have one cook and a hundred spies,' spying in its multi- 
 farious forms has always been considered on the other side 
 of the Rhine as one of the most essential parts of the 
 machinery for the defence of the monarchy and the 
 protection of established institutions. 
 
 " The recruiting of the executive personnel is, moreover, 
 a very easy matter in Germany, where the profession of a 
 spy is adopted as readily as is that of a Government official 
 or a prison guard in Corsica." ^ 
 
 M. Lanoir describes the discovery in 1884 of a scheme 
 devised by Stieber, the famous director of the spy system 
 in Germany, and approved by Bismarck, by which it would 
 be possible for the whole of the French rolling-stock to be 
 rendered, at a given moment, useless for the mobilisation 
 of troops by the instrumentality of a number of German 
 agents who, with that object in view, had obtained employ- 
 ment in the State railways. " The object aimed at in 
 Stieber's plan of 1880, modifying that of 1876, was to give 
 his master the assurance that, at the instant that it should 
 please King William, in his Imperial Cabinet, to press the 
 electric button, giving the signal for mobilisation, he, 
 Stieber, would press the button for the destruction of our 
 
 1 pp. 1-2. 
 
THE CONCEPTION OF THE PLOT 9 
 
 railways by his spies distributed in the capacity of work- 
 men and employees in every portion of the national 
 railway system of France." ^ 
 
 As her preparations grew more complete, attempts were 
 made by Germany, or personally by the Emperor, to 
 assert her authority in Europe, and test the power of other 
 nations to resist her ambitions. In the year 1898, the 
 Emperor made a journey to Damascus and, in a speech 
 which he delivered there, declared that he took all Mussul- 
 mans under his protection, including, we presume, the sixty- 
 seven millions which owe allegiance to England, not to 
 speak of the Mohammedan subjects of France, Russia, 
 Holland and other countries. 
 
 On the 21st March, 1905, he landed at Tangier and 
 delivered another public speech, in which he expressed his 
 determination to uphold the interests of Germany in 
 Morocco. This incident took place the year following the 
 arrangement to which England and France had come 
 concerning their respective interests in Egypt and Morocco, 
 and was intended to test the strength of the Anglo-French 
 Alliance. It ended in the Algegiras Conference. Later 
 on, in 1911, another thrust was made at this Alliance, 
 when a German gunboat was suddenly sent to the Fort of 
 Agadir.^ Energetic action on the part of England on 
 that occasion gave Germany to understand that she was 
 not yet sufficiently powerful to fulfil her " destiny," though 
 " no one doubted then, or doubts to-day, that England 
 stood in that year on the brink of a war, which she had done 
 nothing to provoke. The situation was saved in 1911 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 47. Throughout this book the italics in the 
 quotations are those of the authors cited. 
 
 2 M. H. von Gerlach, writing in 1913, takes his country 
 to task for the provocation which it was giving to France in 
 particular by the despatch of the Panther to Agadir and the 
 sudden increase of the army which was the cause of the French 
 extending the military service from two years to three. 
 " Can one be astonished," he says, " if the pubHc in France is 
 becoming more and more embittered against us?" — (Un- 
 vernunft uben und drUben, in Die Welt am Montag of 25th 
 April, 1913.) 
 
10 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 by the solidarity of England and France. Two Powers 
 which, in the past, had been separated by a multitude 
 of prejudices and conflicting ambitions, felt at last that 
 they were opposed to a common danger of a most serious 
 character." ^ 
 
 These facts were suf3Eicient in themselves to arouse the 
 gravest suspicions as to the meaning of Germany's pre- 
 parations. But there was another circumstance which 
 in itself more than justified the issue of such warnings as 
 those we have cited above. A number of German military 
 men, professors, and even theologians had for years past 
 been openly preaching to their country that war, which 
 had hitherto been regarded by all civilised peoples as an 
 evil, was a thing to be desired, and, indeed, necessary for 
 the health of a nation.^ They preached at the same time 
 that it was Germany's mission to expand until she spread 
 herself over the whole of the globe, crushing all those who 
 stood in her path, and carrying with her her " civilisation," 
 which, in their eyes, was so superior to that of the rest of 
 the world that it was for the benefit of the other nations 
 that it should be imposed upon them by the sword. 
 " Deutschland uber Alles " was their watchword, as it is 
 now the soldier's battle-cry. It was Germany's destiny 
 to " purify " and " educate " the world, and Germany's 
 destiny, according to the words of the great Chancellor, 
 was to be worked out by -fire and sword. The views of 
 these men had in recent years found favour with the 
 Sovereign * and the politicians, and with practically every 
 
 1 Why We are at War, by Members of the Oxford Faculty of 
 Modern History, I. p. 38. 
 
 ^ " In regard to Germany we are confronted by certain cir- 
 cumstances that indisputably merit our consideration here in 
 England. There is, for instance, the annual appearance in 
 Germany of very nearly seven himdred books dealing with war 
 as a science. This points, at once, to an extreme preoccupation 
 in that nation with the idea of war. I doubt whether twenty 
 books a year on the art of war appear in this country, and 
 whether their circulation, when they do appear, is much more 
 than twenty ! " — Germany and England, p. 64. 
 
 * " The idea of war is ever in his Majesty's mind, even when 
 he is addressing himself to purely pacific matters. The dove 
 
THE CONCEPTION OF THE PLOT 11 
 
 class of the population. The works of one of them, 
 Treitschke, had come to be regarded as the people's 
 Bible.i Another of them, General von Bernhardi, has been 
 decorated with the Iron Cross, and his book, Germany and 
 the Neost War, had already by the year 1896 passed through 
 six editions. 
 
 Let these men speak in their own words : " The Govern- 
 ment," writes Bernhardi, " must do everything to foster 
 a military spirit and to make the nation comprehend the 
 duties and aims of an imperial policy. It must con- 
 tinually point to the significance and to the necessity of 
 war as an indispensable agent in policy and civilisation, 
 together with the duty of self-sacrifice and devotion to 
 State and coxintry." ^ 
 
 " We must rouse in our people the unanimous wish for 
 power together with the determination to sacrifice, on the 
 altar of patriotism, not only life and property, but also 
 
 of peace is always mated with the German eagle. His Majesty 
 cannot unveil a civic monument without referring to the 
 military glory of his ancestors. He cannot address an educa- 
 tional conference without emphasising that, in his opinion, the 
 best kind of education is that which leads the youth of Germany 
 to contemplate the military achievements of their forefathers. 
 He cannot pay a compliment to the ruler of another State 
 without at the same time referring to the bravery and chivalry 
 of the other monarch's military forces. He cannot even preach 
 a sermon without referring to the military exploits of the 
 ancient Hebrews; and he cannot even pray without calling 
 upon the Lord of Hosts to lead the German army to victory." 
 Germany's War Mania, p. 19. (A. W. Shaw Co. Ltd.) 
 
 " The only occasions where the German Emperor does not 
 mention the German army is when he is talking about the 
 German navy" (ibid., p. 47). 
 
 ^ The German writer, O. Umfrid, speaks of Treitschke as 
 having founded a school whose name is shouted like a battle- 
 cry. " It is he," he says, " who has given the halo of principle 
 and justice to actually performed deeds of political violence " 
 {The Soul of Germany, by Thomas F. A. Smith, p. 197). 
 " Justification for all the horrible crimes which Germany has 
 committed in Belgium and France may be found in Treitschke's 
 Die Politik" {ibid., p. 191). 
 
 ^ Germany and the Next War, by Friedrich von Bernhardi, 
 translated by Allen H. Powles, p. 255. 
 
12 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 private views and preferences in the interests of the 
 common welfare. Then alone shall we discharge our great 
 duties of the future, grow into a World Power, and stamp 
 a great part of humanity with the impress of the German 
 spirit. If, on the contrary, we persist in that dissipation 
 of energy which now marks our political life, there is 
 imminent fear that in the great contest of the nations, 
 which we must inevitably face, we shall be dishonourably 
 beaten." ^ 
 
 " Our next war will be fought for the highest interests 
 of our country and of mankind. This will invest it with 
 importance in the world's history. ' World power or 
 downfall' {Weltmacht oder Niedergang), will be our rallying 
 cry "2 
 
 " If the Imperial Government was of the opinion that it 
 was necessary in the present circumstances to avoid war, 
 still the situation in the world generally shows there can 
 only be a short respite before we once more face the ques- 
 tion whether we will draw the sword for our position in the 
 world or renounce such position once and for all. We 
 must not, in any case, wait until our opponents have com- 
 pleted their arming and decide that the hour of attack 
 has come. . . . We may expect from the Government 
 that it will prosecute the military and political preparation 
 for war with the energy which the situation demands, 
 in clear knowledge of the dangers threatening us, but also 
 in correct appreciation of our national needs and of the 
 warlike strength of our people, and that it will not let any 
 conventional scruples distract it from this object. 
 
 " Repeal of the Five Years Act, reconstruction of the army 
 on an enlarged basis, accelerated progress in our naval 
 armaments, preparation of sufficient financial means — 
 these are requirements which the situation calls for. New 
 and creative ideas must fructify our policy and lead it to 
 the happy goal. 
 
 " The political situation offers many points on which to 
 rest our lever. England, too, is in a most difficult position. 
 
 ^ Germany and the Next War, p. 114. 
 2 Ibid., p. 153. 
 
THE CONCEPTION OF THE PLOT 13 
 
 The conflict of her interests with Russia's in Persia and in 
 the newly arisen Dardanelles question, as well as the power 
 of Islam in the most important parts of her colonial Empire, 
 are the subjects of permanent anxiety in Great Britain. 
 Attention has already been called to the significance and 
 difficulty of her relation with North America. France 
 also has considerable obstacles still to surmount in her 
 African Empire, before it can yield its full fruits. The 
 disturbance in the Far East will probably fetter Russia's 
 forces, and England's interests will suffer in sympathy. 
 These are all conditions which an energetic and far- 
 sighted German policy can utilise in order to influence 
 the general political situation in the interests of our 
 Fatherland." i 
 
 " We Germans, therefore, must not be deceived by such 
 official efforts to maintain the peace. Arbitration courts 
 must evidently always consider the existing judicial and 
 territorial rights. For a rising State, which has not yet 
 attained the position due to it, which is in urgent need of 
 colonial expansion, and can only accomplish it chiefly at 
 the cost of others, these treaties therefore augur ill at once, 
 as being apt to prevent a rearrangement of power. In 
 the face of this widespread peace propaganda, and in 
 opposition to it, we must firmly keep in view the fact 
 that no arbitration court in the world can remove and 
 settle any really great tension that exists and is due to 
 deep-seated national, economical and political antagonism ; 
 and that, on the other hand, it is impossible to change the 
 partition of the earth, as it now exists, in our favour by 
 diplomatic artifices. If we wish to gain the position in 
 the world that is due to us, we must rely on our sword, 
 renounce all weakly visions of peace." ^ 
 
 " The efforts directed towards the abolition of war must 
 not only be termed foolish but absolutely immoral, and 
 must be stigmatised as unworthy of the human race." ^ 
 
 * Germany and the Next War, p. 287. 
 
 2 Bernhardi, How Germany makes War, English translation 
 (Hodder & Stoughton), Introd., p. xiii. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 34. 
 
14 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 " War is an instrument of progress, a regulator in the 
 life of humanity, an indispensable factor in civilisation, 
 a creative force." ^ 
 
 " Then again, there are the false apostles of to-day who 
 condemn war as in itself reprehensible. A universal 
 peace, in which wolf and lamb shall dwell together in unity, 
 is proved possible by a multitude of misleading and 
 seductive arguments. Thus do the shadows deepen over 
 the ancient Germanic ideal of a proud nation of warriors, 
 an ideal which is bound to lose its power to attract, par- 
 ticularly in a prolonged peace, when even the most martial- 
 minded see that all chances of testing their prowess are 
 fading gradually away. . . . The warlike spirit must not 
 be allowed to die out among people, neither must the love 
 of peace get the upper hand, for all the greater would be 
 the consternation at the moment of awakening. If the 
 Fatherland is to remain victorious, we must not let our 
 old ideals of manly courage, fearless scorn of death, and 
 knightly virtue be destroyed, but must cherish and uphold 
 them to the utmost, both in this generation and in all that 
 are to come." ^ 
 
 " Every means must therefore be employed to oppose 
 these visionary schemes. They must be publicly de- 
 nounced as what they really are — as an unhealthy and 
 feeble Utopia, or a cloak for political machinations. Our 
 people must learn to see that the maintenance of peace never 
 can or may be the goal of a policy. . . . The inevitableness, 
 the idealism and the blessing of war, as an indispensable 
 and stimulating law of development, must be repeatedly 
 emphasised." ^ 
 
 " You must love peace as a means to war and prefer the 
 shorter peace to the long. . . . War and courage perform 
 greater deeds than the love of our neighbour." * 
 
 " It has always been the weary, spiritless and exhausted 
 
 ^ How Germany makes War, p. 2. 
 
 " Baron von der Goltz, Jena to Eylau, quoted in Germany's 
 War Mania, pp. 186-7. 
 
 * Germany and the Next War, p. 37. 
 
 * Nietzsche, Also Sprach Zarathustra. 
 
THE CONCEPTION OF THE PLOT 15 
 
 ages which have played with the dream of perpetual 
 peace." ^ 
 
 " Might is at once the supreme right, and the dispute 
 as to what is right is decided by the arbitrament of war. 
 War gives a biologically just decision, since its decisions 
 rest on the very nature of things." ^ 
 
 " But it (war) is not only a biological law, but a 
 moral obligation, and, as such, an indispensable factor in 
 civilisation." ^ 
 
 " If war is permitted by God, then warfare is a duty. 
 . . . Such a duty and such fulfilment are not only 
 consistent with Christianity but are demanded by 
 Christianity." * 
 
 " Perpetual peace is a dream and it is not even a beautiful 
 dream. War forms part of the universal order instituted 
 by God." 5 
 
 " Especially in a State which is so wholly based on 
 war as is the German Empire, the old manly principle of 
 keeping all our forces on the stretch must never be aban- 
 doned out of deference to the effeminate philosophy of 
 the day." « 
 
 " We Germans have a far greater and more urgent duty 
 to perform towards civilisation than the Great Asiatic 
 Power. We, like the Japanese, can only fulfil it by the 
 sword. Shall we, then, decline to adopt a bold and active 
 policy, the most effective means with which we can prepare 
 our people for its military duty? " ' 
 
 " The German nation, too . . . will rise to the height 
 of its great duty. A mighty force, which only awaits 
 the summons, sleeps in its soul. Whoever to-day can 
 awaken the slumbering idealism of this people, and 
 rouse the national enthusiasm by placing before its eyes 
 
 * Treitschke, quoted by Bemhardi in Germany and the Next 
 War, p. 17. 
 
 * Germany and the Necct War, p. 23. * Ibid., p. 24. 
 
 * A leading Berlin clergyman in the Deutsche Tageszeitung. 
 
 * Count Moltke, December 11, 1880 (see Andler, Frightfulness, 
 translated by Miall, p. 94). 
 
 * Germany and the Next War, p. 261. ' Ibid., p. 258. 
 
16 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 a worthy and comprehensible ambition, will be able to 
 sweep this people on, in united strength, to the highest 
 efforts and sacrifices, and will achieve a truly magnificent 
 result. 
 
 " In the consciousness of being able at any time to call 
 up these forces, and in the sure trust that they will not 
 fail in the hour of danger, our Government can firmly 
 tread the path which leads to a splendid future; but it 
 will not be able to liberate all the forces of Germany, 
 unless it wins her confidence by successful action and takes 
 for its motto the brave words of Goethe — 
 
 " Bid defiance to every power ! 
 Ever valiant, never cower ! 
 To the brave soldier open flies 
 The golden gates of Paradise." ^ 
 
 " When we realise all these facts (the greatness of 
 England and the extent of her Empire and also of that of 
 France and Russia), and then consider the situation of the 
 German people, who see a third of their population living 
 outside the limits of the German Empire under a foreign 
 domination ; if we remember, moreover, that the whole of 
 our colonial empire is no greater than two and a half million 
 square kilometres with twelve million inhabitants, the 
 German cannot help being seized with rage that things 
 should be as they are. ... If we remember, lastly, that, 
 of all nations of the earth, the German has the highest 
 form of general culture and its army on land is by every- 
 body acknowledged to be the first and best in the world, 
 this accursed inferiority of our colonial power becomes 
 more and more enigmatic. And if we add the fact that the 
 German nation has now attained to the same general 
 prosperity as the French and English nations, and that 
 we occupy the second rank in the importance of our 
 commercial exports, it becomes more and more incom- 
 prehensible that we should be relegated to the situation 
 in which we are now placed in the world, and the whole 
 
 * Germany and the Next War, p. 282. 
 
THE CONCEPTION OF THE PLOT 17 
 
 German nation must now realise that our ancestors have 
 left us much to do." ^ 
 
 " Let us not forget the civilising task which is incumbent 
 on us in accordance with the decree of Providence. Just 
 as Prussia was destined to be the kernel of Germany 
 {Kern Deutschlands) so Germany regenerated will be the 
 kernel of the future Empire of the West. And that none 
 may be ignorant, we proclaim, from this moment, that our 
 nation has a right to the sea, not only to the North Sea, 
 but to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. We will 
 absorb one after the other of the provinces adjoining Prussia. 
 We will annex successively Denmark, Holland, Belgium, 
 the Franche-Comt^, the north of Switzerland, Livonia, 
 Trieste and Venice, and finally, the north of France from 
 the Somme to the Loire." ^ 
 
 " We will annex Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, 
 Livonia, Trieste and Venice. . . . This programme, which 
 we exhibit, is not the work of a madman; this Empire, 
 which we intend to establish, will not be a Utopia, we 
 have already in our hands the means of realising it." ^ 
 
 " The future territory of German expansion," wrote 
 Ernst Hasse, " situated between the territories of the Eastern 
 and Western Powers, must absorb all the intermediate 
 regions ; it must stretch from the North Sea to the Baltic ; 
 from the Netherlands, taking in Luxemburg and Switzer- 
 land, down to the islands of the Danube and the Balkan 
 Peninsula, and will include Asia Minor as far as the Persian 
 Gulf. All foreign influence must be eliminated." * 
 
 " A successful policy cannot be followed without taking 
 chances and facing risks. It must be conscious of its 
 goal and keep this goal steadily in view. It must press 
 every change of circumstances and all unforeseen occur- 
 rences into the service of its own ideas. Above all things, 
 
 1 Tannenberg, Gross- Deutschland (Leipzig, 1911), p. 212. 
 
 * General von Clausewitz, quoted in Paroles Allemandes 
 ("Librairie Berger-Levrault, 1915"), p. 92. 
 
 * General Bronsart von Schellendorf, ex-Minister for War in 
 the Prussian Cabinet, quoted in Paroles Allemandes, p. 95. 
 
 * Weltpolitik. 
 
18 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 it must be ready to seize the psychological moment and 
 take bold action if the general position of affairs indicates 
 the possibility of realising political ambitions, or of waging 
 a necessary war under favourable conditions." ^ 
 
 " A further influence of policy on the conduct of the 
 war is established by the fact that policy mmt choose the 
 moment for the State to take up arms." ^ 
 
 " Finally, preparations for war must also be made 
 politically; that is to say, efforts naust be made to bring 
 about a favourable political conjuncture, and, so far as 
 possible, to isolate the first enemy with whom a war is 
 bound to come. If that cannot be effected, an attempt 
 must be made to win allies in whom confidence can be 
 reposed, should war break out." ^ 
 
 " If we attacked France or Russia, the ally would be 
 compelled to bring help, and we should be in a far worse 
 position than if we had only one enemy to fight. Let it 
 then be the task of our diplomacy so to shufile the cards 
 that we may be attacked by France, for then there would 
 be reasonable prospect that Russia for a time would remain 
 neutral. 
 
 " If we wish to bring about an attack by our opponents 
 we must initiate an active policy which, without attacking 
 France, will so prejudice her interests or those of England, 
 that both these States would feel themselves compelled 
 to attack us. Opportunities for such procedure are offered 
 both in Africa and Europe. ... In opposition to these 
 ideas, the view has frequently been brought forward that 
 we should wait quietly and let time fight for us, since from 
 the force of circumstances many prizes will fall into our 
 laps for which we have now to struggle hard." * 
 
 " In one way or another we must square our account with 
 France, if we wish for a free hand in our international 
 policy. This is the first and foremost condition of a sound 
 German policy ; and since the hostility of France once for 
 
 ^ Germany and the Newt War, p. 275. 
 2 How Germany makes War, p. 151. 
 
 * Germany and the Next War, p. 260. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 280. 
 
THE CONCEPTION OF THE PLOT 19 
 
 all cannot be removed by peaceful overtures, the matter 
 must be settled by force of arms. France must be so 
 completely crushed that she can never again come across 
 our path." ^ 
 
 " Even a coalition of France and Russia could be over- 
 come with our forces alone if without hesitation and 
 without scruple we employ greater violence." ^ 
 
 Speaking of the Franco-German Convention concerning 
 the affairs of Morocco, Bernhardi writes : " We need not 
 regard this Convention as definitive ; it is as liable to revision 
 as the Algegiras Treaty, and indeed offers, in this respect, 
 the advantage that it creates new opportunities of friction 
 with France." * 
 
 Of Russia Paul de Lagarde wrote in 1881 : " We must 
 create a Central Europe, which would guarantee the peace 
 of the entire Continent from the moment when it shall 
 have driven the Russians from the Black Sea, and the 
 Slavs from the south, and shall have conquered large 
 tracts to the east of our frontiers, for German colonisation. 
 We cannot let loose ex abrupto the war which will create 
 this Central Europe; all we can do is to accustom our 
 people to the thought that this must come." * 
 
 It has long been a theory of German writers that small 
 States have no right to exist ; they must be merged in the 
 greater; and the German Secretary of State for Foreign 
 Affairs, Herr von Jagow, has endorsed this principle; 
 " they are destined to disappear," he has said, " or to 
 gravitate into the orbit of the Great Powers." ^ Treitschke 
 had already written : " It is evident that, if the State 
 has power, it is only the most powerful State which bears 
 out that conception, so that no one can deny the absurdity 
 of the existence of a small State. There is no absurdity 
 
 ^ Germany and the Next War, p. 105. Tannenberg and 
 Frymann express the same opinion : " Frankreich muss zer- 
 schmettert werden " {France must be crushed) is the "Delenda 
 est Carthago " of Cato. 
 
 * Hans Delbruck, Deutschland bei Beginn des 20 Jahrhunderts, 
 1900, p. 212. * Germany and the Need War, p. 285. 
 
 * Deutsche Schriften, 4th edition, 1903, p. 83. 
 
 * Durkheim, Germany Above All (English translation), p. 37. 
 
20 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 in weakness itself, but there is great absurdity in weakness 
 which tries to pass itself off as power." ^ 
 
 Various writers disposed of the fate of these countries ; 
 of Holland, Fritz Bley wrote in 1897 : " We require these 
 new Dutch territories, already fertilised by German blood, 
 for the indispensable expansion of our economic dominion. 
 On a Rhine which has become German to the mouth we 
 need a free traffic, which the silent resistance of Holland 
 now hampers." ^ 
 
 " Holland, with its Royal Family, its European territory, 
 
 1 Treitschke, Politik, vol. i. p. 41. 
 
 " This doctrine of Treitschke is now professed by all the 
 German professors and writers without any exception; it is 
 commented upon and developed by professors such as Laland 
 and Spahn, of the University of Strasbourg ; Adolph Lasson, 
 Professor of Philosophy at the University of Berlin ; Oncken, 
 Professor at the University of Heidelberg; Wilhelm Ostwald, 
 Professor of Chemistry at the University of Leipzig; Ernst 
 Haeckel, Professor at the University of Jena, and by many 
 others whose names it would take too long to enumerate. One 
 might say that this doctrine has become to-day the fundamental 
 creed of German politics and of German aspirations, both in the 
 military and in the civil domain. 
 
 " ' They are no more,' says one of his disciples, ' than parasitic 
 organisms which can merely move in the orbits of the Great 
 Powers, and which live at their expense.' The historical pro- 
 cess, which must impose itself on them sooner or later, is the 
 aggregation of all those small States into great political units ; 
 that must happen to all the minute States {Kleinstaaterei), 
 which in the feudal times constituted Europe, and which even 
 at the present day remain incapable of developing a national 
 life, and cannot arrest the expansion and influence of the great 
 States. ' And no one will regret the disappearance of these 
 small States,' says Treitschke, ' not even their own citizens.' 
 Thus at the end of a long process of evolution, the kingdom of 
 Prussia has been formed, which in turn resulted in the constitu- 
 tion of the German Empire ; that in tvirn ought now to reach its 
 final and logical result, the growth of Gtermany into a world- 
 power dictating its law, not only to Europe but to all the 
 continents." — The War and the German Propaganda: a Swiss 
 View of Germany's Aims (English translation, published by 
 Messrs. Eyre & Spottiswoode, Ltd.), p. 9. 
 
 2 Quoted by Professor Charles Andler, Pan-Germanism 
 (English translation), p. 16. 
 
THE CONCEPTION OF THE PLOT 21 
 
 and its colonies in South America, the Sunda Islands, and in 
 the Australian seas, must be incorporated in the German 
 Empire as one of the States of the Bund, and the same is 
 the case with Belgium. The Congo State must become a 
 German colony." ^ 
 
 " By the entry of Belgium into the German Empire, the 
 ancient German frontier near the Scheldt of the time of 
 Charles V would be re-established . . . Luxemburg and 
 Switzerland would likewise form part of the new Empire, 
 while maintaining their present constitution; but they 
 would have to furnish their contingent for the defence of 
 the Empire, which has already long protected them, in 
 conformity with the requirements of great Germany." ^ 
 
 " As to Belgium and Holland, these two nations must 
 fully realise that the next war will decide their future. 
 As things are in Europe, one may say unequivocably 
 that the small States have ipso facto lost the right to exist, 
 for a State could not make good its right to independence 
 unless it could defend it sword in hand. ... It is self- 
 evident that, if this union took place, the Dutch language 
 would remain imdisturbed. In Belgium, preference would 
 be given to Flemish, and German would only be com- 
 pulsory in the army. And we Germans of the Empire 
 would give this degenerate nation the possibility of re- 
 establishing a fruitful and active policy." ^ 
 
 " The Dutch are a practical people, who see their advan- 
 tage in everything that they do, and they must admit 
 to-day that it would be preferable for them to belong to the 
 great German Empire. Three reasons render this concep- 
 tion evident. The first is the consideration that small eco- 
 nomic dominions cannot maintain themselves efficiently in 
 the twentieth century. . . , Another reason for engulfing 
 the Netherlands in the German Empire is that the two 
 dialects — Dutch with its 5,100,000 and Flemish with 
 its three millions and a half — are too feeble to make 
 an independent intellectual life possible. . . . The third 
 reason is the impossibility for the weak population of 
 
 ^ Gross-Deutschland, p. 105. ^ Ibid. 
 
 * Frymann, Wenn ich der Kaiser war, pp. 152-5. 
 
22 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 the Low Countries to play any independent part in a world 
 in arms." ^ 
 
 The Koloniales Jahrbuch for 1897 wrote — 
 " The importance of South Africa as a land which can 
 receive an unUmited number of white emigrants must 
 rouse us to the greatest exertions, in order to secure there 
 supremacy for the Teuton race. The greater part of the 
 population of South Africa is of Low German descent. 
 We must constantly lay stress on the Low German origin 
 of the Boers, and we must, before all, stimulate their 
 hatred against Anglo-Saxondom. No doubt the Boers 
 will, with characteristically German tenacity, retake their 
 former possessions from the English by combining slimness 
 with force. In this attempt they can count upon the 
 assistance of the German brother nation." ^ 
 
 As for Turkey, whose rulers fondly trusted that Egypt, 
 and perhaps the whole of northern Africa, would be restored 
 to her as a reward for throwing in her cause with Germany, 
 nothing is clearer than that Germany intends to include the 
 greater part, if not the whole, of the Ottoman Dominions 
 in her new Empire, which is to " spread from the North 
 Sea, to the Persian Gulf." She has had that in view since 
 her engineers laid done the first kilometre of the Adana- 
 Baghdad railway line.* 
 
 ^ Gross-Deutschland, pp. 88, 93, 96. 
 
 ^ Quoted in Germany's Designs on South Africa, by Percy 
 Fitzpatrick, p. 109. 
 
 * " The Germans impose their yoke alike on friend and foe " 
 (Tacitus, Hist. iv. 73) . Germany had for a long time been tight- 
 ening her grasp on Turkey by her methods of " peaceful pene- 
 tration." " During the last few years Germany has sunk a 
 great deal of capital in Asia Minor and has built numerous 
 schools and hospitals. That the Germans seriously regarded 
 Turkey as their inheritance is shown not merely by the con- 
 struction of the Bagdad Railway across Asia Minor, but also 
 by the plans for river regulation and the building of canals 
 towards the Black Sea, which have been discussed so diligently 
 during the war. In my opinion the actual plan of Germany 
 might be expressed even more fittingly by the watchword 
 Berlm-Cairo.'"— (Thomas G. Masaryk, late Professor at the 
 Czech University at Prague, and member of the Austrian 
 Parliament, in The New Europe, October 19, 1916.) 
 
THE CONCEPTION OF THE PLOT 23 
 
 " What else did her Emperor mean," as Professor 
 Andler asks, " when he went to Damascus and proclaimed 
 himself the ' Protector of all the Moslems' ? " The phrase 
 in which the German Pastor Naumann, who was present, 
 describes it is a " secret calculation of grave and remote 
 possibility." ^ 
 
 " The East is the only territory of the world which has not 
 passed under the control of one of the ambitious nations 
 of the globe," wrote the Arabist, Anton Sprenger; "yet 
 it offers the most magnificent field for colonisation, and if 
 Germany does not allow this opportunity to escape her, 
 if she seizes this domain before the Cossacks lay hands upon 
 it, she will have received the best share in the partition of 
 the earth. The German Emperor would have the destinies 
 of nearer Asia in his power if some hundreds of thousands 
 of armed colonists were cultivating this splendid plain. 
 He might, and would be the creator of peace for the 
 nations." ^ " Germany must lay her mighty grasp on 
 Asia Minor," wrote another German patriot.^ 
 
 Tannenberg expresses the same views : "As the Afri- 
 can possessions of Islam in the region of the Nile have 
 fallen under the English protectorate without there result- 
 ing therefrom any coldness in the Anglo-Turkish relations, 
 it is perfectly equitable and just that the Turkish posses- 
 sions in Asia should pass into the German dominion, seeing 
 that we continue to entertain equally friendly relations with 
 the Turks. ... Of course we will strictly guarantee the 
 rights of Turkey just as is done in the case of Egypt. . . . 
 We will consider as much as possible the desires of the 
 people just as England has done with such care. The 
 territories which we have in mind comprise Asia Minor and 
 Armenia, Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine and northern 
 Arabia." * 
 
 " These regions (Asia Minor, Syria and Mesopotamia) 
 might become for us what Egypt is for England, that is to 
 
 ^ Andler, Pan-Germanism (English translation), p. 57. 
 2 Ibid., p. 40 
 
 ^ " Amicus Patriae," Armenien und Kreta, 1896, p. 15. 
 * Gross-Deutschland, pp. 222-3. 
 
24 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 say, not only an important outlet for the products of our 
 national industry but also a starting-point from which we 
 might expand towards eastern Asia and Africa." ^ 
 
 Tannenberg suggested a separate treaty with England, 
 by which Germany and England are practically to diyide 
 the whole of the world, with the exception of the United 
 States and China, between themselves, the division of 
 China being reserved for a future period. 
 
 By Articles 2 and 3, England recognises the re-organisa- 
 tion of the Empire of the Hapsburgs by the accession of 
 Poland, Serbia, Bulgaria and Roumania, and acknowledges 
 the inclusion of Holland and Belgium and their colonies in 
 the German Empire. 
 
 By Articles 7, 8, 9, and 10, the French colonies are divided 
 between Germany and England, with the exception of 
 Tunis, which is ceded to Italy, and Algeria, which remains 
 a French possession. 
 
 By Article 11, Portuguese West Africa goes to Germany 
 and Portuguese East Africa to England. 
 
 By Articles 13 and 14, an understanding is to be come 
 to between Germany and England as to their spheres of 
 influence in South America, Germany undertaking the pro- 
 tectorate of the Republics of the Argentine, Chili, Uruguay, 
 Paraguay, and parts of Bolivia and Brazil. Germany and 
 England agree to uphold the partition between themselves 
 of South America, in spite of any protest on the part of 
 the United States of North America. 
 
 As a peace-offering to the United States, Germany and 
 England consent, by Article 15, to the United States 
 exercising a protectorate over Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa 
 Rica, Venezuela and other States. 
 
 By Article 16, Asia Minor, Syria and Mesopotamia, 
 Palestine, western Persia and a part of Arabia will con- 
 stitute a German protectorate, and Siam will constitute 
 another. 
 
 By Article 18, England acknowledges Germany's suzer- 
 ainty over the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, Walfish Bay 
 and part of the Maldives. 
 
 ^ Gross-Deutschland. 
 
THE CONCEPTION OF THE PLOT 25 
 
 In another suggested treaty between Germany and 
 Austria it is distinctly stated that the German protectorate 
 will eventually extend over the whole of the Turkish 
 Empire including Constantinople itself. 
 
 Other writers claim that German suzerainty should be 
 extended to South America, Central Africa and other 
 parts of the globe. 
 
 " Decrepit states like the Argentine and Braziliain 
 Republics, and, more or less, all those beggarly states of 
 South America would be induced, either by force or other- 
 wise, to listen to reason," writes Friedrich Lange.^ 
 
 The conviction is held by many in America that this 
 ambitious people seriously hoped to include the United 
 States in their conquest. 
 
 " The victory of Germany and Austria," writes Professor 
 Hale in the New York Tribune, " would mean a Germanised 
 and bureaucratically controlled England, France, Russia 
 and Italy; for Italy would not survive. It would be a 
 world intolerable to live in, and intolerable for an American 
 to think about. But thinking about it is not the only 
 thing that he would suffer. 
 
 " The victory of Germany would put at her disposal an 
 enormous fleet, consisting of all the ships that survived 
 the war. Her ambition would not be sated. She aims at 
 nothing less than world dominion. Deutschland uber 
 alles does not mean ' with the exception of the United 
 States.' She has known how to attack us. The moment 
 she had a trained German personnel for her immense navy, 
 South America, or as much as she wanted of it from time 
 to time, would become a German colony. The nucleus 
 already exists in Brazil, and could easily enough produce 
 an excuse for war, if one was thought desirable for his- 
 torical purposes. To the winds would go the Monroe 
 Doctrine and South American freedom. We, with our 
 then relatively tiny navy, should be helpless either to keep 
 Germany off or to dislodge her. From South America 
 she would strike at us. Our coasts would be at her mercy, 
 and she could land her disciplined troops anywhere. The 
 ^ Reines Deutschtum, 1904, p. 208. 
 
26 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 country would be full of spies, as France and Belgium are 
 to-day. We should fight desperately and our land is of 
 great extent. But only disciplined armies can prevail in 
 these times. Guerilla warfare is useless. Fighting would 
 be done here by railroads and the reduction of great centres. 
 The population of Germany and Austria is to-day larger 
 than ours by some sixteen millions; and Germany, then 
 the mistress of Europe, could safely bring an army into 
 the field from many quarters, both of Europe and South 
 America. The struggle would be bitter. We should 
 have the advantage in distance; but the ocean is narrow 
 to-day, as the presence of soldiers from all parts of the 
 world on the battlefields of France has shown us. And 
 Germany would have every other possible start of us. 
 
 " This is no idle speculation. It is no more a nightmare 
 than was the possibility of a Germanised Europe a few 
 months ago. We should stop it all by throwing our strength 
 now upon the side of the Allies." ^ 
 
 " I agree with the London Spectator : " Strange as it 
 will sound to most American ears ... it is none the less 
 true that at this moment what stands between the Monroe 
 doctrine and its complete destruction are our ships in the 
 North Sea and the battle-weary, mud-stained men in the 
 British and French trenches on the Aisne.' " ^ 
 
 " It seems ignoble, and it is, to cling over-anxiously to 
 life when daily so many thousands before our eyes give it 
 up. This is our battle, too, that is being fought in Europe ; 
 our destiny as well as their own that Belgians, British, 
 French, Germans, and all the rest are struggling and dying 
 over. This is a conflict of fundamental ideas. If the 
 German idea wins, its next great clash seems likely to be 
 with the idea that underlies such civilisation as we have in 
 these States." * 
 
 " Whereas, we believe that the Monroe doctrine and even 
 the territories of our own country, have been, and now are, 
 
 ^ November 10, 1914. 
 
 2 J. WiUiam White, A Textbook of the War for Americans, 
 p. 353. •* 
 
 * The War Week by Week, p. 133. 
 
THE CONCEPTION OF THE PLOT 27 
 
 an avowed aim of Prussian aggression, and that, in the event 
 of the success of the Teutonic Powers, the next attack 
 would be made against the United States. . . ." ^ 
 
 And as to Great Britain : "In how many novels, 
 speeches, articles and pamphlets have German soldiers 
 and civilians declared the national hope and purpose of 
 destroying British naval supremacy, and breaking up the 
 British Empire ? Their name is legion." ^ 
 
 Even our language is to disappear and make room for 
 the guttural sounds of Teutonic speech : " And the victory 
 once won, be it now or be it one hundred years hence, there 
 remains a task for the German than which none is more 
 important, that of forcing the German tongue on the 
 world. On all men, not those belonging to the more 
 cultured races only, but on men of all colours and nation- 
 alities, the German language acts as a blessing which, 
 coming direct from the hand of God, sinks into the heart 
 like a precious balm and ennobles it. 
 
 " Enghsh, the canting tongue of the canting island 
 pirates, must be swept from the place it has usurped, and 
 forced back into the remotest corners of Britain until it 
 has returned to its original elements of an insignificant 
 pirate dialect." * 
 
 In the year 1913 a book entitled German Chauvinism 
 was published by Dr. Otfried Nippold exposing the warlike 
 inclinations of his countrymen. He quotes numerous 
 articles from the War Press of Germany.* We content 
 ourselves with the following — 
 
 " A nation, which has increased so much as Germany 
 
 1 Resolution of the " American Rights Committee." Accord- 
 to the Chemnitzer Volkstimme, a pamphlet published ano- 
 nymously at Berlin in 1895 under the title of Germama 
 Triumphans, foretold the partition of America " after an easy 
 victory " in 1912. 
 
 2 Blatchford, England and Germany, p. 9. „ , , 
 s From the Deutsche Tageszeitung, quoted m the Textbook 
 
 ofthe War for Americans, pp. 4!0-l. 
 
 « " Der Deutsche Chauvinismus," 1913. The extracts are 
 taken from The True Pastime, by Alexander Gray, where the 
 reader wiU find a very large number of them. 
 
28 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 has done, is compelled to follow a policy of constant 
 expansion." ^ 
 
 " A people which, like ourselves, is developing and striv- 
 ing forward, needs new territory for its forces, and if peace 
 does not bring that, there remains only war." ^ 
 
 " With the will to war there must also be bound up the 
 resolution to adopt a ruthless offensive, because only an 
 offensive guarantees the victory. . . Germany must be 
 ready for the attack; just as in 1870, her preparation 
 must be so strong that she may be able, with superior forces, 
 to transform, as in 1870, the will to war, if necessary, into 
 military action." * 
 
 " Let us at least learn this lesson from history, that an 
 enormous wave of prosperity follows war and rests upon 
 war, and that without warlike capacity the golden age of a 
 nation can never endure. . . . The German people, by 
 its history and its unexampled Kultur, has a well-founded 
 claim to be heard in the world. With modesty you do not 
 get very far. It is often nobler to give the answer with the 
 sword." * 
 
 " War is the most sublime and holiest expression of 
 human activity. It affords the opportunity of sacrificing, 
 in accordance with God's command, the highest possession 
 for our brothers; it gives the hero everlasting life. We 
 see this when on Sundays we go to the soldiers' church 
 where we live. From the Prayer Book our eyes wander 
 involuntarily to the tablet on the wall. There, over long 
 lists of names, stand the words : ' The following died 
 in the Lord on the field of battle fighting for their King 
 and country.' . . . How we wish from Simday to Sunday 
 that our names may some day be written on these tablets ! 
 Then we would live for ever, still envied after the lapse of 
 centuries. . . . For us also one day there will strike the 
 great glad hour of battle. . . . The loudly expressed desire 
 
 1 Hamburger Nachrichten, January 19, 1913. 
 
 2 General von Wrichen in the Danziger Neueste Nachrichten, 
 May 6, 1914. 
 
 « General Klein, in Der Tag, of October 16, 1912. 
 * Darmstadter Tageblatl, April 23, 1913. 
 
THE CONCEPTION OF THE PLOT 29 
 
 for war too often becomes vain boasting. . . . But, still 
 and deep in the German heart, the joy in war and the 
 longing for it must remain, because we have enemies 
 enough, and victory is only for a people which with song 
 and music goes into war as into a festival. . . . With all 
 our power then let us laugh away those old women in 
 men's clothes who fear war and go about complaining that 
 it is horrible or hateful. No, war is beautiful. Its majestic 
 greatness lifts the human heart high above what is earthly 
 and trivial." ^ 
 
 " Western philosophers," as M. Dampierre says, " look 
 upon war as an evil which is practically unavoidable, in 
 order to settle disputes which would not otherwise be 
 determined between nations ; but they deny that this excep- 
 tional course should be made use of to destroy a conquered 
 people, and hold that the damage that is caused by war 
 should be reduced to a minimiun and confined as far as 
 possible to the sphere of the military operations. German 
 theorists, on the other hand, look upon war as the reflex 
 of the vitality of a people, as a thing noble and beautiful 
 in itself, and consider that its chief object is to increase 
 the power of the victorious nation by destroying its rivals 
 and by robbing them, as far as is possible, of all their 
 advantages, thus placing the conqueror either wholly or 
 partially in the position occupied by the conquered. Thus 
 deprived of any moral, philosophical, or scientific charac- 
 ter, this form of bellicose imperialism is reduced to a 
 simple instinct of violence and plunder, which is the 
 characteristic of every carnivorous animal. It is what 
 the Germans themselves call ' Faustrecht,' or the ' reign 
 of the fist,' but the curious point is that they should 
 endow this violence with a kind of religious respect — ^with 
 the mysticism of enthusiasts, regarding it as a normal 
 manifestation of force, from which alone right can be 
 created. Schiller and other great German writers exalted 
 the glory of natioxxal war : ' Man wastes himself in peace ' ; 
 ' An idle repose is the tomb of courage ' ; 'the law is the 
 friend of the weak and would make all things equal . . . 
 ^ Jimgdeutschland Post, February 25, 1913. 
 
30 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 but war brings force to the front . . . and gives heart 
 even to the coward ' {Die Braut von Messina").^ 
 
 No one, I think, who reads the above pages with an open 
 mind and in the light of subsequent events, can fail to see 
 that Germany had for years past been bent upon establish- 
 ing her dominion by the sword over the rest of the world, 
 that the atmosphere in Germany was charged with the war 
 spirit, and that every preparation had been made which 
 it was believed would ensure the consummation of her 
 designs. 
 
 To sum up the situation we will quote a few words from 
 the article by Mr. Thomas G. Masaryk, referred to above 
 (p. 22) :— 
 
 " The Germans have stated clearly enough, both before 
 and during hostilities, why they were looking forward to 
 this war, and what they wish its result to be. The meaning 
 of the present war is reflected in the voluminous political 
 literature which propagates the Pangerman programme and 
 the discussions which still centre round it. . . . 
 
 " Pangermanism reached its highest point during the reign 
 of the Emperor William II, growing into the political 
 doctrine of German Imperialism, which proclaimed, in the 
 first place, the need of economic and political union between 
 Germany and Austria-Hungary, and of adding the Balkans 
 and Turkey to this union. This plan is expressed in the 
 watchword ' Central Europe,' which involves a further 
 programme for the annexation of the Baltic and of some 
 purely Russian provinces of Russia, and would thus pro- 
 vide an opportunity for reconstructing Poland under 
 German leadership. . . . 
 
 " But the Pangermans also demand the annexation of non- 
 German territories on grounds of ' Real-Politik.' Ger- 
 many, they argue, needs colonies, needs a hinterland. 
 They point to the growth of population, to the great 
 
 1 L'Allemagne et le Droit des Gens, pp. 53-4. The expression 
 " The law is the friend of the weak " is quoted from Schiller 
 by both Bernhardi and Lasson. 
 
THE CONCEPTION OF THE PLOT 31 
 
 number of emigrants, which weakens the German nation ; 
 they adduce the fact that Germany, who in 1871 had only 
 41,000,000 inhabitants, now has 68,000,000. Anxiety 
 concerning their daily bread forces them to extend their 
 frontiers; Germany requires more land to cultivate, and 
 must therefore simply take it. Hence the demands for 
 the annexation of Holland and her colonies, the necessity 
 of possessing Antwerp, etc. . . . 
 
 " The votaries of Pangermanism appeal to German inclina- 
 tion for war ; war is positively adored, and with that goes 
 the worship of militarism. They tell us that Germans 
 and Teutons are naturally gifted with the necessary con- 
 structive statesmanlike ability; in the Slavs this ability, 
 according to them, is lacking, therefore the Slav States were 
 founded, and subsequently annexed, by the Germans, 
 But not only the Slavs, the French and other nations also 
 were — according to these theorists — ^formed by the Germans 
 just as even Christ Himself was of German origin.^ In a 
 word, the whole world is and must be German. Panger- 
 mans do not disguise the lust of power and the greed of 
 Imperialism; they proclaim German aristocratism, social, 
 political, cultural, racial, and linguistic, and carry it 
 mercilessly to its extreme logical results — Imyerare, Regnare, 
 over all the nations and lands. . . . 
 
 " Even long before the war, Pangerman Imperialism 
 dominated not only intellectual circles, but also wider 
 classes of the population of Germany and Austria-Hungary, 
 and supplied them with their political education. It is 
 simply not true that only a few people participated and 
 co-operated in Pangerman propaganda. The number of 
 such writers is very great; Pangerman books and pam- 
 phlets had, and still have to-day, a very large circulation 
 and run through many editions. The Pangerman plan of 
 ' Berlin-Bagdad,' has been upheld by men like Moltke, List, 
 
 ^ It is argued that the syllable Jes is identical with Ger, 
 s and r being interchangeable, while the Latin masculine termi- 
 nation us is equivalent to man in the Teutonic languages. 
 {Ein Pangermanisches Deutschland, by J. L. Reimer 1905, 
 pp. 232-3.) 
 
32 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 Rodbertus, W. Roscher, Lassalle, Lagarde, C. Frantz, 
 Windhorst, etc. Pangerman ideas were propagated by 
 energetic societies and clubs, notably the AUgemeine 
 deutsche Verband (Pangerman League), 1890, Mitteleurop- 
 aeischer Wirtschaftsverein (Central European Economic 
 Union), 1904, and Vorderasien-Komitee (Asia Minor Com- 
 mittee), 1911 ; the latter was founded by Hugo Grothe, and 
 among its Trustees are to be found such names as Ballin, 
 von der Goltz Pasha, Karl Lamprecht, Hans Meyer, Cor- 
 nelius Gurlitt, Dr. von Jacobs (President of the German 
 Levant Line) and R. Willing. The Pangermans expressed 
 explicitly and in plain language what the others expressed 
 implicitly. . . . 
 
 " The German plan, as expounded during the course of 
 the war, has steadily progressed in the direction indicated. 
 The weakening of Russia and the Slavs must be the 
 first step, but the final stage is to be the overthrow of 
 Britain. 
 
 " Once Germany has achieved ' Central Europe,* the 
 time for a blow at Britain would soon come. Germany 
 with Austria-Hungary, the Balkans and Turkey at her 
 disposal, has a free path to Egypt and India, and nothing 
 could then stop her march into Holland and Belgium and the 
 maritime north of France, if occasion should arise. Once 
 Berlin-Bagdad and Berlin-Cairo became a reality, the 
 power and riches yielded by this ' Central Europe ' would 
 perhaps even render the fight against Britain in Europe 
 superfluous; moreover, the progress of aeronautics and 
 the development of the navy would facilitate the invasion 
 of England, if that were still required. The possession 
 of Trieste, Salonica, and Constantinople would assure to 
 ' Central Europe ' dominion over the Adriatic, ^gean and 
 Mediterranean; Turkey would secure to Germany access 
 to Africa a;id India, and Britain would collapse in pitiful 
 isolation. . . . 
 
 " If Berlin succeeds in creating ' Central Europe,' the 
 aim of the war is attained, even if, at the worst, some time 
 should elapse before the completion of the Constantinople- 
 Bagdad and Constantinople-Cairo routes. 
 
THE CONCEPTION OF THE PLOT 33 
 
 " If successful, Prussia-Germany would become an" Asiatic 
 and African Power like Russia, Britain and France; nay 
 more, she would become the greatest World-Power. 
 Pangermanism is a programme for the final solution of the 
 Eastern Question. The Great War is a daring attempt to 
 organise Europe, Asia and Africa — ^the Old World — under 
 the leadership of Germany." 
 
II 
 
 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT 
 
 That the situation was causing anxiety to the French 
 Government is evident from the following despatches 
 published in the Yellow Book of 1913 — 
 
 M. Etienne, Minister of War, to M. Jonnart, Minister 
 for Foreign Affairs. 
 
 Paris, April 2, 1913. 
 
 I have just received from a reliable source an official 
 secret report concerning the strengthening of the German 
 Army. The report is divided into two parts : the first 
 consisting of general statements, the second dealing with 
 technicalities and describing in the greatest detail, for 
 each branch of the service, the measures to be adopted. 
 Especially striking are the instructions with regard to 
 the emplo5m!ient of motor-traction and the utilisation of 
 aircraft. 
 
 I have the honour to enclose a copy of the first part of 
 this document, which seems to merit your attention. 
 
 Etienne. 
 
 Memorandum on the Strengthening of the 
 German Army. 
 
 Berlin, March 19, 1913. 
 
 I. — General Memorandum of the New Military Laws, 
 The increase has taken place in three stages — 
 (1) The Conference of Algegiras has removed the last 
 doubt with regard to the existence of an Entente between 
 
 34 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT 35 
 
 France, Great Britain and Russia. Moreover, we have 
 seen that Austria-Hungary was obliged to keep some of her 
 forces mobilised against Serbia and Italy ; finally, our fleet 
 was not at that time sufficiently strong. At the end of the 
 dispute the first matter taken in hand was the strengthening 
 of our coast defences and the increase of our naval forces. 
 To meet the British plan of sending an Expeditionary Force 
 of 100,000 men to the Continent, it would be necessary to 
 make a better formation of reserves to be used according 
 to circumstances in the protection of the coast, in fortresses 
 and in siege operations. It was already clear at that time 
 that it would be absolutely necessary to make a great effort. 
 
 (2) The French having violated the Morocco Conventions 
 brought on the incident of Agadir. At that time the pro- 
 gress made by the French army, the mioral recovery of the 
 nation, the technical advance in the realm of aviation and of 
 machine guns rendered an attack on France less easy than 
 in the previous period. Further, an attack by the British 
 fleet had to be considered. This difficult situation opened 
 our eyes to the necessity for an increase in the army. This 
 increase was from this moment considered as a minimum. 
 
 (3) The war in the Balkans might have involved us in a 
 war in support of our ally. The new situation in the south 
 of Austria-Hiingary lessened the value of the help which 
 this ally could give us. On the other hand, France was 
 strengthened by a new loi des cadres : it was accordingly 
 necessary to anticipate the date of execution contemplated 
 by the new military law. 
 
 Public opinion is being prepared for a new increase in 
 the active army, which would ensure Germany an honour- 
 able peace and the possibility of properly ensuring her 
 influence in the affairs of the world. The new army law 
 and the supplementary law, which should follow, will 
 enable her almost completely to attain this end. 
 
 Neither ridiculous shriekings for revenge by French 
 chauvinists, nor the Englishmen's gnashing of teeth, nor 
 the wild gestures of the Slavs, will turn us from our aim of 
 protecting and extending Deutschtum (German influence) 
 all the world over. 
 
36 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 The French may arm as much as they wish ; they cannot 
 in one day increase their population. The employment 
 of an army of black men in the theatre of European opera- 
 tions will remain for a long time a dream, and in any case 
 be devoid of beauty. 
 
 II. — ^Aim and Obligations of our National Policy, of our 
 Army, and of the Special Organisations for Army Purposes. 
 
 Our new army law is only an extension of the military 
 education of the German nation. Our ancestors of 1818 
 made greater sacrifices. It is our sacred duty to sharpen 
 the sword that has been put into our hands and to hold it 
 ready for defence as well as for offence. We must allow the 
 idea to sink into the minds oj our people that our armaments 
 are an answer to the armaments and policy oj the French. 
 We must accustom them to think that an offensive on our 
 part is a necessity, in order to combat the provocations of 
 our adversaries. We must act with prudence so as not to 
 arouse suspicion, and to avoid the crisis which might injure 
 our economic existence. We must so manage matters 
 that under the heavy weight of powerful armaments, 
 considerable sacrifices, and strained political relations, an 
 outbreak (Losschlagen) should be considered as a relief, 
 because after it would come decades of peace and prosperity 
 as after 1870. We must prepare for war from the financial 
 point of view ; there is much to be done in this direction. 
 We must not arouse the distrust of our financiers, but there 
 are many things which cannot be concealed. 
 
 We must not be anxious about the fate of our colonies. 
 The final result in Europe will settle their position. On the 
 other hand we must stir up trouble in the north of Africa 
 and in Russia. It is a means of keeping the forces of the 
 enemy engaged. It is, therefore, absolutely necessary that 
 we should open up relations, by means of well-chosen agents, 
 with influential people in Egypt, Tunis, Algeria and 
 Morocco, in order to prepare the measures which would be 
 necessary in the case of a European war. Of course, in 
 case of war, we should openly recognise these secret allies ; 
 and, on the conclusion of peace, we should secure to them 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT 37 
 
 the advantages which they had gained. These aims are 
 capable of realisation. The first attempt, which was made 
 some years ago, opened up for us the desired relations. 
 Unfortunately these relations were not sufficiently consoli- 
 dated. Whether we like it or not, it will be necessary to 
 resort to preparations of this kind, in order to bring a 
 campaign rapidly to a conclusion. 
 
 Risings provoked in time of war by political agents need 
 to be carefully prepared and by material means. They 
 must break out simultaneously with the destruction of the 
 means of communication; they must have a controlling 
 head to be found among the influential leaders, religious or 
 political. The Egyptian School is particularly suited to 
 this purpose ; more and more it serves as a bond between 
 the intellectuals of the Mohammedan world. 
 
 However this naay be, we must be strong in order to 
 annihilate at one powerful swoop our enemies in the east 
 and west. But in the next European war it will also be 
 necessary that the small States should be forced to follow 
 us or be subdued. In certain conditions their armies and 
 their fortified places can be rapidly conquered or neutral- 
 ised; this would probably be the case with Belgium and 
 Holland, so as to p'revent our enemy in the west from gain- 
 ing territory which they could use as a base of operations 
 against our flank. In the north we have nothing to fear 
 from Denmark or Scandinavia, especially as in any event 
 we shall provide for the concentration of a strong northern 
 army, capable of replying to any menace from this direction. 
 In the most unfavourable case, Denmark might be forced 
 by Great Britain to abandon her neutrality; but by this 
 time the decision would already have been reached both 
 on land and on sea. Our northern army, the strength of 
 which could be largely increased by Dutch formations, 
 would oppose a very active defence to any offensive mea- 
 sures from this quarter. 
 
 In the south, Switzerland forms an extremely solid 
 bulwark, and we can rely on her energetically defending her 
 neutrality against France, and thus protecting our flank. 
 
 As was stated above, the situation with regard to the 
 
38 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 small States on our north-western frontier cannot be viewed 
 in quite the same light. This will be a vital question for us, 
 and our aim must be to take the offensive with a large 
 superiority from the first days. For this purpose it will be 
 necessary to concentrate a large army, followed up by 
 strong Landwehr formations, which will induce the small 
 States to follow us or at least to remain inactive in the 
 theatre of operations, and which would crush them in the 
 event of armed resistance. If we could induce these 
 States to organise their system of fortification in such a 
 manner as to constitute an effective protection for our 
 flank, we could abandon the proposed invasion. But for 
 this, army reorganisation, particularly in Belgium, would 
 be necessary in order that it might really guarantee an 
 effective resistance. If, on the contrary, their defensive 
 organisation was established against us, thus giving definite 
 advantages to our adversary in the west, we could in no 
 circumstances offer Belgium a guarantee for the security 
 of her neutrality. Accordingly, a vast field is open to our 
 diplomacy to work in this country on the lines of our 
 interests. 
 
 The arrangements, made with this end in view, allow us 
 to hope that it will be possible to take the offensive imme- 
 diately after the complete concentration of the army of 
 the Lower Rhine. An ultimatum with a short time-limit, 
 to be followed immediately by invasion, would allow a 
 sufficient justification for our action in international law* 
 
 Such are the duties which devolve on our army and which 
 demand a striking force of considerable numbers. If the 
 enemy attacks us, or if we wish to overcome him, we wiU 
 act as our brothers did a hundred years ago ; the eagle thus 
 provoked will soar in his flight, Avill seize the enemy in 
 his steel claws and render him harmless. We will then 
 remember that the provinces of the ancient German Empire, 
 the County of Burgundy and a large part of Lorraine, are 
 still in the hands of the French ; that thousands of brother 
 Germans in the Baltic Provinces are groaning under the 
 Slav yoke. It is a national question that Germany's 
 former possessions should be restored to her. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT 39 
 
 M. Alliz6, French Minister in Bavaria, to M. StSphen 
 Pichon, Minister jor Foreign A^airs. 
 
 Munich, July 10, 1913. 
 
 From a political point of view people are asking what 
 is the object of the new armaments. Recognising that 
 no one threatens Germany, they consider that German 
 diplomacy had already at its disposal forces sufficiently 
 large and alliances sufficiently powerful to protect German 
 interests with success. As I pointed out the day after the 
 Morocco Agreement of 1911, it is thought that the Imperial 
 Chancery will be as incapable in the future, as in the past, 
 of adopting an active foreign policy and of achieving, at 
 least in this sphere, successes which would justify the 
 burdens which the nation has assumed. 
 
 This frame of mind is all the more a cause of anxiety 
 as the Imperial Government would find themselves sup- 
 ported by public opinion in any enterprise on which they 
 might energetically embark, even at the risk of a conflict. 
 The state of war to which all the events in the east have 
 accustomed people's minds for the last two years appears 
 no longer like some distant catastrophe, but as a solution 
 of the political and economic difficulties which will continue 
 to increase. 
 
 May the example of Bulgaria exercise a salutary influence 
 on Germany. As the Prince Regent recently said to me, 
 " The fortune of war is always uncertain ; every war is 
 an adventure, and the man is a fool who risks it believing 
 himself sure of victory." 
 
 Allize. 
 
 Report to M. StSphen Pichon, Minister for Foreign A^ffairs, 
 on Public Opinion in Germany, according to the Reports 
 oj the Diplomatic and Consular Agents. 
 
 Paris, July 30, 1913. 
 
 People sometimes speak of a military party in Germany. 
 The expression is inaccurate, even if it is intended to convey 
 
40 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 the idea that Germany is the country where military power 
 is supreme, as it is said of France that it is the country 
 where the civil power is supreme. There exists a state of 
 mind which is more worthy of attention than this historical 
 fact, because it constitutes a danger more evident and more 
 recent. There is a war party, with leaders, and followers, 
 a press either convinced or subsidised for the purpose of 
 creating public opinion; it has means both varied and 
 formidable for the intimidation of the Government. It 
 goes to work in the country with clear ideas, burning aspira- 
 tions, and a determination that is at once thrilling and 
 fixed. 
 
 Those in favour of war are divided into several categories ; 
 each of these derives from its social caste, its class, its 
 intellectual and moral education, its interests, its hates, 
 special arguments which create a general attitude of mind 
 and increase the strength and rapidity of the stream of 
 warlike desire. 
 
 Some want war because in the present circumstances 
 they think it in inevitable, and, as far as Germany is con- 
 cerned, the sooner the better. 
 
 Others regard war as necessary for economic reasons 
 based on over-population, over-production, the need for 
 markets and outlets ; or for social reasons, i.e. to provide 
 the outside interests that alone can prevent or retard the 
 rise to power of the democratic and socialist masses. . . . 
 
 Historians, philosophers, political pamphleteers and 
 other apologists of German Kultur wish to impose upon the 
 world a way of thinking and feeling specifically German. 
 They wish to wrest from France that intellectual supremacy 
 which, according to the clearest thinkers, is still her 
 possession. . . . 
 
 We come finally to those whose support of the war policy 
 is inspired by rancour and resentment. These are the 
 most dangerous. They are recruited chiefly among diplo- 
 matists. . . . 
 
 Must war then be considered as inevitable ? 
 
 It is hardly hkely that Germany will take the risk if 
 France can make it clear to the world that the Entente 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT 41 
 
 Cordiale and the Russian alliance are not mere diplomatic 
 fictions but realities which exist and will make themselves 
 felt. The British fleet inspires a wholesome terror. It is 
 well known, however, that victory on sea will leave every- 
 thing in suspense. On land alone can a decisive issue be 
 obtained. 
 
 As for Russia, even though she carries greater weight 
 in political and military circles than was the case three or 
 four years ago, it is not believed that her co-operation will 
 be sufficiently rapid and energetic to be effective. 
 
 People's minds are thus getting used to consider the 
 next war as a duel between France and Germany. 
 
 M. Jules Cambon, French Ambassador at Berlin, to 
 M. Stdphen Pichon, Minister for Foreign Affairs. 
 
 Berlin, November 22, 1918. 
 
 I have received from an absolutely reliable source an 
 account of a conversation which took place a fortnight ago 
 between the Emperor and the King of the Belgians, in the 
 presence of the Chief of the General Staff — General von 
 Moltke. This conversation, it appears, has made a pro- 
 found impression on King Albert. I am in no way sur- 
 prised at the impression he gathered, which corresponds 
 with what I have myself felt for some time. Enmity 
 against us is increasing, and the Emperor has ceased to be 
 the friend of peace. 
 
 The Emperor's interlocutor had thought up till then, as 
 did all the world, that William II, whose personal influence 
 had been exerted on many critical occasions in support of 
 peace, was still in the same state of mind. He found him 
 this time completely changed. The German Emperor is 
 no longer in his eyes the champion of peace against the war- 
 like tendencies of certain parties in Germany. William II 
 has come to think that war with France is inevitable, 
 and that it must come sooner or later. Naturally he 
 believes in the crushing superiority of the German army 
 and in its certain success. 
 
42 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 General von Moltke spoke exactly in the same strain 
 as his sovereign. He, too, declared war to be necessary 
 and inevitable, but he showed himself still more assured 
 of success : " For," he said to the King, " this time the 
 matter must be settled, and your Majesty can have no 
 conception of the irresistible enthusiasm with which the 
 whole German people will be carried away when that day 
 comes." . . . 
 
 For the rest, the Emperor William is less master of 
 his impatience than is usually supposed. I have known him 
 more than once to allow his real thoughts to escape him. 
 Whatever may have been the object of the conversation 
 related to me, the revelation is none the less of extreme 
 gravity. It tallies with the precariousness of the general 
 situation and with the state of a certain shade of public 
 opinion in France and Germany. 
 
 If I may be allowed to draw a conclusion, I would submit 
 that it would be well to take account of this new factor, 
 namely, that the Emperor is becoming used to an order 
 of ideas which were formerly repugnant to him, and that, 
 to borrow from him a phrase which he likes to use, " we 
 must keep our powder dry." 
 
 Jules Cambon. 
 
 Indeed both the " situation " and the temperament of the 
 people made war inevitable. 
 
 " If war, and a war of conquest, was considered from all 
 time by Germany as a sacred right of the nations, if the 
 expansion of Germanism appeared to her as a superior 
 mission at the same time as an economic necessity, if the 
 present state of the world rendered this expansion difficult 
 for the future outside Europe, without provoking conflicts, 
 in which Germany would not be able to make use of the 
 whole of her power, it was logical that, in order to realise 
 what she considered to be a right and a duty, Germany 
 should let loose on Europe this world-war which alone 
 would permit her to solve at the same time all the questions 
 in suspense." ^ 
 
 1 VAllemagne et le Droit des Gens, p. 83. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT 43 
 
 " It would be unjust to attribute the responsibility of 
 1914 to the Emperor William, to the Crown Prince or to any 
 political or social coterie in Prussia, or to look for any 
 particular person as responsible for the repeated violations 
 of the rights of nations or international law such as have 
 been committed during this war by the German troops. 
 The fact is, that the whole of the German people were 
 awaiting for two generations at least, as they might have 
 been looking for a Messiah, the moment when a world-war 
 would allow them to repair the ' injustice of international 
 treaties' (see Tannenberg, Gross-Deutschland, pp. 23, 88). 
 Imbued with the idea that for the Fatherland everything is 
 permitted, that might is above right or rather creates it, 
 and that the duty of the strong is to employ every possible 
 means to reduce or eliminate the weak, their people, having 
 become an armed nation, has merely transformed into 
 action the conceptions which have been passed down to it 
 from one generation to another, and inculcated into the 
 mind of every individual from his childhood. The logic 
 natural to the masses has in this case strengthened the 
 effects of superior organisation in such a way that from the 
 Commander-in-Chief down to the last ' Landwehrsmann,' 
 or from ' His Excellency ' down to the humblest teacher, 
 there is from this point of view in Germany at the present 
 day, the most remarkable national unanimity. It is to 
 the nation to which one must look ; for the nation is itself 
 responsible for the principles of its civilisation." ^ 
 
 " From the year 1890 onwards it became generally more 
 and more impossible for a German to have his eyes not 
 forcibly focussed upon the glories of the House of Hohen- 
 zoUern, of Prussian victories, and the commercial glories of 
 the German Empire under the Prussian hegemony. It has 
 become increasingly difficult, it has become almost impos- 
 sible for a German child to have any sense of the relative 
 values to the world of the progress or the exploits of 
 any other nation. Since 1890 it has been rendered impos- 
 sible for any German child to echo Bismarck's phrase : 
 
 1 VAllemagne et le Droit des Gens, pp. 61-2. 
 
44 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 ' Germany is great, but the world is greater than Germany ' ; 
 for the German child is taught to think that though the 
 imiverse may be great and important, greater and more 
 important are the German Empire and its destinies." ^ 
 
 " The speeches of pubUc men, from the Kaiser down- 
 wards, the proceedings of Parliament, the newspapers and 
 periodicals, the lectures of professors, the works of histo- 
 rians, the schemes of commercial enterprise, the scale of 
 military preparation, the building of great canals and 
 railways, the scale of armaments, the very type and capacity 
 of the ships and airships, have made it abtindantly clear 
 for many years what Germany aimed at and how she pro- 
 posed to secure it. There is nothing in all history of the 
 same character, or conceived on the same vastness, or 
 prepared with the same scientific completeness and tho- 
 roughness, as this German scheme for world-power." ^ 
 
 Only two things were wanting, the " psychological 
 moment " spoken of by Bernhardi, and some sort of pretext 
 for the " attack." Germany believed that the " psycholo- 
 gical moment " and consequently the moment for action had 
 come in the spring of 1914. She thought that England was 
 on the verge of civil war over the Irish question. She had 
 been advised by her agents and spies distributed over India, 
 Egypt, and the British Colonies that they had succeeded in 
 preparing the populations for revolt, and she believed that 
 the French and Russian people were divided like the 
 English, against themselves, and that their armies were 
 disorganised.^ 
 
 " The Anglo-Irish difficultiesi the Canadian-Hindu trou- 
 bles, the sensational disclosures in the French Chamber as 
 to the bad condition of the army, the alleged deficiencies 
 in the French aeroplane squadrons, the only partial recovery 
 
 ^ Ford Madox Hueffer, When Blood is their Argument, pp. 
 211-12. 
 
 2 Sir P. Fitzpatrick, Germany's Designs on South Africa, 
 pp. 65-6. 
 
 * " Occasione discordiae nostrae et civilium armorum . . . 
 Gallias adfectavere " {Profiting by our discord and civil strife, 
 they [the Germans] aspired to the conquest of the 'provinces of 
 Gaul). Tacitus, Germania, 37. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT 45 
 
 of Russia from the effects of the Japanese war, the exhaus- 
 tion of the Balkan States themselves from their recent 
 wars, even the preoccupation of the United States with 
 troubles in Mexico, all seemed to preclude the chance of a 
 general interference." ^ 
 
 The following is the situation that Tannenberg, writing 
 in 1911, predicted would ensue on the outbreak of the 
 Great War — 
 
 " The occupation of Prague by the Germans is followed 
 by a declaration of war by France. On the same day 
 Russia decrees the mobilisation of her armies. England 
 awaits developments. Things never go better with England 
 than when the Powers of Continental Europe are waging 
 war against one another. To furnish the two parties with 
 arms and provisions is a harvest that she has not been 
 able to reap for a long time. England will be careful not 
 to lose, by declaring either for one party or the other, so 
 exceptional an opportunity of augmenting her riches. 
 When peace is concluded, she will know how to put herself 
 in the front. She remembers that the war of 1870-71 
 enabled her to seize Egypt, and she hopes that the founda- 
 tion of Greater Germany will mean to her a new increase 
 of power. , . . Germany will send against Russia an army 
 of a million soldiers. The struggle will take place in the 
 Baltic Provinces. , . . The Russians will gradually abandon 
 these territories, that in population are foreign to them, 
 and will retire on Moscow ; but the German armies will not 
 follow them in the forests and marshes of Russia. They 
 will be content to occupy the territories which we may 
 be sure will be permanently acquired. It is to the west 
 that Germany will send the greater part of her forces. 
 Eight days after the declaration of war by France, four 
 millions of German soldiers will cross what, until now, has 
 formed the eastern frontier of this country. The news 
 from the east, including the declaration of war by the 
 Japanese (against Russia), the insurrection of the Poles and 
 the revolution in Russia which again makes its appearance 
 
 1 A Textbook of the War for Americans, pp. 135-6. See also 
 Pan-Germanism, by Professor Usher. 
 
46 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 — all these circumstances crush in France the courage 
 which she showed at the beginning of the war in 1870. . . . 
 Forty years of Republican regime have ended by depriving 
 the French youth of its last remnant of warlike zeal, of the 
 spirit of sacrifice and of subordination. Nobody now 
 wishes to sacrifice his ego to the demands of duty. Folly 
 and cowardice rival each other. The suspicion of treachery 
 again arises in the soul of the French soldier. The for- 
 tresses, from which the French expected so much, no longer 
 resist the attacks of the German airship. . . . 
 
 " The north and east of France are occupied. After a 
 success achieved by the German fleet. . . . Paris does not 
 even attempt to defend itself. . . . Italy declares war on 
 France, and it becomes certain that England will never 
 think of taking an active part in the struggle. Wares paid 
 for in good money — cannons, guns and munitions — yes, 
 but soldiers, no. Where could she get them, if she wanted 
 to send them? India is only waiting for the propitious 
 moment to shake off the English yoke. The Hindu 
 students of Bengal assassinate the high English function- 
 aries. In Egs^pt there is a like crisis. The cry of the der- 
 vishes is heard afar, ' Egypt for the Egyptians ! ' In the 
 newspapers of Australia, people discuss what will be the 
 best thing to do in case of England's defeat — ^to group 
 the Australian States together in an autonomous con- 
 federation, or attach them to the United States of America 
 on account of the open threats of Japan. Canada finds 
 itself in the presence of similar circumstances, and the 
 newspapers give every day details as to the disquieting 
 increase in the number of Mongolians established at Van- 
 couver and in British Columbia. The King and the English 
 Parliament congratulate themselves that they have to 
 take no part in the struggle. 
 
 " The French nation is seized with profound discourage- 
 ment. All their hopes disappear. Russia has failed them. 
 The Czech lion lies on the ground garotted, guarded by the 
 men of the German Landwehr. . . . Italy occupies the 
 Savoy, Nice and Corsica. England and America talk of 
 business, but not of fighting. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT 47 
 
 " Events follow one another rapidly. The Germans 
 besiege St. Petersburg . . . the Germans occupy Paris and 
 advance along the Loire. Holland and Belgium request 
 to be admitted into the German Empire as confederate 
 States with all their colonies. The offer is accepted, but not 
 without reserves. Who would think of preventing victori- 
 ous Germany from declaring these countries part of the 
 Empire unconditionally ? Questions of detail as to their 
 admission will form the subject of subsequent discussions at 
 Berlin. One thing is certain, and that is that the colonies 
 of these two States, for motives of general right, must 
 become, not the private property of a confederate State, 
 but part of the colonial dominion of the whole Empire. . . . 
 Peace negotiations with France will take place at Brussels, 
 which town in future will be called ' Brussel.' The ancient 
 Brussels will disappear for ever. The war must leave the 
 conquered nothing but eyes with which to weep. Modesty 
 on our part would be pure folly." ^ 
 
 Elsewhere, with reference to the future conquest of 
 Britain, the same writer says : " We shall not have to deal 
 with the whole of the Anglo-Saxon race, but only with 
 England. The United States are a country in themselves. 
 Perhaps even they would be in our favour, because they 
 must realise that after England had been defeated they 
 would have the leadership of the Anglo-Saxon race in the 
 Colonies. . . . And moreover, the support of the Colonies 
 is a very doubtful matter. If England goes under in the 
 European war the English Colonies will show the greatest 
 eagerness to detach themselves from the Mother Country 
 and institute a home government. The United States 
 will occupy Canada, which is their neighbour ; the South 
 Africans will become Boers; Australia and New Zealand 
 will form a Republic on the model of the United States. 
 England knows perfectly well what she has to expect from 
 her Colonies. England is defending in the Colonies the 
 money that she has put there. The inhabitants of the 
 
 1 Gross-Deutschland, pp. 234-7. One is forcibly reminded of 
 a certain story in The Arabian Nights, that of " The Barber's 
 Fifth Brother." 
 
48 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 Colonies have but little interest in her. Their own affairs 
 come fitst. For Australia and Canada the Mongohan 
 question is more important than all the European wars 
 into which England might be drawn." ^ 
 
 But for the present the best course would be to bribe 
 England to stand aside.^ Nothing would be easier, as 
 Tannenberg thought. " It is England's treachery to which 
 she owes her greatness. I admire England and her policy. 
 One of the means to which she has recourse, in the applica- 
 tion of this principle of treachery, is the frequent change 
 of the party in power. When an enemy nation offers 
 more than a friendly one, the Ministry resigns, the King 
 sends the statesmen about their business and orders new 
 elections. Then the other party is victorious. A new 
 Ministry comes into power and institutes a new policy. . . . 
 The English are first-rate men of business ! How would it 
 be, then, if we try to make it clear once more that a change 
 of policy would be advantageous to them. In order to 
 effect that, all we have to do is to bid higher than our 
 adversary France, I only mention France because, in the 
 general opinion of the German people, it is to France that 
 we must look for the origin of all the evils of which we have 
 been victims for the last forty years. Our other adver- 
 saries are only the borrowers and obedient debtors of the 
 universal banker. King Edward the Irreconcilable is dead ! 
 Long live George V ! It may be that he will try something 
 else." 8 
 
 The circumstances which appeared to authorise the belief 
 in Germany that the time for action had come, have been 
 well described by Dr. Dillon. He points out the falsity of 
 the conclusions she drew from those circumstances, with 
 regard to England, in the following words — 
 
 " In all these close calculations the decisive element of 
 national character was left out, with the consequences we 
 see. Despite their powers of observation and analysis, 
 the Germans, even those who are gifted and experienced, 
 
 ^ Gross-Deutschland, pp. 178-9. 
 
 ^ An attempt was actually made, see p. 91. 
 
 s 
 
 Gross-Deutschland, pp. 192-3. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT 49 
 
 are devoid of some indefinable inner sense, without which 
 they must ever lack true insight into the soul-stuff, the 
 dormant qualities of the people whose wrath they have 
 wantonly aroused. To the realm of British thought and 
 feeling they, with their warped psychological equipment, 
 find no access. Its secondary characteristics they grasp with 
 their noted thoroughness and seek to practise upon with 
 their traditional cynicism. But the deeper springs of our 
 race-character, its clear-souled faith, its masculine vigour, 
 and its vast reserve of elemental force, lie beyond their 
 narrow range of vision. To the sentient and perceptive 
 powers even of the most acute German observer, the work- 
 ings of the British soul, its inherited nobilities, its deep 
 moral feelings, are inaccessible. . . . Herr von Kuhlmann 
 in particular had made a complete survey of the situation in 
 Ireland, and his exhaustive report was corroborated by em- 
 phatic statements of a like tenor received from independent 
 witnesses, whose duty it was to collect data on the spot. 
 Utterances of public men and influential private individuals 
 in the country were reported in full. Plans, dates, num- 
 bers, were set down with scrupulous care. . . . Even the 
 suffragette movement was included in this comprehensive 
 survey, and was classed among the fetters which must 
 handicap the British Cabinet, should it display any velleity 
 to join hands with France and Russia." ^ 
 
 " The blimdering incapacity of the Kaiser's counsellors 
 and servants in statecraft at Berlin and in foreign capitals 
 committed Germany to a war against the joined might of 
 England, France and Russia. . . . 
 
 " Wilhelm II was wretchedly served at Vienna by an 
 Ambassador blinded by Russophobia ; at St. Petersburg by 
 another who advised his Home Government that Russia 
 would not go to war; and at London by the muddling 
 Lichnowsky, whose first guesses were commonly wrong 
 and his second too late to be serviceable. Germany 
 literally forced an alliance for this war between England 
 and Russia, two Powers often antagonistic in the past 
 and having now no common interest save the curbing of 
 * A Scrap of Paper, pp. 143-4. 
 
50 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 Germany. The terrible misjudgment of the General 
 Staff hurled Germany headlong into the pit that in- 
 competent diplomacy had prepared. The Empire went 
 to war with three great nations able to meet her with 
 forces more than double her own." ^ 
 
 The German newspaper Der Tag ^ confesses the blunder 
 in the following words — 
 
 " So many of our calculations have deceived us. We 
 expected that British India would rise when the first shot 
 was fired in Europe, but in reality thousands of Indians 
 came to fight with the British against us. We anticipated 
 that the whole British Empire would be torn to pieces, 
 but the Colonies appear to be closer united than ever with 
 the Mother Country. We expected a triumphant rebellion 
 in South Africa, yet it turned out nothing but a failure. 
 We expected trouble in Ireland, but, instead, she sent her 
 best soldiers against us. We anticipated that the party 
 of ' peace at any price ' would be dominant in England, 
 but it melted away in the ardour to fight against Germany. 
 We reckoned that England was degenerate and incapable 
 of placing any weight in the scale, but she seems to be our 
 principal enemy. 
 
 " The same has been the case with France and Russia. 
 We thought that France was depraved and divided, and 
 we found that she is a formidable opponent. We believed 
 that the Russian people were far too discontented to fight 
 for their Government,^ and we made our plans on the sup- 
 position of a rapid collapse of Russia; but, instead, she 
 mobilised her millions quickly and well, and her people 
 are full of enthusiasm, and their power is crushing. Those 
 who led us into all these mistakes and miscalculations have 
 laid upon themselves a heavy responsibility." 
 
 Thus it was hoped and believed in Germany that England 
 
 ^ The New York Times, December 15, 1914. 
 
 2 Quoted in The Times of April 16, 1915. 
 
 ^ " It is clear that Austria did not at first beheve that Russia 
 would or could fight. On July 24 the German Ambassador at 
 Vienna told our own Ambassador that this was also Germany's 
 opinion." — T. A. Cook, Kaiser, Krupp and Kultur, p. 131. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT 51 
 
 would stand aloof until France and Russia had been dis- 
 posed of. It was realised that Germany's navy was not 
 yet in a position to cope successfully with that of Great 
 Britain. It was still felt that under present circumstances 
 " the last settlement, the settlement with England," as 
 Professor Treitschke wrote, " would probably be the 
 lengthiest and most difficult." ^ But when the countries 
 of Continental Europe had been practically reduced to 
 German dependencies; when Calais, Cherbourg, and 
 Antwerp had been converted into German ports and 
 fortresses, the days of the British Empire would be 
 numbered. 
 
 ^ Deutsche Kdm/pfe. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE PRETEXT 
 
 So in the spring the final details of the preparations 
 were seen to. During March, April and May, large num- 
 bers of horses were bought in Ireland and various parts of 
 unsuspecting England, and exported to Germany. Large 
 quantities of grain were shipped to Hamburg for the use 
 of the troops, and mobilisation was already secretly begun, 
 in the early summer, both in Germany and Austria. 
 
 The "pretext" was furnished by the murder of the 
 Austrian Archduke Ferdinand and his morganatic wife, 
 at Sarajevo, on Austrian territory, on June 28, 1914, by 
 two Bosniaks, both Austrian subjects. One of them, accord- 
 ing to a statement made by the Serbian Minister in London 
 to the British Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 
 had been previously regarded as a dangerous character 
 by the Serbian authorities, who had accordingly wished 
 to expel him from Serbia; but he was protected by the 
 Austrian authorities on the plea that he was an innocent 
 and harmless person. According to a statement made 
 by the German Socialist leader, Herr Liebknecht, in the 
 Reichstag, on March 16, 1915 — amid great tumult — ^there 
 were wide circles in Germany and Austria who regarded 
 the Sarajevo murder as a " gift from God," so opportunely 
 did it occur. 
 
 The Austrian Government, supported beyond all doubt 
 by the German Government, elected to fix the respon- 
 sibility for this crime, committed by Austrian subjects, on 
 the Serbian Government, and on July 23 sent them 
 an ultimatum, requiring them to make a humiliating 
 
 52 
 
THE PRETEXT 53 
 
 declaration, of which the following were the principal 
 clauses : — 
 
 " The Royal Serbian Government undertake — 
 "To remove from the military service, and from the 
 administration in general, all officers and functionaries 
 guilty of propaganda against the Austro-Hungarian 
 monarchy, whose names and deeds the Austro-Hungarian 
 Government reserve to themselves the right of commu- 
 nicating to the Royal Government : To accept the 
 collaboration in Serbia of representatives of the Austro- 
 Hungarian Government for the suppression of the sub- 
 versive movement directed against the territorial integrity 
 of the monarchy: To take judicial proceedings against 
 accessories to the plot of June 28 who are on Serbian 
 territory. Delegates of the Austro-Hungarian Government 
 will take part in the investigation relating thereto." 
 
 Serbia was thus siuiunoned to admit that she had par- 
 ticipated in a crime with which, so far as any evidence 
 went, she had had nothing to do ; to dismiss all her leading 
 men, soldiers or statesmen, who might stand in the way of 
 Austria's plans, and to allow Austrian delegates to sit in 
 Serbian tribunals. She was, in fact, required to sign away 
 her independence and acknowledge herself as Austria's 
 vassal, or submit to the consequences of her refusal. In 
 her helplessness — in the hope of saving herself from the 
 horrors of invasion by a ruthless enemy — she replied, 
 within the appointed time of forty-eight hours, practically 
 accepting all the terms of the ultimatum with one reserva- 
 tion, namely, that : "As regards the participation in this 
 inquiry of Austro-Hungarian agents or authorities, ap- 
 pointed for this purpose by the Imperial and Royal Govern- 
 ment [of Austria], the Royal Government [of Serbia] cannot 
 accept such an agreement, as it would be a violation of 
 the constitution and of the law of criminal procedure." 
 And it was added that : "If the Imperial and Royal 
 Government are not satisfied with this reply, the Serbian 
 Government, considering that it is not to the common 
 interest to precipitate the solution of this question, are 
 ready, as always, to accept a pacific understanding, either 
 
54 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 by referring this question to the decision of the International 
 Tribunal of the Hague or to the Great Powers who took part 
 in the drawing up of the Declaration made by the Serbian 
 Government on the 18th (31st) March, 1909." 
 
 This reply was couched in the most conciliatory and 
 humble terms ; but the Austrian Government preferred to 
 consider it unsatisfactory. The gravity of the situation 
 lay in the fact that, on the one hand, Austria was being 
 supported, if not directly encouraged, by her ally and 
 virtual dictatress, Germany, while on the other, an appeal 
 by Serbia to the Tsar of Russia, as the Protector of the 
 Slav interests, could not be without avail ; and France was 
 in close alliance with Russia.^ The Crown Prince of 
 Serbia had already, on the 24th July, telegraphed to the 
 Tsar : " We may be attacked at the expiration of the 
 time-limit by the Austro-Hungarian army, which is con- 
 centrating upon our frontiers. We are unable to defend 
 ourselves, and we beg Your Majesty to come to our aid 
 as soon as possible." 
 
 The events which followed, and the efforts which were 
 made by the four Great Powers — England, France, Italy 
 and Russia — ^to preserve the peace and ward off the appal- 
 ling catastrophe with which the Cei^tral Powers were 
 threatening Europe, may be learnt in brief from the follow- 
 ing extracts from the diplomatic correspondence which 
 took place subsequently to the despatch of the ultimatum 
 to Serbia. 
 
 ^ The following passage occurs in the German White Book, 
 dated Berlin, 1914: "We were perfectly aware that a possible 
 warlike attitude of Austria-Hungary against Serbia might bring 
 Russia upon the field, and that it might involve us in a war in 
 accordance with our duty as allies. We could not, however, 
 . . . advise our ally to take up a yielding attitude . . . nor 
 deny him our assistance in these trying days." " This state- 
 ment is particularly important as contradicting the assurance 
 given by Prince Lichnowsky, German Ambassador in London, to 
 Sir E. Grey, that ' the German Government were endeavouring 
 to hold back and moderate the Cabinet of Vienna,' on July 21, 
 1914. Both are given in the British Official ' Collected Docu- 
 ments Relating to the Outbreak of the European War,' pp. 151, 
 406." — H. W. Wilson in the National Review, January, 1917. 
 
THE PRETEXT 55 
 
 M. Jules Campon, French Ambassador at Berlin, to 
 M. Bienvenu-Martin, Acting Minister jor Foreign A^ffairs. 
 
 Berlin, July 24, 1914. 
 
 I asked the Secretary of State to-day, in the interview 
 which I had with him, if it was correct, as announced in 
 the newspapers, that Austria had presented a note to the 
 Powers on her dispute with Servia ; if he had received it ; 
 and what view he took of it. 
 
 Herr von Jagow answered me in the affirmative, adding 
 that the note was forcible, and that he approved it, the 
 Servian Government having for a long time past wearied 
 the patience of Austria. Moreover, he considers this 
 question to be a domestic one for Austria, and he hopes 
 that it will be localised. 
 
 I then said to him that not having as yet received any 
 instructions, the views which I wished to exchange vnth 
 him were strictly personal. Thereupon I asked him if the 
 Berlin Cabinet had really been entirely ignorant of Austria's 
 requirements before they were communicated to Belgrade, 
 and as he told me that that was so, I showed him my 
 surprise at seeing him thus undertake to support claims, 
 of whose limit and scope he was ignorant. 
 
 Herr von Jagow interrupted me, and said, "It is only 
 because we are having a personal conversation that I allow 
 you to say that to me." 
 
 " Certainly," I replied, " but if Peter I humiliates himself, 
 domestic trouble will probably break out in Servia; that 
 Avill open the door to fresh possibilities, and do you know 
 where you will be led by Vienna ? " I added that the 
 language of the German newspapers was not the language 
 of persons who were indifferent to, and unacquainted with, 
 the question, but betokened an active support. Finally, 
 I remarked that the shortness of the time-limit given to 
 Servia for submission would make an unpleasant impression 
 in Europe. . . . 
 
 Jules Cambon. 
 
66 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 M. Paul Cambon, French Ambassador at London, to 
 M. Bienvenu-Martin, Acting Minister jor Foreign Affairs. 
 
 London, July 24, 1914. 
 
 Sir Edward Grey having discussed with me his desire 
 to leave no stone unturned to avert the crisis, we agreed in 
 thinking that the British Cabinet might ask the German 
 Government to take the initiative in approaching Vienna 
 with the object of offering the mediation, between Austria 
 and Servia, of the four Powers which are not directly 
 interested. If Germany agrees, time will be gained, and 
 this is the essential point. 
 
 Sir Edward Grey told me that he would discuss with 
 Prince Lichnowsky the proposal I have just explained. I 
 mentioned the matter to my Russian colleague, who is 
 afraid of a surprise from Germany, and who imagines that 
 Austria would not have despatched her ultimatum without 
 previous agreement with Berlin. 
 
 Count Benckendorft told me that Prince Lichnowsky, 
 when he returned from leave about a month ago, had 
 intimated that he held pessimistic views regarding the 
 relations between St. Petersburgh and Berlin. He had 
 observed the uneasiness caused in this latter capital by 
 the rumours of a naval entente between Russia and Great 
 Britain, by the Tsar's visit to Bucharest, and by the 
 strengthening of the Russian army. Count Benckendorff 
 had concluded from this that a war with Russia would be 
 looked upon without disfavour in Germany. 
 
 The Under-Secretary of State has been struck, as all of 
 us have been, by the anxious looks of Prince Lichnowsky 
 since his return from Berlin, and he considers that if Ger- 
 many had wished to do so she could have stopped the 
 despatch of the ultimatmn. 
 
 The situation, therefore, is as grave as it can be, and we 
 see no way of arresting the course of events. 
 
 However, Count Benckendorff thinks it right to attempt 
 the dimarche upon which I have agreed with Sir Edward 
 Grey. 
 
 Paul Cambon. 
 
THE PRETEXT 57 
 
 M. Jules Cambon, French Minister at, Berlin, to 
 M. Bienvenu-Martin, Acting Minister, jor Foreign Affairs. 
 
 Berlin, July 25, 1914. 
 
 The Belgian Minister appears very anxious about the 
 course of events. 
 
 He is of opinion that Austria and Germany have desired 
 to take advantage of the fact that, owing to a combination 
 of circumstances at the present moment, Russia and 
 England appear to them to be threatened by domestic 
 troubles, while in France the state of the army is under 
 discussion. Moreover, he does not believe in the pretended 
 ignorance of the Government of Berlin on the subject of 
 Austria's demarche. 
 
 He thinks that if the form of it has not been submitted 
 to the Cabinet at Berlin, the moment of its despatch has 
 been cleverly chosen in consultation with that Cabinet, 
 in order to surprise the Triple Entente at a moment of 
 disorganisation. 
 
 He has seen the Italian Ambassador, who has just inter- 
 rupted his holiday in order to return. It looks as if Italy 
 would be surprised, to put it no higher, at having been kept 
 out of the whole affair by her two allies. 
 
 Jules Cambon. 
 
 M. de Fleuriau, French Charge d' Affaires at London, to 
 M. Bienvenu-Martin, Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs. 
 
 London, July 25, 1914. 
 
 The German Ambassador came to the Foreign Office to 
 state that his Government would refuse to interfere in the 
 dispute between Austria and Servia. 
 
 M. Bienvenu-Martin, Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs, 
 to the French Ambassadors at London, St. Petersburgh, 
 Berlin, Vienna, Rome. 
 
 Paris, July 27, 1914. 
 
 The Austro-Htmgarian Ambassador came to see me to 
 hand me a memorandum which amounted to an indict- 
 ment of Servia. . . . 
 
58 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 I then called the Ambassador's attention to the fact that 
 Servia had accepted Austria's requirements on practically 
 every point, and that the dijfferences that remained on 
 certain points might vanish with a little mutual goodwill, 
 and with the help of the Powers who wished for peace; 
 by fixing to-morrow as the date for putting her resolution 
 into effect, Austria for the second time was making their 
 co-operation practically impossible, and was assuming a 
 grave responsibility in running the risk of precipitating a 
 war the limits of which it was impossible to foresee. 
 
 I enclose for your information the memorandum that 
 Count Sc^zsen handed to me, 
 
 Bienvenu-Martin. 
 
 Sir E. Goschen, British Ambassador at Berlin, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 (Received July 27.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Berlin, July 27, 1914. 
 
 Your telegram of 26th July. 
 
 Secretary of State says that conference you suggest 
 would practically amount to a court of arbitration and could 
 not, in his opinion, be called together except at the request 
 of Austria and Russia. He could not therefore fall in with 
 your suggestion, desirous though he was to co-operate 
 for the maintenance of peace. I said I was sure that your 
 idea had nothing to do with arbitration, but meant that 
 representatives of the four nations not directly interested 
 should discuss and suggest means for avoiding a dangerous 
 situation. He maintained, however, that such a conference 
 as you proposed was not practicable. He added that news 
 he had just received from St. Petersburgh showed that there 
 was an intention on the part of M. de Sazonof ^ to exchange 
 views with Count Berchtold.^ He thought that this 
 method of procedure might lead to a satisfactory result, 
 and that it would be best, before doing anything else, to 
 
 ^ Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs. 
 
 2 Austro-Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs. 
 
THE PRETEXT 59 
 
 await outcome of the exchange of views between the 
 Austrian and Russian Governments. 
 
 In the course of a short conversation Secretary of State 
 said that as yet Austria was only partially mobilising, but 
 that if Russia mobilised against Germany latter would have 
 to follow suit, I asked him what he meant by " mobilis- 
 ing against Germany." He said that if Russia only 
 mobilised in south, Germany would not mobilise, but if she 
 mobilised in north, Germany would have to do so too, 
 and Russian system of mobilisation was so complicated 
 that it might be difficult exactly to locate her mobilisation. 
 Germany would therefore have to be very careful not to be 
 taken by surprise. 
 
 Finally, Secretary of State said that news from St. 
 Petersburgh had caused him to take more hopeful view 
 of the general situation. 
 
 Sir M. de Bunsen, British Ambassador at Vienna, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received July 28.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Vienna, July 28, 1914. 
 
 I saw Minister for Foreign Affairs this morning. 
 
 His Excellency declared that Austria-Hungary cannot 
 delay warlike proceedings against Servia, and would have 
 to decline any suggestion of negotiations on basis of Servian 
 reply. 
 
 Prestige of Dual Monarchy was engaged, and nothing 
 could now prevent conflict. 
 
 Sir Edward Grey to Sir E. Goschen, British Ambassador 
 
 at Berlin, 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Foreign Office, July 28, 1914. 
 
 German Government, having accepted principle of 
 mediation between Austria and Russia by the four Powers, 
 if necessary, I am ready to propose that the German Secre- 
 tary of State should suggest the lines on which this principle 
 
60 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 should be applied. I will, however, keep the idea in reserve 
 until we see how the conversations between Austria and 
 Russia progress. 
 
 Sir E. Goschen, British Ambassador at Berlin, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 (Received July 29.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Berlin, July 28, 1914. 
 
 At invitation of Imperial Chancellor, I called upon his 
 Excellency this evening. He said that he wished me to 
 tell you that he was most anxious that Germany should work 
 together with England for maintenance of general peace, 
 as they had done successfully in the last European crisis. 
 He had not been able to accept your proposal for a con- 
 ference of representatives of the Great Powers, because he 
 did not think that it would be effective, and because such 
 a conference would in his opinion have had appearance of 
 an " Areopagus " consisting of two Powers of each group 
 sitting in judgment upon the two remaining Powers ; but 
 his inability to accept proposed conference must not be 
 regarded as militating against his strong desire for effective 
 co-operation. You could be assured that he was doing his 
 very best both at Vienna and St. Petersburgh to get the 
 two Governments to discuss the situation directly with 
 each other and in a friendly way. He had great hopes 
 that such discussions would take place and lead to a satis- 
 factory result, but if the news were true which he had just 
 read in the papers, that Russia had mobilised fourteen army 
 corps in the south, he thought situation was very serious, 
 and he himself would be in a very difficult position, as in 
 these circumstances it would be out of his power to con- 
 tinue to preach moderation at Vienna. He added that 
 Austria, who as yet was only partially mobilising, would 
 have to take similar measures, and if war were to result, 
 Russia would be entirely responsible. I ventured to say 
 that if Austria refused to take any notice of Servian note, 
 which, to my mind, gave way in nearly every point de- 
 manded by Austria, and which in any case offered a basis 
 
THE PRETEXT 61 
 
 for discussion, surely a certain portion of responsibility 
 would rest with her. His Excellency said that he did not 
 wish to discuss Servian note, but that Austria's standpoint, 
 and in this he agreed, was that her quarrel with Servia 
 was a purely Austrian concern with which Russia had 
 nothing to do. He reiterated his desire to co-operate 
 with England and his intention to do his utmost to maintain 
 general peace. " A war between the Great Powers must 
 be avoided " were his last words. 
 
 Austrian colleague said to me to-day that a general war 
 was most unlikely, as Russia neither wanted nor was in a 
 position to make war. I think that that opinion is shared 
 by many people here. 
 
 M. Jules Canibon, French Ambassador at Berlin, to 
 M, Bienvenu-Martin, Acting Minister jor Foreign Avoirs. 
 
 Berlin, July 27, 1914. 
 
 I had a conversation to-day with the Secretary of State 
 and gave support to the d-marche which Sir E. Goschen had 
 just made. 
 
 Herr von Jagow replied to me, as he had to the British 
 Ambassador, that he could not accept the proposal that 
 the Italian, French and German Ambassadors should be 
 instructed to endeavour to find with Sir Edward Grey a 
 method of resolving the present difficulties, because that 
 would be to set up a real conference to deal with the affairs 
 of Austria and Russia. 
 
 I replied to Herr von Jagow that I regretted his answer, 
 but that the great object which Sir Edward Grey had in 
 view went beyond any question of form; that what was 
 important was the co-operation of Great Eritain and 
 France with Germany and Italy in a work of peace ; that 
 this co-operation could take effect through common di- 
 marches at St, Petersburgh and at Vienna ; that he had often 
 expressed to me his regret at seeing the two allied groups 
 always opposed to one another in Europe; that there was 
 here an opportunity of proving that there was a European 
 
62 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 spirit, by showing four Powers belonging to the two 
 groups acting in common agreement to prevent a 
 conflict. 
 
 Herr von Jagow evaded the point by saying that Ger- 
 many had engagements with Austria. I observed to 
 him that the relations of Germany with Vienna were no 
 closer than those of France with Russia, and that it was 
 he himself who actually was putting the two groups of 
 allies in opposition. 
 
 The Secretary of State then said to me that he was not 
 refusing to act so as to keep off an Austro-Russian dispute, 
 but that he could not intervene in the Austro-Servian 
 dispute. " The one is the consequence of the other," I 
 said, " and it is a question of preventing the appearance 
 of a new factor of such a nature as to lead to intervention 
 by Russia," 
 
 As the Secretary of State persisted in saying that he was 
 obliged to keep his engagements towards Austria, I asked 
 him if he was bound to follow her everywhere with his 
 eyes blindfolded, and if he had taken note of the reply of 
 Servia to Austria, which the Servian Charge d' Affaires 
 had delivered to him this morning. " I have not yet had 
 time," he said. " I regret it. You would see that, except 
 on some points of detail, Servia has yielded entirely. It 
 appears then that, since Austria has obtained the satisfac- 
 tion which your support has procured for her, you might 
 to-day advise her to be content or to examine with Servia 
 the terms of her reply." 
 
 As Herr von Jagow gave me no clear reply, I asked him 
 whether Germany wished for war. He protested energeti- 
 cally, saying that he knew what was in my mind, but that 
 it was wholly incorrect. " You must then," I replied, 
 " act consistently. When you read the Servian reply, I 
 entreat you in the name of humanity to weigh the terms in 
 your conscience, and do not personally assume a part of 
 the responsibility for the catastrophe which you are allowing 
 to be prepared." Herr von Jagow protested anew, adding 
 that he was ready to join England and France in a common 
 effort, but that it was necessary to find a form for this 
 
THE PRETEXT 63 
 
 intervention which he could accept, and that the Cabinets 
 must come to an understanding on this point. 
 
 Jules Cambon. 
 
 M. Bienvenu-Martin, Acting Minister jor Foreign Affairs, 
 to M. Ren^ Viviani, President oj the Council on board the 
 " La France:' 
 
 Paris, July 28, 1914. 
 
 In spite of the assurances given, both in Berlin and Paris 
 by the German representatives, of the desire of their 
 Government to assist in efforts for the maintenance of 
 peace, no sincere action has been taken by them to hold 
 back Austria; the British proposal, which consists in 
 action by the four less-interested Powers to obtain a cessa- 
 tion of military operations at Vienna, Belgrade, and St. 
 Petersburgh, and in a meeting at London of the German, 
 French, and Italian Ambassadors under the chairmanship 
 of Sir E; Grey, with a view of seeking a solution of the 
 Austro-Servian difficulty, meets with objections at Berlin 
 of such a nature as must lead to failure. 
 
 The Austrian Ambassador has proceeded to announce 
 that his Government will to-morrow take energetic mea- 
 sures to compel Servia to give to them the satisfaction and 
 guarantees which they demand from that Power; Count 
 Scezsen has given no explanation as to those measures; 
 according to our Military Attach^ at Vienna, mobilisation 
 dating from July 28 appears to be certain. 
 
 Bienvenu-Martin. 
 
 Sir M. de Bunsen, British Ambassador at Vienna, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received July 29.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Vienna, July 28, 1914. 
 
 I am informed by the Russian Ambassador that the 
 Russian Government's suggestion has been declined by the 
 Austro-Hungarian Government. The suggestion was to 
 the effect that the means of settling the Austro-Servian 
 conflict should be discussed directly between Russian 
 
64 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs, and the Austrian Ambassador 
 at St. Petersburgh, who should be authorised accordingly. 
 The Russian Ambassador thinks that a conference in 
 London of the less interested Powers, such as you have 
 proposed, offers now the only prospect of preserving peace 
 of Europe, and he is sure that the Russian Government will 
 acquiesce willingly in your proposal. So long as opposing 
 armies have not actually come in contact, all hope need not 
 be abandoned. 
 
 M. Dumaine, French Ambassador at Vienna, to 
 M. Bienvenu-Martin, Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs. 
 
 Vienna, July 28, 1914. 
 
 Count Berchtold has just declared to Sir M. de Bunsen 
 that any intervention, aiming at the resumption of the 
 discussion between Austria and Servia on the basis of the 
 Servian reply, would be useless, and besides that it would 
 be too late, as war had been officially declared at mid-day. 
 
 The attitude of my Russian colleague has never varied 
 up to the present ; in his opinion it is not a question of 
 localising the conflict, but rather of preventing it. The 
 declaration of war will make very difficult the initiation 
 of pourparlers by the four Powers, as well as the continua- 
 tion of the direct discussions between M. Sazonof and Count 
 Szapary. 
 
 It is held here that the formula which seemed as if it 
 might obtain the adherence of Germany — " Mediation 
 between Austria and Russia " — ^is unsuitable, inasmuch as 
 it alleges a dispute between those two Empires which 
 does not exist up to the present. 
 
 Among the suspicions aroused by the sudden and violent 
 resolution of Austria, the most disquieting is, that Germany 
 should have pushed her on to aggressive action against 
 Servia in order to be able herself to enter into war with 
 Russia and France in circumstances which she supposes 
 ought to be most favourable to herself and under conditions 
 which have been thoroughly considered. 
 
 Dumaine. 
 
THE PRETEXT 65 
 
 M. PaUologue, French Ambassador at St. Petersburgh, 
 to M. Bienvenu-Martin, Acting Minister Jor Foreign Affairs. 
 
 St. Petersburgh, July 28, 1914. 
 
 The Austro-Hungarian Government has not yet replied 
 to the proposal of the Russian Government suggesting the 
 opening of direct conversations between St. Petersburgh 
 and Vienna. 
 
 M. Sazonof received the German and Austro-Hungarian 
 Ambassadors this afternoon. The impression which he got 
 from this double interview is a bad one. " Certainly," he 
 said to me, " Austria is unwilling to converse." 
 
 As the result of a conversation which I have just had 
 with my two colleagues I have the same impression of 
 pessimism. 
 
 Pal:i£ologue. 
 
 Telegrams communicated by Count Benckendorff, Russian 
 Ambassador in London, July 29, 1914. 
 
 (1) Telegram jrom M. Sazonoj to Russian Ambassador 
 at Berlin, dated July 28, 1914. 
 
 In consequence of the declaration of war by Austria 
 against Servia, the Imperial Government will announce to- 
 morrow (29th) the mobilisation in the military circonscrip- 
 tions of Odessa, Kieff, Moscow and Kazan. Please inform 
 German Government, confirming the absence in Russia of 
 any aggressive intention against Germany. 
 
 The Russian Ambassador at Vienna has not been recalled 
 from his post. 
 
 (2) Telegram to Count Benckendorff.^ 
 
 The Austrian declaration of war clearly puts an end to 
 the idea of direct communications between Austria and 
 Russia. Action by London Cabinet in order to set on foot 
 mediation with a view to suspension of military operations 
 of Austria against Servia is now most urgent. 
 
 1 Russian Ambassador in London. 
 
66 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 Unless military operations are stopped, mediation would 
 only allow matters to drag on and give Austria time to 
 crush Servia. 
 
 Sir E. Goschen, British Ambassador at Berlin, to 
 Sir Edward Grey, 
 
 {Received July 29.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Berlin, July 29, 1914. 
 
 I was sent for again to-day by the Imperial Chancellor, 
 who told me that he regretted to state that the Austro- 
 Hungarian Government, to whom he had at once communi- 
 cated your opinion, had answered that events had marched 
 too rapidly and that it was therefore too late to act upon 
 your suggestion that the Servian reply might form the 
 basis of discussion. His Excellency had, on receiving their 
 reply, despatched a message to Vienna, in which he ex- 
 plained that, although a certain desire had, in his opinion, 
 been shown in the Servian reply to meet the demands of 
 Austria, he understood entirely that, without some sure 
 guarantees that Servia would carry out in their entirety 
 the demands made upon her, the Austro-Hungarian 
 Government could not rest satisfied in view of their past 
 experience. He had then gone on to say that the hostilities 
 which were about to be undertaken against Servia had 
 presumably the exclusive object of securing such guarantees, 
 seeing that the Austrian Government already assured the 
 Russian Government that they had no territorial designs. 
 
 He advised the Austro-Hungarian Government, should 
 this view be correct, to speak openly in this sense. The 
 holding of such language would, he hoped, eliminate all 
 possible misunderstandings. 
 
 As yet, he told me, he had not received a reply from 
 Vienna. 
 
 From the fact that he had gone so far in the matter of 
 giving advice at Vienna, his Excellency hoped that you 
 would realise that he was sincerely doing all in his power 
 to prevent danger of European complications. 
 
THE PRETEXT 67 
 
 The fact of his communicating this information to you 
 was a proof of the confidence which he felt in you and evi- 
 dence of his anxiety that you should know he was doing his 
 best to support your efforts in the cause of general peace, 
 efforts which he sincerely appreciated. 
 
 Sir M. de Bunsen, British Ambassador at Vienna, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received July 29.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Vienna, July 29, 1914. 
 
 There is at present no step which we could usefully take 
 to stop war with Servia, to which Austro-Hungarian Govern- 
 ment are now fully committed by the Emperor's appeal to 
 his people which has been published this morning, and by 
 the declaration of war. French and Italian Ambassadors 
 agree with me in this view. If the Austro-Hungarian 
 Government would convert into a binding engagement to 
 Europe the declaration which has been made at St. Peters- 
 burgh to the effect that she desires neither to destroy the 
 independence of Servia nor to acquire Servian territory, 
 the Italian Ambassador thinks that Russia might be in- 
 duced to remain quiet. This, however, the Italian Ambas- 
 sador is convinced the Austrian Government would refuse 
 to do. j 
 
 Sir R. Redd, British Ambassador ai Rome, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received July 29.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Rome, July 29, 1914. 
 
 In your telegram of the 27th instant to Berlin, German 
 Ambassador was reported to have accepted in principle 
 the idea of a conference. This is in contradiction with the 
 telegram of the 27th instant from Berlin. 
 
 Information received by the Italian Government from 
 Berlin shows that German view is correctly represented 
 
68 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 in Sir E. Goschen's telegram of the 27th July, but what 
 creates difficulty is rather the "conference," so the Minister 
 for Foreign Affairs understands, than the principle. He is 
 going to urge, in a telegram which he is sending to Berlin 
 to-night, adherence to the idea of an exchange of views in 
 London. He suggests that the German Secretary of State 
 might propose a formula acceptable to his Government. 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs is of opinion that this exchange 
 of views would keep the door open if direct communication 
 between Vienna and St. Petersburgh fails to have any result. 
 He thinks that this exchange of views might be concomitant 
 with such direct communication. 
 
 The German Government are also being informed that 
 the Italian Government would not be pardoned by public 
 opinion here unless they had taken every possible step so as 
 to avoid war. He is urging that the German Government 
 must lend their co-operation in this. 
 
 He added that there seemed to be a difficulty in making 
 Germany believe that Russia was in earnest. As Germany, 
 however, was really anxious for good relations with our- 
 selves, if she believed that Great Britain would act with 
 Russia and France he thought it would have a great 
 effect. 
 
 Even should it prove impossible to induce Germany to 
 take part, he would still advocate that England and Italy, 
 each as representing one group, should continue to exchange 
 views. 
 
 Sir Edward Grey to Sir B. Rodd, British Ambassador at Rome. 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Foreign Office, July 29, 1914. 
 
 With reference to your telegram of yesterday. 
 
 It is impossible for me to initiate discussions with Am- 
 bassadors here, as I understand from Austrian Minister 
 for Foreign Affairs that Austria will not accept any dis- 
 cussion on basis of Servian note, and the inference of all I 
 have heard from Vienna and Berlin is that Austria will not 
 accept any form of mediation by the Powers as between 
 Austria and Servia. Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs 
 
THE PRETEXT 69 
 
 must therefore speak at Berlin and Vienna. I shall be 
 glad if a favourable reception is given to any suggestions 
 he can make there. 
 
 Sir Edward Grey to Sir E. Goschen, British Ambassador at 
 
 Berlin. 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Foreign Office, July 29, 1914. 
 
 The German Ambassador has been instructed by the 
 German Chancellor to inform me that he is endeavouring 
 to mediate between Vienna and St. Petersburgh, and he 
 hopes with good success. Austria and Russia seem to 
 be in constant touch, and he is endeavouring to make 
 Vienna explain in a satisfactory form at St. Petersburgh 
 the scope and extension of Austrian proceedings in Servia. 
 I told the German Ambassador that an agreement arrived 
 at direct between Austria and Russia would be the best 
 possible solution. I would press no proposal as long as 
 there was a prospect of that, but my information this morn- 
 ing was that the Austrian Government have declined the 
 suggestion of the Russian Government that the Austrian 
 Ambassador at St. Petersburgh should be authorised to 
 discuss directly with the Russian Minister for Foreign 
 Affairs the means of settling the Austro-Servian conflict. 
 The press correspondents at St, Petersburgh had been told 
 that Russian Government would mobilise. The German 
 Government had said that they were favourable in principle 
 to mediation between Russia and Austria if necessary. 
 They seemed to think the particular method of conference, 
 consultation or discussion, or even conversations a quatre 
 in London too formal a method. I urged that the German 
 Government should suggest any method by which the 
 influence of the four Powers could be used together to pre- 
 vent war between Austria and Russia. France agreed, 
 Italy agreed. The whole idea of mediation or mediating 
 influence was ready to be put into operation by any method 
 that Germany could suggest if mine was not acceptable. 
 In fact mediation was ready to come into operation by any 
 
70 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 method that Germany thought possible if only Germany 
 would " press the button " in the interests of peace. 
 
 Sir E. Goschen, British Ambassador at Berlin, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 (Received July 29.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Berlin, July 29, 1914. 
 
 I was asked to call upon the Chancellor to-night. His 
 Excellency had just returned from Potsdam. 
 
 He said that should Austria be attacked by Russia a 
 European conflagration might, he feared, become inevitable, 
 owing to Germahy's obligations as Austria's ally, in spite 
 of his continued efforts to maintain peace. He then pro- 
 ceeded to make the following strong bid for British neu- 
 trality. He said that it was clear, so far as he was able to 
 judge the main principle which governed British policy 
 that Great Britain would never stand by and allow France 
 to be crushed in any conflict there might be. That, how- 
 ever, was not the object at which Germany aimed. Pro- 
 vided that neutrality of Great Britain were certain, every 
 assurance would be given to the British Government that 
 the Imperial Government aimed at no territorial acquisi- 
 tions at the expense of France should they prove victorious 
 in any war that might ensue. 
 
 I questioned his Excellency about the French colonies, 
 and he said that he was unable to give a similar undertaking 
 in that respect. As regards Holland, however, his Excel- 
 lency said that so long as Germany's adversaries respected 
 the integrity and neutrality of the Netherlands Germany 
 was ready to give His Majesty's Government an assurance 
 that she would do likewise. It depended upon the action 
 of France what operations Germany might be forced to 
 enter upon in Belgium, but when the war was over, Belgian 
 integrity would be respected if she had not sided against 
 Germany. 
 
 His Excellency ended by saying that ever since he had 
 been Chancellor the object of his policy had been, as you 
 
THE PRETEXT 71 
 
 were aware, to bring about an understanding with England ; 
 he trusted that these assurances might form the basis of 
 that understanding which he so much desired. He had in 
 mind a general neutrality agreement between England and 
 Germany, though it was of course at the present moment 
 too early to discuss details, and an assurance of British 
 neutrality in the conflict which present crisis might possibly 
 produce, would enable him to look forward to realisation 
 of his desire. 
 
 In reply to his Excellency's inquiry how I thought 
 his request would appeal to you, I said that I did not 
 think it probable that at this stage of events you would 
 care to bind yourself to any course of action and that 
 I was of opinion that you would desire to retain full 
 liberty. 
 
 Our conversation upon this subject having come to an 
 end, I communicated the contents of your telegram of 
 to-day to his Excellency, who expressed his best thanks 
 to you. 
 
 Sir Edward Grey to Sir F. Bertie, British Ambassador at 
 
 Paris. 
 
 Foreign Office, July 29, 1914. 
 Sir, 
 
 After telling M. Cambon to-day how grave the situation 
 seemed to be, I told him that I meant to tell the German 
 Ambassador to-day that he must not be misled by the 
 friendly tone of our conversations into any sense of false 
 security that we should stand aside if all the efforts to 
 preserve the peace, which we were now making in common, 
 with Germany, failed. But I went on to say to M. Cambon 
 that I thought it necessary to tell him also that public 
 opinion here approached the present difficulty from a quite 
 different point of view from that taken during the difficulty 
 as to Morocco a few years ago. In the case of Morocco 
 the dispute was one in which France was primarily inter- 
 ested, and in which it appeared that Germany, in an 
 attempt to crush France, was fastening a quarrel on France 
 
72 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 on a question that was the subject of a special agreement 
 between France and us. In the present case the dispute 
 between Austria and Servia was not in one which we felt 
 called to take a hand. Even if the question became one 
 between Austria and Russia we should not feel called upon 
 to take a hand in it. It would then be a question of the 
 supremacy of Teuton or Slav — a struggle for supremacy in 
 the Balkans; and our idea had always been to avoid 
 being drawn into a war over a Balkan question. If Ger- 
 many became involved and France became involved, we 
 had not made up our minds what we should do ; it was a 
 case that we should have to consider, France would then 
 have been drawn into a quarrel which was not hers, but 
 in which, owing to her alliance, her honour and interest 
 obliged her to engage. We were free from engagements, 
 and we should have to decide what British interests 
 required us to do. I thought it necessary to say that, 
 because, as he knew, we were taking all precautions with 
 regard to our fleet; and I was about to warn Prince 
 Lichnowsky not to count on our standing aside, but it would 
 not be fair that I should let M. Cambon be misled into 
 supposing that this meant that we had decided what to do 
 in a contingency that I still hoped might not arise. 
 
 M. Cambon said that I had explained the situation very 
 clearly. He understood it to be that in a Balkan quarrel, 
 and in a struggle for supremacy between Teuton and Slav, 
 we should not feel called to intervene ; should other issues 
 be raised, and Germany and France become involved, 
 so that the question became one of the hegemony of Europe, 
 we should then decide what it was necessary for us to do. 
 He seemed quite prepared for this announcement, and made 
 no criticism upon it. 
 
 He said French opinion was calm, but decided. He anti- 
 cipated a demand from Germany that France would be 
 neutral while Germany attacked Russia. This assurance 
 France, of course, could not give ; she was bound to help 
 Russia if Russia was attacked. 
 
 I am, &c., 
 
 E. Grey. 
 
THE PRETEXT 78 
 
 Sir Edward Grey to Sir M. de Bunsen, British Ambassador 
 at Vienna. 
 
 Foreign Office, July 29, 1914. 
 Sib, 
 
 The Austrian Ambassador told me to-day he had ready a 
 long memorandum, which he proposed to leave, and which 
 he said gave an account of the conduct of Servia towards 
 Austria, and an explanation of how necessary the Austrian 
 action was. 
 
 I said that I did not wish to discuss the merits of the 
 question between Austria and Servia. The news to-day 
 seemed to me very bad for the peace of Europe. The 
 Powers were not allowed to help in getting satisfaction for 
 Austria, which they might get if they were given an oppor- 
 tunity, and European peace was at stake. 
 
 Count Mensdorff^ said that the war with Servia must 
 proceed. Austria could not continue to be exposed to the 
 necessity of mobilising again and again, as she had been 
 obliged to do in recent years. She had no idea of territorial 
 aggrandisement, and all she wished was to make sure that 
 her interests were safeguarded. 
 
 I said that it would be quite possible, without nominally 
 interfering with the independence of Servia or taking away 
 any of her territory, to turn her into a sort of vassal State. 
 
 Count Mensdorff deprecated this. 
 
 In reply to some further remarks of mine, as to the effect 
 that the Austrian action might have upon the Russian 
 position in the Balkans, he said that, before the Balkan 
 war, Servia had always been regarded as being in the 
 Austrian sphere of influence. 
 
 I am, &c., 
 
 E. Grey. 
 
 Sir Edward Grey to Sir B. Bodd, British Ambassador at Borne. 
 
 Foreign Office, July 29, 1914. 
 Sib, 
 The Italian Ambassador made to me to-day a communica- 
 
 ^ Austro-Hungarian Ambassador in London. 
 
74 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 tion from the Marquis di San Giuliano ^ suggesting that the 
 German objections to the mediation of the four Powers, a 
 mediation that was strongly favoured by Italy, might be 
 removed by some change in the form of procedure. 
 
 I said that I had already anticipated this by asking the 
 German Government to suggest any form of procedure 
 under which the idea of mediation between Austria and 
 Russia, already accepted by the German Government in 
 principle, could be applied. 
 
 I am, &c., 
 
 E. Grey. 
 
 M. Sazonof, Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, to Count 
 Benckendorff, Russian Ambassador in London. 
 
 Saint-PMersbourg, 
 le 16 (29) juillet, 1914. 
 
 (T616graphique. ) 
 
 Lors de mon entretien 
 avec I'Ambassadeur d'AUe- 
 magne, dont traite mon 
 t61^gramme prdc^dent, je 
 n' avals pas encore re9u le 
 t61^gramme du 15 (28) 
 juillet de M. Sch^b^ko.^ 
 
 Le contenu de ce t^M- 
 gramme constitue un refus 
 du Cabinet de Vienne de 
 proceder a un echange 
 d'id6es direct avec le Gou- 
 vernement Imperial. 
 
 Des lors, U ne nous reste 
 plus qu'a nous en remettre 
 entierement au Gouverne- 
 ment britannique pour 
 I'initiative des d6marches 
 qu'il jugera utile de provo- 
 quer. 
 
 St. Petersburgh, 
 July 16 (29), 1914. 
 
 (Telegraphic.) 
 
 At the time of my inter- 
 view with the German Am- 
 bassador, dealt with in my 
 preceding telegram, I had 
 not yet received M. Schebe- 
 ko's^ telegram of the 15th 
 (28th) July. 
 
 The contents of this tele- 
 gram constitute a refusal 
 of the Vienna Cabinet to 
 agree to a direct exchange 
 of views with the Imperial 
 Government. 
 
 From now on, nothing 
 remains for us to do but 
 to rely entirely on the 
 British Government to take 
 the initiative in any steps 
 which they may consider 
 advisable. 
 
 ^ Itahan Minister for Foreign Affairs. 
 ^ Russian Ambassador at Vienna. 
 
THE PRETEXT 75 
 
 M. Paliologue, French Ambassador at St. Petersburgh, to 
 M. de Bienvenu-Martin, Acting Minister for Foreign 
 Affairs. 
 
 St. Petersburgh, July 29, 1914. 
 
 I am now in a position to assure your Excellency that the 
 Russian Government will acquiesce in any measures which 
 France and Great Britain may propose in order to maintain 
 peace. My British colleague is telegraphing to London to 
 the same effect. 
 
 Pali^ologue. 
 
 M. Kldbukowski, French Minister at Brussels, to 
 M. Bienvenu-Martin, Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs. 
 
 Brussels, July 29, 1914. 
 
 I report the following impressions of my interview with 
 M. Davignon and with several persons in a position to have 
 exact information. The attitude of Germany is enigmati- 
 cal and justifies every apprehension; it seems improbable 
 that the Austro-Hungarian Government would have taken 
 an initiative which would lead, according to a pre-conceived 
 plan, to a declaration of war, without previous arrangement 
 with the Emperor William. 
 
 The German Government stand " with grounded arms " 
 ready to take peaceful or warlike action as circumstances 
 may require, but there is so much anxiety everywhere that 
 a sudden intervention against us would not surprise any- 
 body here. My Russian and British colleagues share this 
 feeling. 
 
 The Belgian Government are taking steps which harmon- 
 ise with the statement made to me yesterday by M. Davig- 
 non that everjrthing will be put in readiness for the defence 
 of the neutrality of the country. 
 
 Kldbukowski. 
 
 Sir M. de Bunsen, British Ambassador at Vienna, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received July 30.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Vienna, July 80, 1914. 
 
 Russian Ambassador hopes that Russian mobilisation 
 
76 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 will be regarded by Austria as what it is, viz., a clear inti- 
 mation that Russia must be consulted regarding the fate 
 of Servia, but he does not know how the Austrian Govern- 
 ment are taking it. He says that Russia must have an 
 assurance that Servia will not be crushed, but she would 
 understand that Austria-Hungary is compelled to exact 
 from Servia measures which will secure her Slav provinces 
 from the continuance of hostile propaganda from Servian 
 territory. 
 
 The French Ambassador hears from Berlin that the 
 German Ambassador at Vienna is instructed to speak 
 seriously to the Austro-Hungarian Government against 
 acting in a manner calculated to provoke a European war. 
 
 Unfortunately the German Ambassador is himself so 
 identified with extreme anti-Russian and anti-Servian 
 feeling prevalent in Vienna that he is unlikely to plead the 
 cause of peace with entire sincerity. 
 
 Although I am not able to verify it, I have private infor- 
 mation that the German Ambassador knew the text of the 
 Austrian ultimatum to Servia before it was despatched and 
 telegraphed it to the German Emperor. I know from 
 the German Ambassador himself that he endorses every line 
 of it. 
 
 Sir G, Buchanan, British Ambassador at St. Petersburgh, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received July 30.) 
 (Telegraphic.) St. Petersburgh, July 30, 1914. 
 
 French Ambassador and I visited Minister for Foreign 
 Affairs this morning. His Excellency said that German 
 Ambassador had told him yesterday afternoon that German 
 Government were willing to guarantee that Servian integ- 
 rity would be respected by Austria. To this he had 
 replied that this might be so, but nevertheless Servia would 
 become an Austrian vassal, just as, in similar circumstances, 
 Bokhara had become a Russian vassal. There would 
 be a revolution in Russia if she were to tolerate such a state 
 of affairs. 
 
THE PRETEXT 77 
 
 M, Sazonof ^ told us that absolute proof was in possession 
 of Russian Government that Germany was making military 
 and naval preparations against Russia — more particularly 
 in the direction of the Gulf of Finland. 
 
 German Ambassador had a second interview with Minis- 
 ter for Foreign Affairs at 2 a.m., when former completely 
 broke down on seeing that war was inevitable. He ap- 
 pealed to M. Sazonof to make some suggestion which he 
 could telegraph to German Government as a last hope. M. 
 Sazonof accordingly drew up and handed to German 
 Ambassador a formula in French, of which following is 
 translation — 
 
 " If Austria, recognising that her conflict with Servia 
 has assumed character of question of European interest, 
 declared herself ready to eliminate from her ultimatum 
 points which violate principle of sovereignty of Servia, 
 Russia engages to stop all military preparations." 
 
 Preparations for general mobilisation will be proceeded 
 with if this proposal is rejected by Austria, and inevitable 
 result will be a European war. Excitement here has 
 reached such a pitch that, if Austria refuses to make a 
 concession, Russia cannot hold back, and now that she 
 knows that Germany is arming, she can hardly postpone, 
 for strategical reasons, converting partial into general 
 mobilisation. 
 
 M. PaUologue, French Ambassador at St. Petersburgh, to 
 
 M. BerU Viviani, President oj the Council, Minister jor 
 
 Foreign Affairs. 
 
 St. Petersburgh, July 80, 1914. 
 
 M. Sazonof, to whom I communicated your desire that 
 every military measure, that could offer Germany the pre- 
 text for general mobilisation should be avoided, answered 
 that in the course of last night the General Staff had sus- 
 pended all measures of military precaution so that there 
 should be no misunderstanding. Yesterday the Chief 
 
 ^ Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs. 
 
78 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 of the Russian General Staff sent for the Military Attache 
 of the German Embassy and gave him his word of honour 
 that the mobilisation ordered this morning was exclusively 
 directed against Austria. 
 
 Nevertheless, in an interview which he had this afternoon 
 with Count Pourtal^s, M. Sazonof was forced to the con- 
 clusion that Germany does not wish to pronounce at 
 Vienna the decisive word which would safeguard peace. 
 The Emperor Nicholas has received the same impression 
 from an exchange of telegrams which he has just had per- 
 sonally with the Emperor William. 
 
 Moreover, the Russian General Staff and Admiralty 
 have received disquieting information concerning the 
 preparations of the German army and navy. 
 
 In giving me this information M. Sazonof added that 
 the Russian Government are continuing none the less their 
 efforts towards conciliation. He repeated to me : " I 
 shall continue to negotiate until the last moment." 
 
 Pal^ologue. 
 
 M. PaUolog'ue, French Ambassador at St. Petersburgh, to 
 
 M. RenS Viviani, President oj the Council, Minister j or 
 
 Foreign Affairs. 
 
 St. Petersburgh, July 30, 1914. 
 
 The German Ambassador came to-night and again urged 
 on M. Sazonof, but in less categorical terms, that Russia 
 should cease her military preparations, and affirmed that 
 Austria would not infringe the territorial integrity of 
 Servia — 
 
 " It is not only the territorial integrity of Servia which 
 we must safeguard," answered M. Sazonof, " but also her 
 independence and her sovereignty. We cannot allow 
 Servia to become a vassal of Austria." 
 
 M. Sazonof added : " The situation is too serious for me 
 not to tell you all that is in my mind. By intervening at 
 St. Petersburgh while she refuses to intervene at Vienna, 
 Germany is only seeking to gain time so as to allow Austria 
 
THE PRETEXT 79 
 
 to crush the little Servian kingdom before Russia can come 
 to its aid. But the Emperor Nicholas is so anxious to 
 prevent war that I am going to make a new proposal to you 
 in his name : 
 
 " If Austria, recognising that her dispute with Servia 
 has assumed the character of a question of European 
 interest, declares herself ready to eliminate from her 
 ultimatum the clauses which are damaging to the sove- 
 reignty of Servia, Russia undertakes to stop all military 
 preparations." 
 
 Count Pourtal^s promised to support this proposal with 
 his Government. 
 
 In the mind of M. Sazonof , the acceptance of this proposal 
 by Austria would have, as a logical corollary, the opening of 
 a discussion by the Powers in London. 
 
 The Russian Government again show by their attitude 
 that they are neglecting nothing in order to stop the 
 conflict. 
 
 Pal:6ologue. 
 
 Sir Edward Grey to Sir E. Goschen, British Ambassador at 
 
 Berlin. 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Foreign Office, July 80, 1914. 
 
 Your telegram of 29th July. 
 
 His Majesty's Government cannot for a moment enter- 
 tain the Chancellor's proposal that they should bind them- 
 selves to neutrality on such terms. 
 
 What he asks us in effect is to engage to stand by while 
 French colonies are taken and France is beaten So long as 
 Germany does not take French territory as distinct from 
 the colonies. 
 
 From the material point of view such a proposal is 
 unacceptable, for France, without further territory in 
 Europe being taken from her, could be so crushed as to 
 lose her position as a Great Power, and become subordinate 
 to German policy. 
 
 Altogether apart from that, it would be a disgrace for 
 us to make this bargain with Germany at the expense of 
 
80 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 France, a disgrace from which the good name of this country 
 would never recover. 
 
 The Chancellor also in effect asks us to bargain away 
 whatever obligation or interest we have as regards the 
 neutrality of Belgium. We could not entertain that bar- 
 gain either. 
 
 Having said so much it is unnecessary to examine whether 
 the prospect of a future general neutrality agreement be- 
 tween England and Germany offered positive advantages 
 sufficient to compensate us for tying our hands now. We 
 must preserve our full freedom to act as circumstances may 
 seem to us to require in any such unfavourable and regret- 
 table development of the present crisis as the Chancellor 
 contemplates. 
 
 You should speak to the Chancellor in the above sense, 
 and add most earnestly that the one way of maintaining 
 the good relations between England and Germany is that 
 they should continue to work together to preserve the 
 peace of Europe; if we succeed in this object, the mutual 
 relations of Germany and England will, I believe, be ipso 
 facto improved and strengthened. For that object His 
 Majesty's Government will work in that way with all 
 sincerity and good-will. 
 
 And I will say this : If the peace of Europe can be pre- 
 served, and the present crisis safely passed, my own endea- 
 vour will be to promote some arrangement to which Germany 
 could be a party, by which she coidd be assured that no 
 aggressive or hostile policy would be pursued against her 
 or her allies by France, Russia, and ourselves, jointly or 
 separately. I have desired this and worked for it, as far 
 as I could, through the last Balkan crisis, and, Germany 
 having a corresponding object, our relations sensibly 
 improved. The idea has hitherto been too Utopian to 
 form the subject of definite proposals, but if this present 
 crisis, so much more acute than any that Europe has gone 
 through for generations, be safely passed, I am hopeful 
 that the relief and reaction which will follow may make 
 possible some more definite rapprochement between the 
 Powers than has been possible hitherto. 
 
THE PRETEXT 81 
 
 Sir Edward Grey to Sir F. Bertie, British Ambassador at 
 
 Paris. 
 
 Foreign Office, July 30, 1914. 
 Sir, 
 
 M. Cambon reminded me to-day of the letter I had 
 written to him two years ago, in which we agreed that, if 
 the peace of Europe was seriously threatened, we would 
 discuss what we were prepared to do. I enclose for con- 
 venience of reference copies of the letter in question and of 
 M. Cambon' s reply. He said that the peace of Europe 
 was never more seriously threatened than it was now. He 
 did not wish to ask me to say directly that we would inter- 
 vene, but he would like me to say what we should do if 
 certain circumstances arose. The particular hypothesis 
 he had in mind was an aggression by Germany on France. 
 He gave me a paper, of which a copy is also enclosed, show- 
 ing that the German military preparations were more 
 advanced and more on the offensive upon the frontier 
 than anything France had yet done. He anticipated that 
 the aggression would take the form of either a demand that 
 France should cease her preparations, or a demand that she 
 should engage to remain neutral if there was war between 
 Germany and Russia. Neither of these things could 
 France admit. 
 
 I said that the Cabinet was to meet to-morrow morning, 
 and I would see him again to-morrow afternoon. 
 
 I am, &c., 
 
 E. Grey. 
 
 Enclosure. 
 
 French Minister for Foreign Affairs to M. Cambon, French 
 Ambassador in London. 
 
 (Translation.) 
 
 L'arm6e allemande a ses The German Army had 
 
 avant-postes sur nos bornes- its advance-posts on our 
 
 fronti^res, hier; par deux frontiers yesterday; Ger- 
 
 fois des patrouilles alle- man patrols twice pene- 
 
 mandes ont penetr^ sur trated on to our territory, 
 
 notre territoire. Nos avant- Our advance - posts are 
 
 G 
 
82 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 postes sont en retraite 
 k 10 kilom. en arri^re de 
 la fronti^re. Las popu- 
 lations ainsi abandonn^es 
 a I'attaque de rarmee ad- 
 verse protestent; mais le 
 Gouvernement tient a mon- 
 trer a 1' opinion publique et 
 au Gouvernement britan- 
 nique que I'agresseur ne sera 
 en aucun cas la France. 
 Tout le 16e Corps de Metz 
 renforce par une partie du 8^ 
 venu de Treves et de Cologne 
 occupe la fronti^re de Metz 
 au Luxembourg. Le 15* 
 Corps d'Arm6e de Stras- 
 bourg a serre sur la fron- 
 ti^re. Sous menace d'etre 
 fusilles les Alsaciens-Lor- 
 rains des pays annexes ne 
 peuvent pas passer la fron- 
 tiere; des reservists par 
 dizaines de milliers sont 
 rappel^s en Allemagne ; 
 c'est le dernier stade avant 
 la mobilisation : or, nous 
 n'avons rappele aucun rdser- 
 viste. 
 
 Comme vous le voyez, 
 I'Allemagne I'a fait. J'- 
 ajoute que toutes nos in- 
 formations concordent pour 
 montrer que les preparatifs 
 allemands ont commence 
 samedi/ le jour meme de 
 la remise de la note autrichi- 
 enne. 
 
 1 Sic : in original. The actual date of the presentation of 
 the Austrian ultimatum was, in fact, Thursday, July 23. The 
 
 withdrawn to a distance of 
 10 kilom. from the frontier. 
 The local population is pro- 
 testing against being thus 
 abandoned to the attack of 
 the enemy's army, but the 
 Government wishes to make 
 it clear to public opinion and 
 to the British Government 
 that in no case will France 
 be the aggressor. The 
 whole 16th corps from Metz, 
 reinforced by a part of the 
 8th from Treves and Co- 
 logne, is occupying the fron- 
 tier at Metz on the Luxem- 
 burg side. The 15th army 
 corps from Strassburg has 
 closed up on the frontier. 
 The inhabitants of Alsace- 
 Lorraine are prevented by 
 the threat of being shot 
 from crossing the frontier. 
 Reservists have been called 
 back to Germany by tens 
 of thousands. This is the 
 last stage before mobilisa- 
 tion, whereas we have not 
 called back a single reservist. 
 As you see, Germany has 
 done so. I would add that 
 all my information goes to 
 show that the German pre- 
 parations began on Satur- 
 day,i the very day on which 
 the Austrian note was 
 handed in. 
 
THE PRETEXT 83 
 
 Ces dl^ments, ajoutes k These facts, added to 
 
 ceux contenus dans mon those contained in my tele- 
 
 tel^gramme d'hier, vous per- gram of yesterday, will 
 
 mettent de faire la preuve enable you to prove to the 
 
 au Gouvernement britan- British Government the 
 
 nique de la volonte pacifique pacific intentions of the one 
 
 de I'un et des intentions party and the aggressive 
 
 agressives de I'autre. intentions of the other. 
 
 Sir R. Rodd, British Ambassador at Rome, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received July 31.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Borne, July 30, 1914. 
 
 I learnt from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who sent 
 for me this evening, that the Austrian Government had 
 declined to continue the direct exchange of views with the 
 Russian Government. But he had reason to believe that 
 Germany was now disposed to give more conciliatory advice 
 to Austria, as she seemed convinced that we should act 
 with France and Russia, and was most anxious to avoid 
 issue with us. 
 
 He said he was telegraphing to the Italian Ambassador 
 at Berlin to ask the German Government to suggest that 
 the idea of an exchange of views between the four Powers 
 should be resiuned in any form which Austria would con- 
 sider acceptable. It seemed to him that Germany might 
 invite Austria to state exactly the terms which she would 
 demand from Servia, and give a guarantee that she would 
 neither deprive her of independence nor annex territory. 
 It would be useless to ask for anything less than was 
 contained in the Austrian ultimatum, and Germany would 
 support no proposal that might imply non-success for 
 Austria, We might, on the other hand, ascertain from 
 Russia what she would accept, and, once we knew the 
 standpoints of these two countries, discussions could be 
 
 Servian reply was dated Saturday, July 25, and it is clearly 
 to the latter document that reference is intended. 
 
84 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 commenced at once. There was still time so long as Austria 
 had received no check. He in any case was in favour of 
 continuing an exchange of views with His Majesty's 
 Government if the idea of discussions between the four 
 Powers was impossible. 
 
 M. Jules Cavibon, French Ambassador at Berlin, to 
 M. RenS Viviani, President oj the Council, Minister jor 
 Foreign Affairs. 
 
 Berlin, July 30, 1914. 
 
 The British Ambassador has not been informed of 
 Germany's reply to Sir E. Grey's request. He told me 
 that Berlin had consulted Vienna and was still waiting 
 to hear from her ally. 
 
 My Russian colleague has just told me that Herr von 
 Jagow (to whom Count Pourtales had commimicated the 
 conciliatory formula suggested by M. Sazonof for an Austro- 
 Russian understanding) had just told him that he found 
 this proposal unacceptable to Austria, thus showing the 
 negative action of German diplomacy at Vienna. 
 
 Jules Cambon. 
 
 Sir Edward Grey to Sir E. Goschen, British Ambassador at 
 
 Berlin. 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Foreign Office, July 31, 1914. 
 
 I hope that the conversations which are now proceeding 
 between Austria and Russia may lead to a satisfactory 
 result. The stumbhng-block hitherto has been Austrian 
 mistrust of Servian assurances, and Russian mistrust of 
 Austrian intentions with regard to the independence and 
 integrity of Servia. It has occurred to me that, in the 
 event of this mistrust preventing a solution being found 
 by Vienna and St. Petersburgh, Germany might sound 
 Vienna, and I would undertake to sound St. Petersburgh, 
 whether it would be possible for the four disinterested 
 Powers to offer to Austria that they would undertake to 
 
THE PRETEXT 85 
 
 see that she obtained full satisfaction of her demands on 
 Servia, provided that they did not impair Servian sovereignty 
 and the integrity of Servian territory. As your Excellency 
 is aware, Austria has already declared her willingness to 
 respect them. Russia might be informed by the four 
 Powers that they would undertake to prevent Austrian 
 demands going the length of impairing Servian sovereignty 
 and integrity. All Powers would of course suspend further 
 military operations or preparations. 
 
 You may sound the Secretary of State about this proposal. 
 
 I said to German Ambassador this morning that if 
 Germany could get any reasonable proposal put forward 
 which made it clear that Germany and Austria were 
 striving to preserve European peace, and that Russia and 
 France would be unreasonable if they rejected it, I would 
 support it at St. Petersburgh and Paris, and go the length 
 of saying that if Russia and France would not accept it 
 His Majesty's Government would have nothing more to 
 with the consequences; but, otherwise, I told German 
 Ambassador that if France became involved we should be 
 drawn in. 
 
 You can add this when sounding Chancellor or Secretary 
 of State as to proposal above. 
 
 Sir G. Buchanan, British Ambassador at St. Petersburgh, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received July 31 .) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) St. Petersburgh, July 31, 1914. 
 
 It has been decided to issue orders for general mobilisa- 
 tion. This decision was taken in consequence of report 
 received from Russian Ambassador in Vienna to the effect 
 that Austria is determined not to yield to intervention of 
 Powers, and that she is moving troops against Russia as 
 well as against Servia. 
 
 Russia has also reason to believe that Germany is making 
 active military preparations, and she cannot afford to let 
 her get a start. 
 
86 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 Sir Edward Grey to Sir F. BeHie, British Ambassador at 
 Paris, and Sir E. Goschen, British Ambassador at Berlin. 
 (Telegraphic.) Foreign Office, July 31, 1914. 
 
 I still trust that situation is not irretrievable, but in 
 view of prospect of mobilisation in Germany it becomes 
 essential to His Majesty's Government, in view of existing 
 treaties, to ask whether French (German) Government 
 are prepared to engage to respect neutrality of Belgium 
 so long as no other Power violates it. 
 
 A similar request is being addressed to German (French) 
 Government. It is iniportant to have an early answer. 
 
 Sir F. Bertie, British Ambassador at Paris, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received July 31.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Paris, July 31, 1914. 
 
 At 7 o'clock this evening I was sent for by Minister for 
 Foreign Affairs. When I arrived the German Ambassador 
 was leaving his Excellency. 
 
 German Ambassador had informed his Excellency that, 
 in view of the fact that orders had been given for the total 
 mobilisation of Russian army and fleet, German Govern- 
 ment have in an ultimatum which they have addressed to 
 the Russian Government required that Russian forces 
 should be demobilised. 
 
 The German Government will consider it necessary to 
 order the total mobilisation of the German army on the 
 Russian and French frontiers if within twelve hours the 
 Russian Government do not give an undertaking to comply 
 with German demand. 
 
 The Minister for Foreign Affairs asks me to communicate 
 this to you, and inquires what, in these circumstances, 
 will be the attitude of England. 
 
 German Ambassador could not say when the twelve 
 hours terminates. He is going to call at the Ministry for 
 Foreign Affairs to-morrow (Saturday) at 1 p.m. in order 
 
THE PRETEXT 87 
 
 to receive the French Government's answer as to the atti- 
 tude they will adopt in the circumstances. 
 
 He intimated the possibility of his requiring his passports. 
 
 I am informed by the Russian Ambassador that he is 
 not aware of any general mobilisation of the Russian forces 
 having taken place. 
 
 Sir G. Buchanan, British Ambassador at St. Petersburgh, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received August 1.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) St. Petersburgh, July 31, 1914. 
 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs sent for me and French 
 Ambassador and asked us to telegraph to our respective 
 Governments subjoined formula as best calculated to 
 amalgamate proposal made by you in your telegram of 
 30th July with formula recorded in my telegram of 30th 
 July. He trusted it would meet with your approval : — 
 
 " Si I'Autriche consentira a arreter marche des ses 
 troupes sur le territoire serbe, si, reconnaissant que le 
 conflit austro-serbe a assume le caract^re d'une question 
 d'interet europeen, elle admet que les Grandes Puissances 
 examinent la satisfaction que la Serbie pourrait accorder 
 au Gouvernement d'Autriche-Hongrie sans laisser porter 
 atteinte a ses droits d'Etat souverain et k son independance, 
 la Russie s' engage a conserver son attitude expectante." ^ 
 
 His Excellency then alluded to the telegram sent to 
 German Emperor by Emperor of Russia in reply to the 
 former's telegram. He said that Emperor Nicholas had 
 begun by thanking Emperor William for his telegram and 
 for the hopes of peaceful solution which it held out. His 
 
 ^ Translation. — " If Austria will agree to check the advance 
 of her troops on Servian territory; if, recognising that the 
 dispute between Austria and Servia has assumed a character 
 of European interest, she will allow the Great Powers to look 
 into the matter and determine whether Servia could satisfy 
 the Austro-Hungarian Government without impairing her 
 rights as a sovereign State or her independence, Russia will 
 undertake to maintain her waiting attitude." 
 
88 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 Majesty had then proceeded to assure Emperor William 
 that no intention whatever of an aggressive character was 
 concealed behind Russian military preparations. So long 
 as conversation with Austria continued, His Imperial 
 Majesty undertook that not a single man should be moved 
 across the frontier ; it was, however, of course impossible, 
 for reasons explained, to stop a mobilisation which was 
 already in progress. 
 
 M. Sazonof ^ said that undoubtedly there would be better 
 prospect of a peaceful solution if the suggested conversation 
 were to take place in London, where the atmosphere was 
 far more favourable, and he therefore hoped that you would 
 see your way to agreeing to this. 
 
 His Excellency ended by expressing his deep gratitude 
 to His Majesty's Government, who had done so much to 
 save the situation. It would be largely due to them if war 
 were prevented. The Emperor, the Russian Government, 
 and the Russian people would never forget the firm attitude 
 adopted by Great Britain. 
 
 Sir E. Goschen, British Ambassador at Berlin, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received August 1.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Berlin, July 31, 1914. 
 
 Your telegram of 31st July. 
 
 I spent an hour with Secretary of State urging him most 
 earnestly to accept your proposal and make another effort 
 to prevent terrible catastrophe of a European war. 
 
 He expressed himself very sympathetically towards 
 your proposal, and appreciated your continued efforts to 
 maintain peace, but said it was impossible for the Imperial 
 Government to consider any proposal until they had 
 received an answer from Russia to their communication of 
 to-day ; this communication, which he admitted had the 
 form of an ultimatum, being that, uidess Russia could 
 inform the Imperial Government within twelve hours that 
 ^ Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs. 
 
THE PRETEXT 89 
 
 she would immediately countermand her mobilisation 
 against Germany and Austria, Germany would be obliged 
 on her side to mobilise at once. 
 
 I asked his Excellency why they had made their demand 
 even more difficult for Russia to accept by asking them to 
 demobilise in south as well. He replied that it was in 
 order to prevent Russia from saying all her mobilisation 
 was only directed against Austria. 
 
 His Excellency said that if the answer from Russia was 
 satisfactory he thought personally that your proposal 
 merited favourable consideration, and in any case he would 
 lay it before the Emperor and Chancellor, but he repeated 
 that it was no use discussing it until the Russian Govern- 
 ment had sent in their answer to the German demand. 
 
 He again assured me that both the Emperor WiUiam, at 
 the request of the Emperor of Russia, and the German 
 Foreign Office had even up till last night been urging Austria 
 to show willingness to continue discussions — and tele- 
 graphic and telephonic communications from Vienna had 
 been of a promising nature — ^but Russia's mobilisation 
 had spoilt everything. 
 
 Sir E. Goschen, British Ambassador at Berlin, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received August 1.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Berlin, July 31, 1914. 
 
 Neutrality of Belgium, referred to in your telegram of 
 31st July to Sir F. Bertie. 
 
 I have seen Secretary of State, who informs me that he 
 must consult the Emperor and the Chancellor before he 
 could possibly answer. I gathered from what he said that 
 he thought any reply they might give could not but disclose 
 a certain amount of their plan of campaign in the event of 
 war ensuing, and he was therefore very doubtful whether 
 they would return any answer at all. His Excellency, 
 nevertheless, took note of your request. 
 
 It appears from what he said that German Government 
 
90 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 consider that certain hostile acts have already been com- 
 mitted by Belgitim. As an instance of this, he alleged 
 that a consignment of corn for Germany had been placed 
 under an embargo already. 
 
 I hope to see his Excellency to-morrow again to discuss 
 the matter further, but the prospect of obtaining a definite 
 answer seems to me remote. 
 
 In speaking to me to-day the Chancellor made it clear 
 that Germany would in any case desire to know the reply 
 returned to you by the French Government. 
 
 Sir F. Bertie, British Ambassador at Paris, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received August 1.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Paris, July 31, 1914. 
 
 My immediately preceding telegram. 
 
 Political Director has brought me the reply of the 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs to your inquiry respecting 
 the neutrality of Belgium. It is as follows — 
 
 French Government are resolved to respect the neutrality 
 of Belgium, and it would only be in the event of some other 
 Power violating that neutrality that France might find 
 herself under the necessity, in order to ensure defence 
 of her own security, to act otherwise. This assurance 
 has been given several times. President of the Republic 
 spoke of it to the King of the Belgians, and the French 
 Minister at Brussels has spontaneously renewed the assur- 
 ance to the Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs to-day. 
 
 M. Klobukowski, French Minister at Brussels, to M. RenS 
 Viviani, President oj the Council, Minister Jar Foreign 
 Affairs. 
 
 Brussels, July 31, 1914. 
 
 L'Agence Havas having announced that the state " of 
 danger of war " had been declared in Germany, I told 
 M, Davignon that I could assure him that the Government 
 of the Republic would respect the neutrality of Belgium. 
 
THE PRETEXT 91 
 
 The Minister for Foreign Affairs replied that the Govern- 
 ment of the King had always thought that this would be 
 so, and thanked me. The Russian Minister and the 
 British Minister, whom I saw subsequently, appeared much 
 pleased that in the circumstances I gave this assurance, 
 which further, as the British Minister told me, was in 
 accordance with the declaration of Sir E. Grey. 
 
 Klobukowski. 
 
 Sir Edward Grey to Sir E. Goschen, British Ambassador at 
 
 Berlin. 
 
 Foreign Office, August 1, 1914. 
 
 SlE, 
 
 I told the German Ambassador to-day that the reply 
 of the German Government with regard to the neutrality 
 of Belgium was a matter of very great regret, because the 
 neutrality of Belgium affected feeling in this country. 
 If Germany could see her way to give the same assurance 
 as that which had been given by France it would materially 
 contribute to relieve anxiety and tension here. On the 
 other hand, if there were a violation of the neutrality of 
 Belgium by one combatant while the other respected it, 
 it would be extremely difficult to restrain public feeling 
 in this country. I said that we had been discussing this 
 question at a Cabinet Meeting, and as I was authorised 
 to tell him this I gave him a memorandum of it. 
 
 He asked me whether, if Germany gave a promise not 
 to violate Belgian neutrality we would engage to remain 
 neutral. 
 
 I replied that I could not say that ; our hands were still 
 free, and we were considering what our attitude should be. 
 All I could say was, that our attitude would be determined 
 largely by public opinion here, and that the neutrality of 
 Belgium would appeal very strongly to public opinion 
 here. I did not think that we could give a promise of 
 neutrality on that condition alone. 
 
 The Ambassador pressed me as to whether I could not 
 formulate conditions on which we would remain neutral. 
 
92 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 He even suggested that the integrity of France and her 
 colonies might be guaranteed. 
 
 I said that I felt obliged to refuse definitely any promise 
 to remain neutral on similar terms, and I could only say that 
 we must keep our hands free. 
 
 I am, &c., 
 E. Grey. 
 
 Sir F. Bertie, British Ambassador at Paris, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 (Received August 1.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Paris, August 1, 1914. 
 
 I have had conversation with the Political Director, who 
 states that the German Ambassador was informed, on 
 calling at, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs this morning, 
 that the French Government failed to comprehend the 
 reason which prompted his communication of yesterday 
 evening. It was pointed out to his Excellency that 
 general mobilisation in Russia had not been ordered until 
 after Austria had declared a general mobilisation, and that 
 the Russian Government were ready to demobilise if all 
 Powers did likewise. It seemed strange to the French 
 Government that in view of this and of the fact that 
 Russia and Austria were ready to converse, the German 
 Government should have at that moment presented an 
 ultimatum at St. Petersburgh requiring immediate de- 
 mobilisation by Russia. There were no differences at 
 issue between France and Germany, but the German 
 Ambassador had made a menacing communication to the 
 French Government and had requested an answer the next 
 day, intimating that he would have to break off relations 
 and leave Paris if the reply were not satisfactory. The 
 Ambassador was informed that the French Government 
 considered that this was an extraordinary proceeding. 
 
 The German Ambassador, who is to see the Minister for 
 Foreign Affairs again this evening, said nothing about de- 
 manding his passports, but he stated that he had packed up. 
 
THE PRETEXT 93 
 
 Sir F. Villiers, British Minister at Brussels, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received August 1.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Brussels, August 1, 1914. 
 
 Belgian neutrality. 
 
 The instructions conveyed in your telegram of yesterday 
 have been acted upon. 
 
 Belgium expects and desires that other Powers will 
 observe and uphold her neutrality, which she intends to 
 maintain to the utmost of her power. In so informing 
 me, Minister for Foreign Affairs said that, in the event of 
 the violation of the neutrality of their territory, they 
 believed, that they were in a position to defend themselves 
 against intrusion. The relations between Belgium and 
 her neighbours were excellent, and there was no reason 
 to suspect their intentions ; but he thought it well, never- 
 theless, to be prepared against emergencies. 
 
 Sir Edward Grey to Sir E. Goschen, British Ambassador at 
 
 Berlin. 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Foreign Office, August 1, 1914. 
 
 We are informed that authorities at Hamburg have 
 forcibly detained steamers belonging to the Great Central 
 Company and other British merchant-ships. 
 
 I cannot ascertain on what grounds the detention of 
 British ships has been orderd. 
 
 You should request German Government to send im- 
 mediate orders that they should be allowed to proceed 
 without delay. The effect on public opinion here will be 
 deplorable unless this is done. His Majesty's Government, 
 on their side, are most anxious to avoid any incident of 
 an aggressive nature, and the German Government will, 
 I hope, be equally careful not to take any step which would 
 make the situation between us impossible. 
 
94 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 Sir Edward Grey to Sir E. Goschen, British Ambassador at 
 
 Berlin. 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Foreign Office, August 1, 1914. 
 
 M. De Etter ^ came to-day to communicate the contents 
 of a telegram from M. Sazonof,^ dated the 31st of July, 
 which are as follows : — 
 
 " The Austro-Hungarian Ambassador declared the readi- 
 ness of his Government to discuss the substance of the 
 Austrian ultimatum to Servia. M. Sazonof replied by 
 expressing his satisfaction, and said it was desirable that 
 the discussions should take place in London with the 
 participation of the Great Powers. 
 
 " M. Sazonof hoped that the British Government would 
 assume the direction of these discussions. The whole of 
 Europe would be thankful to them. It would be very 
 important that Austria should meanwhile put a stop 
 provisionally to her military action on Servian territory." 
 
 (The above has been communicated to the six Powers.) 
 
 Sir F. Bertie, British Ambassador at Paris, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received August 1.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Paris, August 1, 1914. 
 
 President of the Republic has informed me that German 
 Government were trying to saddle Russia with the respon- 
 sibility ; that it was only after a decree of general mobilisa- 
 tion had been issued in Austria that the Emperor of Russia 
 ordered a general mobilisation ; that, although the measures 
 which the German Government have already taken are in 
 effect a general mobilisation, they are not so designated ; that 
 a French general mobilisation will become necessary in 
 self-defence, and that France is already forty-eight hours 
 behind Germany as regards German military preparations ; 
 that the French troops have orders not to go nearer to the 
 
 ^ Counsellor of Russian Embassy in London. 
 ^ Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs. 
 
THE PRETEXT 95 
 
 German frontier than a distance of 10 kilom., so as to avoid 
 any grounds for accusations of provocation to Germany, 
 whereas the German troops, on the other hand, are actually 
 on the French frontier and have made incursions on it; 
 that, notwithstanding mobilisations, the Emperor of Russia 
 has expressed himself ready to continue his conversations 
 with the German Ambassador with a view to preserving 
 the peace; that French Government, whose wishes are 
 markedly pacific, sincerely desire the preservation of peace 
 and do not quite despair, even now, of its being possible to 
 avoid war. 
 
 Sir Edward Grey to Sir M. de Bunsen, British Ambassador at 
 
 Vienna. 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Foreign Office, August 1, 1914. 
 
 I saw the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador this morning. 
 He supplied me with the substance of a telegram which the 
 Austro-Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs had sent 
 to the Austrian Ambassador in Paris. In this telegram 
 his Excellency was given instructions to assure the French 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs that there was no intention in 
 the minds of the Austro-Hungarian Government to impair 
 the sovereign rights of Servia or to obtain territorial 
 aggrandisement. The Ambassador added that he was 
 further instructed to inform the French Minister for 
 Foreign Affairs that there was no truth in the report which 
 had been published in Paris to the effect that Austria- 
 Hxingary intended to occupy the sanjak. 
 
 Count Mensdorff ^ called again later at the Foreign Office. 
 He informed me of a telegram sent yesterday to the Austro- 
 Hungarian Ambassador at St. Petersburgh by Count 
 Berchtold,^ and gave me the substance. 
 
 It states that Count Berchtold begged the Russian 
 Ambassador, whom he sent for yesterday, to do his best 
 to remove the wholly erroneous impression in St. Peters- 
 
 ^ Austro-Hungarian Ambassador in London. 
 
 ^ Austro-Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs. 
 
96 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 burgh that the " door had been banged " by Austria- 
 Hungary on all further conversations. The Russian Ambas- 
 sador promised to do this. Count Berchtold repeated 
 on this occasion to the Russian Ambassador the assurance 
 which had already been given at St. Petersburgh, to the 
 effect that neither an infraction of Servian sovereign rights 
 nor the acquisition of Servian territory was being contem- 
 plated by Austria-Hungary. 
 
 Special attention was called by Count Mensdorff to the 
 fact that this telegram contains a statement to the effect 
 that conversations at St. Petersburgh had not been broken 
 off by Austria-Hungary. 
 
 Sir E. Goschen, British Ambassador at Berlin, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 (Received August 2.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Berlin, August 1, 1914. 
 
 Your telegram of to-day. 
 
 I have communicated the substance of the above telegram 
 to the Secretary of State, and spent a long time arguing 
 with him that the chief dispute was between Austria and 
 Russia, and that Germany was only drawn in as Austria's 
 ally. If therefore Austria and Russia were, as was evident, 
 ready to discuss matters and Germany did not desire war 
 on her own account, it seemed to me only logical that 
 Germany should hold her hand and continue to work for a 
 peaceful settlement. Secretary of State said that Austria's 
 readiness to discuss was the result of German influence at 
 Vienna, and, had not Russia mobilised against Germany, 
 all would have been well. But Russia by abstaining from 
 answering Germany's demand that she should demobilise, 
 had caused Germany to mobilise also. Russia had said 
 that her mobilisation did not necessarily imply war, and 
 that she could perfectly well remain mobilised for months 
 without making war. This was not the case with Germany. 
 She had the speed and Russia had the numbers, and the 
 safety of the German Empire forbade that Germany should 
 
THE PRETEXT 97 
 
 allow Russia time to bring up masses of troops from all 
 parts of her wide dominions. The situation now was that, 
 though the Imperial Government had allowed her several 
 hours beyond the specified time, Russia had sent no answer. 
 Germany had therefore ordered mobilisation, and the 
 German representative at St. Petersburgh had been in- 
 structed within a certain time to inform the Russian 
 Government that the Imperial Government must regard 
 their refusal to an answer as creating a state of war. 
 
 Sir G. Buchanan, British Ambassador at St. Petersburgh, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received August 2.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) St. Petersburgh, August 1, 1914. 
 
 My telegram of 31st July. 
 
 The Emperor of Russia read his telegram to the German 
 Emperor to the German Ambassador at the audience given 
 to his Excellency yesterday. No progress whatever was 
 made. 
 
 In the evening M. Sazonof had an interview with the 
 Austrian Ambassador who, not being definitely instructed 
 by his Government, did his best to deflect the conversation 
 towards a general discussion of the relations between 
 Austria-Hungary and Russia instead of keeping to the 
 question of Servia. In reply the Minister for Foreign 
 Affairs expressed his desire that these relations should 
 remain friendly, and said that, taken in general, they were 
 perfectly satisfactory; but the real question which they 
 had to solve at this moment was whether Austria was to 
 crush Servia and to reduce her to the status of a vassal, 
 or whether she was to leave Servia a free and independent 
 State. In these circvunstances, while the Servian question 
 was unsolved, the abstract discussion of the relations be- 
 tween Austria-Hungary and Russia was a waste of time. 
 The only place where a successful discussion of this question 
 could be expected was London, and any such discussion was 
 being made impossible by the action of Austria-Hungary 
 
98 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 in subjecting Belgrade, a virtually unfortified town, to 
 bombardment. 
 
 M. Sazonof informed the French Ambassador and myself 
 this morning of his conversation with the Austrian Ambas- 
 sador. He went on to say that during the Balkan crisis 
 he had made it clear to the Austrian Government that war 
 with Russia must inevitably follow an Austrian attack on 
 Servia. It was clear that Austrian domination of Servia 
 was as intolerable for Russia as the dependence of the 
 Netherlands on Germany would be to Great Britain. It 
 was, in fact, for Russia a question of life and death. The 
 policy of Austria had throughout been both tortuous and 
 inmaoral, and she thought that she could treat Russia with 
 defiance, secure in the support of her German ally. 
 Similarly the policy of Germany had been an equivocal 
 and double-faced policy, and it mattered little whether the 
 German Government knew or did not know the terms of the 
 Austrian ultimatum ; what mattered was, that her inter- 
 vention with the Austrian Government had been postponed 
 untU the moment had passed when its influence would 
 have been felt. Germany was unfortunate in her repre- 
 sentatives in Vienna and St. Petersburgh : the former 
 was a violent Russophobe who had urged Austria on, the 
 latter had reported to his Government that Russia would 
 never go to war. M. Sazonof was completely weary of the 
 ceaseless endeavours he had made to avoid a war. No 
 suggestion held out to him had been refused. He had 
 accepted the proposal for a conference of four, for mediation 
 by Great Britain and Italy, for direct conversation between 
 Austria and Russia; but Germany and Austria-Hungary 
 had either rendered these attempts for peace ineffective 
 by evasive replies or had refused them altogether. The 
 action of the Austro-Hungarian Government and the 
 German preparations had forced the Russian Government 
 to order mobilisation, and the mobilisation of Germany 
 had created a desperate situation. 
 
 M. Sazonof added that the formula of which the text is 
 contained in my telegram of 31st July, had been forwarded 
 by the Russian Government to Vienna, and he would 
 
THE PRETEXT 99 
 
 adhere to it if you could obtain its acceptance before the 
 frontier was crossed by German troops. In no case would 
 Russia begin hostilities first. 
 
 I now see no possibility of a general war being avoided 
 unless the agreement of France and Germany can be 
 obtained to keep their armies mobilised on their own sides 
 of the frontier, as Russia has expressed her readiness to do, 
 pending a last attempt to reach a settlement of the present 
 crisis. 
 
 Sir F. Bertie, British Ambassador at Paris, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received August 1.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Paris, August 1, 1914. 
 
 The Minister of War again sent for the military attache 
 this evening, as he said he wished to keep him informed 
 of the situation. He laid great stress on the fact that the 
 zone of 10 kilom., which he had arranged between the 
 French troops and the German frontier, and which was 
 still occupied by peasants, was a proof of the French 
 endeavours to commit no provocative act. 
 
 Sir M. de Bunsen, British Ambassador at Vienna, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received August 2.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Vienna, August 1, 1914. 
 
 I am to be received to-morrow by Minister for Foreign 
 Affairs. This afternoon he is to see the French and 
 Russian Ambassadors. I have just been informed by 
 the Russian Ambassador of German ultimatum requiring 
 that Russia should demobilise within twelve hours. On 
 being asked by the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs 
 whether the inevitable refusal of Russia to yield to this 
 curt summons meant war, the German Ambassador replied 
 that Germany would be forced to mobilise if Russia refused. 
 Russian Ambassador at Vienna thinks that war is almost 
 
100 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 inevitable, and that as mobilisation is too expensive to be 
 kept for long, Germany will attack Russia at once. He 
 says that the so-called mobilisation of Russia amounted 
 to nothing more than that Russia had taken military mea- 
 sures corresponding to those taken by Germany. There 
 seems to be even greater tension between Germany and 
 Russia than there is between Austria, and Russia. Russia 
 would according to the Russian Ambassador, be satisfied 
 even now with assurance respecting Servian integrity and 
 independence. He says that Russia had no intention to 
 attack Austria. He is going again to-day to point out to the 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs that most terrific consequences 
 must ensue from refusal to make this slight concession. 
 This time Russia would fight to the last extremity. I 
 agree with his Excellency that the German Ambassador at 
 Vienna desired war from the first, and that his strong 
 personal bias probably coloured his action here. The 
 Russian Ambassador is convinced that the German Govern- 
 ment also desired war from the first. 
 
 It is the intention of the French Ambassador to speak 
 earnestly to the Minister for Foreign Affairs to-day on the 
 extreme danger of the situation, and to ask whether pro- 
 posals to serve as a basis of mediation from any quarter 
 are being considered. There is great anxiety to know what 
 England will do. I fear that nothing can alter the deter- 
 mination of Austro-Hungarian Government to proceed on 
 their present course, if they have made up their mind with 
 the approval of Germany. 
 
 M. Rend Viviani, President of the Council, Minister jor 
 Foreign Avoirs, to the French Ambassadors at London, 
 St. Petersburgh, Berlin, Vienna, Rome. 
 
 Paris, August 1, 1914. 
 Two dimarches were made yesterday evening by the 
 Austrian Ambassadors — ^the one at Paris, which was rather 
 vague, the other at St. Petersburgh, precise and conciliatory. 
 
THE PRETEXT 101 
 
 The deduction from these facts is, that Austria would at 
 last show herself ready to come to an agreement, just as 
 the Russian Government is ready to enter into negotiations 
 on the basis of the British proposal. 
 
 Unfortunately these arrangements which allowed one to 
 hope for a peaceful solution appear, in fact, to have been 
 rendered useless by the attitude of Germany. This Power 
 has in fact presented an ultimatum giving the Russian 
 Government twelve hours in which to agree to the demobili- 
 sation of their forces not only as against Germany, but also 
 as against Austria; this time-limit expires at noon. The 
 ultimatum is not justified, for Russia has accepted the 
 British proposal which implies a cessation of military pre- 
 paration by all the Powers. 
 
 The attitude of Germany proves that she wishes for 
 war. And she wishes for it against France. Yesterday 
 when Herr von Schoen came to the Quai d'Orsay to ask 
 what attitude France proposed to take in case of a Russo- 
 German conflict, the German Ambassador, although there 
 has been no direct dispute between France and Germany, 
 and although from the beginning of the crisis we have 
 used all our efforts for a peaceful solution and are still 
 continuing to do so, added that he asked me to present 
 his respects and thanks to the President of the Republic, 
 and asked that we would be good enough to make arrange- 
 ments as to him personally {des dispositions pour sa propre 
 personne) ; we know also that he has already put the 
 archives of the Embassy in safety. This attitude of 
 breaking off diplomatic relations without any direct dis- 
 pute, and although he has not received any definitely 
 negative answer, is characteristic of the determination of 
 Germany to make war against France. The want of 
 sincerity in her peaceful protestations is shown by the 
 rupture which she is forcing upon Europe at a time when 
 Austria had at last agreed with Russia to begin negotiations. 
 
 Rene Viviani. 
 
102 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 M. Jules Cambon, French Ambassador at Berlin, to M. 
 
 Beni Viviani, President of the Council, Minister Jor 
 
 Foreign Affairs. 
 
 Berlin, August 1, 1914. 
 
 My Russian colleague received yesterday evening two 
 telegrams from M. Sazonof advising him that the Austrian 
 Ambassador at St. Petersburgh had explained that his 
 Government was ready to discuss the note to Servia with 
 the Russian Government even as to its basis ; M. Sazonof 
 answered that in his opinion these conversations should 
 take place in London. 
 
 The ultimatum to Russia can only do away with the 
 last chance of peace which these conversations still seemed 
 to leave. The question may be asked whether in such 
 circumstances the acceptance by Austria was serious, and 
 had not the object of throwing the responsibility of the 
 conflict on to Russia. 
 
 My British colleague during the night made a pressing 
 appeal to Herr von Jagow's feelings of humanity. The 
 latter answered that the matter had gone too far and that 
 they must wait for the Russian answer to the German 
 ultimatum. But he told Sir Edward Goschen that the 
 ultimatum required that the Russians should countermand 
 their mobilisation, not only as against Germany but also 
 as against Austria; my British colleague was much 
 astonished at this, and said that it did not seem possible 
 for Russia to accept this last point. 
 
 Germany's ultimatum coming at the very moment when an 
 agreement seemed about to be established between Vienna 
 and St. Petersburgh is characteristic of her warlike policy. 
 
 In truth the conflict was between Russia and Austria 
 only, and Germany could only intervene as an ally of 
 Austria ; in these circumstances, as the two Powers which 
 were interested as principals were prepared for conversa- 
 tions, it is impossible to understand why Germany should 
 send an ultimatum to Russia instead of continuing like 
 all the other Powers to work for a peaceful solution, unless 
 she desired war on her own account. 
 
 J. 'Cambon. 
 
THE PRETEXT 103 
 
 M. Beni Viviani, President of the Council, Minister Jor 
 Foreign Affairs, to the French Ambassadors at London, 
 St. Petersburgh, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, Madrid, 
 Constantinople. 
 
 Paris, August 2, 1914. 
 
 This morning, French territory was violated by German 
 troops at Ciry and near Longwy. They are marching on 
 the fort which bears the latter name. Elsewhere the 
 Custom House at Delle has twice been fired upon. Finally, 
 German troops have also violated this morning the neutral 
 territory of Luxemburg. 
 
 You will at once use this information to lay stress on the 
 fact that the German Government is committing itself to 
 acts of war against France without provocation on our 
 part, or any previous declaration of war, whilst we have 
 scrupulously respected the zone of ten kilometres which 
 we have maintained, even since the mobilisation, between 
 our troops and the frontier. 
 
 Ren:^ Viviani, 
 
 M. Beni Viviani, President of the Council, Minister for 
 
 Foreign Affairs, to the Representatives of France 
 
 abroad. 
 
 Paris, August 2, 1914. 
 
 The Russian Ambassador informs me that Germany 
 has just declared war on Russia, notwithstanding the 
 negotiations which are proceeding, and at a moment when 
 Austria-Hungary was agreeing to discuss with the Powers 
 even the basis of her conflict with Servia. 
 
 RENi: Viviani. 
 
 Sir E. Goschen, British Ambassador at Berlin, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received August 2.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Berlin, August 2, 1914. 
 
 Secretary of State has just informed me that, owing to 
 certain Russian troops having crossed frontier, Germany 
 and Russia are now in a state of war. 
 
104 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 Sir F. VilUers, British Minister at Brussels, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received August 2.) 
 (Telegraphic.) Brussels, August 2, 1914. 
 
 The news that a German force has entered Grand Duchy 
 of Luxemburg has been of&cially confirmed to the Belgian 
 Government. 
 
 Minister oj State, Luxemburg, to Sir Edward Grey. 
 {Received August 2.) 
 
 (Telegraphique.) 
 Luxembourg, le 2 acdt, 1914. 
 
 J'ai I'honneur de porter 
 a la connaissance de votre 
 Excellence les faits sui- 
 vants : 
 
 Dimanche, 2 aout, de 
 grand matin, les troupes 
 allemandes, d'apres les in- 
 formations qui sont par- 
 venues au Gouvernement 
 Grand ducal a I'heure actu- 
 elle, ont penetr6 sur le 
 territoire luxembourgeois 
 par les ponts de Wasserbillig 
 et de Remich, se dirigeant 
 specialement vers le sud 
 du pays et vers la ville de 
 Luxembourg, capitale du 
 Grand Duche. Un certain 
 nombre de trains blind^s 
 avec des troupes et des 
 munitions ont ete ache- 
 mines par la voie de chemin 
 de fer de Wasserbillig a 
 
 (Translation.) 
 (Telegraphic.) 
 
 Luxemburg, August 2, 1914. 
 
 I have the honour to 
 bring to your Excellency's 
 notice the following facts : 
 
 On Sunday, the 2nd 
 August, very early, the 
 German troops, according 
 to the information which has 
 up to now reached the 
 Grand Ducal Government, 
 penetrated into Luxemburg 
 territory by the bridges of 
 WasserlDillig and Remich, 
 and proceeded particularly 
 towards the south and in the 
 direction of Luxemburg, the 
 capital of the Grand Duchy. 
 A certain number of ar- 
 moured trains with troops 
 and ammunition have been 
 sent along the railway line 
 from Wasserbillig to Luxem- 
 burg, where their arrival 
 is expected. These occur- 
 
THE PRETEXT 
 
 105 
 
 Luxembourg, ou Ton s' at- 
 tend de les voir arriver. 
 D'un instant a I'autre, ces 
 faits impliquent des actes 
 manifestement contraire k 
 la neutralite du Grand 
 Duch6 garantie par le 
 Traits de Londres de 1867. 
 Le Gouvernement luxem- 
 bourgeois n'a pas manque 
 de protester energiquement 
 contre cette agression au- 
 pr^s des representants de 
 Sa Majeste I'Empereur 
 d'AUemagne a Luxembourg. 
 Une protestation identique 
 va etre transmise telegra- 
 phiquement au Secretaire 
 d'Etat pour les Affaires 
 Etrang^res k Berlin. 
 
 rences constitute acts which 
 are manifestly contrary to 
 the neutrality of the Grand 
 Duchy as guaranteed by the 
 Treaty of London of 1867. 
 The Luxemburg Govern- 
 ment have not failed to 
 address an energetic pro- 
 test against this aggression 
 to the representatives of 
 His Majesty the German 
 Emperor at Luxemburg. 
 An identical protest will 
 be sent by telegraph to 
 the Secretary of State for 
 Foreign Affairs at Berlin. 
 
 M. Reni Viviani, President of the Council, Minister jor 
 Foreign A^airs, to M. Jules Cambon, French Ambas- 
 sador at Berlin. 
 
 {Telegram commu/nicated to French Representatives abroad.) 
 
 Paris, August 3, 1914. 
 
 I request you to ask for your passports and to leave 
 Berlin at once with the staff of the Embassy, leaving the 
 charge of French interests and the care of the archives to 
 the Spanish Ambassador. I request you at the same time 
 to protest in writing against the violation of the neutrality 
 of Luxemburg by German troops, of which notice has 
 been given by the Prime Minister of Luxemburg ; against 
 the ultimatum addressed to the Belgian Government by 
 the German Ministers at Brussels to force upon them the 
 violation of Belgian neutrality, and to require of that 
 coimtry that she should facilitate military operations 
 
106 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 against France on Belgian territory; finally against the 
 false allegation of an allied projected invasion of these 
 two countries by French armies, by which he has attempted 
 to justify the state of war which he declares henceforth 
 exists between Germany and France. 
 
 RENi: ViVIANI. 
 
 Sir F. Villiers, British Minister at Brussels, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received August 3.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Brussels, August 3, 1914. 
 
 French Government have offered through their military 
 attache the support of five French army corps to the 
 Belgian Government. Following reply has been sent 
 to-day : — 
 
 " We are sincerely grateful to the French Government 
 for offering eventual support. In the actual circumstances, 
 however, we do not propose to appeal to the guarantee 
 of the Powers. Belgian Government will decide later 
 on the action which they may think it necessary to 
 take." 
 
 Sir Edward Grey to Sir F. Bertie, British Ambassador at 
 
 Paris. 
 
 Foreign Office, August 8, 1914. 
 Sir, 
 
 On the 1st instant the French Ambassador made the 
 following communication : — 
 
 " In reply to the German Government's intimation of 
 the fact that ultimatums had been presented to France 
 and Russia, and to the question as to what were the 
 intentions of Italy, the Marquis di San Giuliano replied : — 
 
 " ' The war undertaken by Austria, and the conse- 
 quences which might result, had, in the words of the 
 German Ambassador himself, an aggressive object. Both 
 were therefore in conflict with the purely defensive char- 
 
THE PRETEXT 107 
 
 acter of the Triple Alliance, and in such circumstances 
 Italy would remain neutral.' " 
 
 In making this communication, M. Cambon was in- 
 structed to lay stress upon the Italian declaration that the 
 present war was not a defensive but an aggressive war, 
 and that, for this reason, the casus Jcederis under the terms 
 of the Triple Alliance did not arise. 
 
 I am, &c., 
 
 E. Grey. 
 
 Sir Edward Grey to Sir E. Goschen, British Ambassador at 
 
 Berlin. 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Foreign Office, August 4, 1914. 
 
 The King of the Belgians has made an appeal to His 
 Majesty the King for diplomatic intervention on behalf 
 of Belgium in the following terms : — 
 
 " Remembering the numerous proofs of your Majesty's 
 friendship and that of your predecessor, and the friendly 
 attitude of England in 1870 and the proof of friendship you 
 have just given us again, I make a supreme appeal to the 
 diplomatic intervention of your Majesty's Government 
 to safeguard the integrity of Belgium." 
 
 His Majesty's Government are also informed that the 
 German Government have delivered to the Belgian Govern- 
 ment a note proposing friendly neutrality entailing free 
 passage through Belgian territory, and promising to 
 maintain the independence and integrity of the kingdom 
 and its possessions at the conclusion of peace, threatening 
 in case of refusal to treat Belgium as an enemy. An 
 answer was requested within twelve hours. 
 
 We also understand that Belgium has categorically 
 refused this as a flagrant violation of the law of 
 nations. 
 
 His Majesty's Government are bound to protest against 
 this violation of a treaty to which Germany is a party in 
 common with themselves, and must request an assurance 
 that the demand made upon Belgium will not be proceeded 
 
108 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 with and that her neutraUty will be respected by Germany. 
 You should ask for an immediate reply. 
 
 Sir Edward Grey to Sir E. Goschen, British Ambassador at 
 
 Berlin. 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Foreign Office, August 4, 1914. 
 
 I continue to receive numerous complaints from British 
 firms as to the detention of their ships at Hamburg, Cux- 
 haven, and other German ports. This action on the part 
 of the German authorities is totally unjustifiable. It is 
 in direct contravention of international law and of the 
 assurances given to your Excellency by the Imperial 
 Chancellor. You should demand the immediate release 
 of all British ships if such release has not yet been given. 
 
 German Foreign Secretary to Prince Lichnowsky, German 
 Ambassador in London. 
 
 {Communicated by German Embassy, August 4.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Berlin, August 4, 1914. 
 
 Please dispel any mistrust that may subsist on the part 
 of the British Government with regard to our intentions, 
 by repeating most positively formal assurance that, even 
 in the case of armed conflict with Belgium, Germany 
 will, under no pretence whatever, annex Belgian territory. 
 Sincerity of this declaration is borne out by fact that we 
 solemnly pledged our word to Holland strictly to respect 
 her neutrality. It is obvious that we could not profitably 
 annex Belgian territory without making at the same time 
 territorial acquisitions at expense of Holland. Please 
 impress upon Sir E. Grey that German army could not be 
 exposed to French attack across Belgium, which was 
 planned according to absolutely unimpeachable informa- 
 tion. Germany had consequently to disregard Belgian 
 neutrality, it being for her a question of life or death to 
 prevent French advance. 
 
THE PRETEXT 109 
 
 Sir F. Villiers, British Minister at Brussels, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 {Received August 4.) 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Brussels, August 4, 1914. 
 
 Military attach^ has been informed at War Office that 
 German troops have entered Belgian territory, and that 
 Lidge has been summoned to surrender by small party 
 of Germans who, however, were repulsed. 
 
 Sir Edward Grey to Sir E. Goschen, British Ambassador at 
 
 Berlin, 
 
 (Telegraphic.) Foreign Office, August 4, 1914. 
 
 We hear that Germany has addressed note to Belgian 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs stating that German Govern- 
 ment will be compelled to carry out, if necessary, by force 
 of arms, the measures considered indispensable. 
 
 We are also informed that Belgian territory has been 
 violated at Gemmenich. 
 
 In these circumstances, and in view of the fact that 
 Germany declined to give the same assurance respecting 
 Belgium as France gave last week in reply to our request 
 made simultaneously at Berlin and Paris, we must repeat 
 that request, and ask that a satisfactory reply to it and to 
 my telegram of this morning be received here by twelve 
 o'clock to-night. If not, you are instructed to ask for your 
 passports, and to say that His Majesty's Government feel 
 bound to take all steps in their power to uphold the neu- 
 trality of Belgium and the observance of a treaty to which 
 Germany is as much a party as ourselves. 
 
 Sir E. Goschen, British Ambassador in Berlin, to 
 Sir Edward Grey. 
 
 London, August 8, 1914. 
 Sib, 
 
 In accordance with the instructions contained in your 
 telegram of the 4th instant I called upon the Secretary of 
 
110 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 State that afternoon and inquired, in the name of His 
 Majesty's Government, whether the Imperial Government 
 would refrain from violating Belgian neutrality. Herr von 
 Jagow ^ at once replied that he was sorry to say that his 
 answer must be " No," as, in consequence of the German 
 troops having crossed the frontier that morning, Belgian 
 neutrality had been already violated. Herr von Jagow 
 again went into the reasons why the Imperial Government 
 had been obliged to take this step, namely, that they had 
 to advance into France by the quickest and easiest way, 
 so as to be able to get well ahead with their operations 
 and endeavour to strike some decisive blow as early as 
 possible. It was a matter of life and death for them, as 
 if they had gone by the more southern route they could 
 not have hoped, in view of the paucity of roads and the 
 strength of the fortresses, to have got through without 
 formidable opposition entailing great loss of time. This 
 loss of time would have meant time gained by the Russians 
 for bringing up their troops to the German frontier. 
 Rapidity of action was the great German asset, while that 
 of Russia was an inexhaustible supply of troops. I pointed 
 out to Herr von Jagow that this Jait accompli of the violation 
 of the Belgian frontier rendered, as he would readily under- 
 stand, the situation exceedingly grave, and I asked him 
 whether there was not still time to draw back and avoid 
 possible consequences, which both he and I would deplore. 
 He replied that, for the reasons he had given me, it was 
 now impossible for them to draw back. 
 
 During the afternoon I received your further telegram 
 of the same date, and, in compliance with the instructions 
 therein contained, I again proceeded to the Imperial 
 Foreign Office and informed the Secretary of State that 
 unless the Imperial Government could give the assurance 
 by 12 o'clock that night that they would proceed no 
 further with their violation of the Belgian frontier and 
 stop their advance, I had been instructed to demand my 
 passports and inform the Imperial Government that His 
 Majesty's Government would have to take all steps in 
 ^ German Secretary of State. 
 
THE PRETEXT 111 
 
 their power to uphold the neutrality of Belgium and the 
 observance of a treaty to which Germany was as much a 
 party as themselves. 
 
 Herr von Jagow replied that to his great regret he could 
 give no other answer than that which he had given me 
 earlier in the day, namely, that the safety of the Empire 
 rendered it absolutely necessary that the Imperial troops 
 should advance through Belgium. I gave his Excellency 
 a written summary of your telegram and, pointing out 
 that you had mentioned 12 o'clock as the time when His 
 Majesty's Government would expect an answer, asked him 
 whether, in view of the terrible consequences which would 
 necessarily ensue, it were not possible even at the last 
 moment that their answer should be reconsidered. He 
 replied that if the time given were even twenty-four 
 hours or more, his answer must be the same. I said 
 that in that case I should have to demand my passports. 
 This interview took place at about 7 o'clock. In a short 
 conversation which ensued Herr von Jagow expressed his 
 poignant regret at the crumbling of his entire policy and 
 that of the Chancellor, which had been to make friends 
 with Great Britain, and then, through Great Britain, to 
 get closer to France. I said that this sudden end to my 
 work in Berlin was to me also a matter of deep regret and 
 disappointment, but that he must understand that under 
 the circumstances and in view of our engagements. His 
 Majesty's Government could not possibly have acted 
 otherwise than they had done. 
 
 I then said that I should like to go and see the Chancellor, 
 as it might be, perhaps, the last time I should have an 
 opportunity of seeing him. He begged me to do so. I 
 found the Chancellor very agitated. His Excellency at 
 once began a harangue, which lasted for about twenty 
 minutes. He said that the step taken by His Majesty's 
 Government was terrible to a degree; just for a word — 
 " neutrality," a word which in war-time had so often been 
 disregarded — ^just for a scrap of paper Great Britain was 
 going to make war on a kindred nation who desired nothing 
 better than to be friends with her. All his efforts in that 
 
112 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 direction had been rendered useless by this last terrible 
 step, and the policy to which, as I knew, he had devoted 
 himself since his accession to office had tumbled down like 
 a house of cards. What we had done was unthinkable; 
 it was like striking a man from behind while he was fighting 
 for his life against two assailants. He held Great Britain 
 responsible for all the terrible events that might happen. 
 I protested strongly against that statement, and said that, 
 in the same way as he and Herr von Jagow wished me to 
 understand that for strategical reasons it was a matter of 
 life and death to Germany to advance through Belgium 
 and violate the latter's neutrality, so I would wish him to 
 understand that it was, so to speak, a matter of " life 
 and death " for the honour of Great Britain that she should 
 keep her solemn engagement to do her utmost to defend 
 Belgium's neutrality if attacked. That solemn compact 
 simply had to be kept, or what confidence could any one 
 have in engagements given by Great Britain in the future ? 
 The Chancellor said, " But at what price will that compact 
 have been kept. Has the British Government thought 
 of that ? " I hinted to his Excellency as plainly as I could 
 that fear of consequences could hardly be regarded as an 
 excuse for breaking solemn engagements, but his Excellency 
 was so excited, so evidently overcome by the news of our 
 action, and so little disposed to hear reason that I refrained 
 from adding fuel to the flame by further argument. As I 
 was leaving he said that the blow of Great Britain joining 
 Germany's enemies was all the greater that almost up to 
 the last moment he and his Government had been working 
 with us and supporting our efforts to maintain peace 
 between Austria and Russia. I said that this was part of 
 the tragedy which saw the two nations fall apart just at 
 the moment when the relations between them had been 
 more friendly and cordial than they had been for years. 
 Unfortunately, notwithstanding our efforts to maintain 
 peace between Russia and Austria, the war had spread 
 and had brought us face to face with a situation which, 
 if we held to our engagements, we could not possibly 
 avoid, and which unfortunately entailed our separation 
 
THE PRETEXT 113 
 
 from our late fellow- workers. He would readily under- 
 stand that no one regretted this more than I. 
 
 After this somewhat painful interview I returned to 
 the embassy and drew up a telegraphic report of what had 
 passed. This telegram was handed in at the Central 
 Telegraph Office a little before 9 p.m. It was accepted 
 by that office, but apparently never despatched.^ 
 
 At about 9.30 p.m. Herr von Zimmermann, the Under- 
 Secretary of State, came to see me. After expressing his 
 deep regret that the very friendly official and personal 
 relations between us were about to cease, he asked me 
 casually whether a demand for passports was equivalent 
 to a declaration of war. I said that such an authority on 
 international law as he was known to be must know as 
 well or better than I what was usual in such cases. I 
 added that there were many cases where diplomatic rela- 
 tions had been broken oft, and, nevertheless, war had not 
 ensued; but that in this case he would have seen from 
 my instructions, of which I had given Herr von Jagow a 
 written summary, that His Majesty's Government expected 
 an answer to a definite question by 12 o'clock that night 
 and that in default of a satisfactory answer they would 
 be forced to take such steps as their engagements required. 
 Herr Zimmermann said that that was, in fact, a declara- 
 tion of war, as the Imperial Government could not possibly 
 give the assurance required either that night or any other 
 night. 
 
 In the meantime, after Herr Zimmermann left me, a 
 flying sheet, issued by the Berliner Tageblatt, was circulated 
 stating that Great Britain had declared war against 
 Germany. The immediate result of this news was the 
 assemblage of an exceedingly excited and unruly mob 
 before His Majesty's Embassy. The small force of police 
 which had been sent to guard the embassy was soon over- 
 powered, and the attitude of the mob became more 
 threatening. We took no notice of this demonstration 
 as long as it was confined to noise, but when the crash of 
 glass and the landing of cobble stones into the drawing- 
 ^ This telegram never reached the Foreign Office. 
 
114 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 room, where we were all sitting, warned us that the situa- 
 tion was getting unpleasant, I telephoned to the Foreign 
 Office an account of what was happening. Herr von 
 Jagow at once informed the Chief of Police, and an adequate 
 force of mounted police, sent with great promptness, very 
 soon cleared the street. From that moment on we were 
 well guarded, and no more direct unpleasantness occurred. 
 
 After order had been restored Herr von Jagow came to 
 see me and expressed his most heartfelt regrets at what 
 had occurred. He said that the behaviour of his country- 
 men had made him feel more ashamed than he had words 
 to express. It was an indelible stain on the reputation of 
 Berlin. He said that the flying sheet circulated in the 
 streets had not been authorised by the Government; in 
 fact, the Chancellor had asked him by telephone whether 
 he thought that such a statement should be issued, and he 
 had replied, " Certainly not, until the morning." It was 
 in consequence of his decision to that effect that only a 
 small force of police had been sent to the neighbourhood of 
 the embassy, as he had thought that the presence of a 
 large force would inevitably attract attention and perhaps 
 lead to disturbances. It was the " pestilential Tageblatt," 
 which had somehow got hold of the news, that had upset 
 his calculations. He had heard rumours that the mob 
 had been excited to violence by gestures made and missiles 
 thrown from the embassy, but he felt sure that that was 
 not true (I was able soon to assure him that the report had 
 no foundation whatever), and even if it was, it was no 
 excuse for the disgraceful scenes which had taken place. 
 He feared that I would take home with me a sorry impres- 
 sion of Berlin manners in moments of excitement. In 
 fact, no apology could have been more full and complete. 
 
 On the following morning, the 5th August, the Emperor 
 sent one of His Majesty's aides-de-camp to me with the 
 following message : — 
 
 " The Emperor has charged me to express to your 
 Excellency his regret for the occurrences of last night, but 
 to tell you at the same time that you will gather from those 
 occurrences an idea of the feelings of his people respecting 
 
THE PRETEXT 115 
 
 the action of Great Britain in joining with other nations 
 against her old allies of Waterloo. His Majesty also begs 
 that you will tell the King that he has been proud of the 
 titles of British Field-Marshal and British Admiral, but 
 that in consequence of what has occurred he must now 
 at once divest himself of those titles." 
 
 I would add that the above message lost none of its 
 acerbity by the manner of its delivery. 
 
 On the other hand, I should like to state that I received 
 all through this trying time nothing but courtesy at the 
 hands of Herr von Jagow and the officials of the Imperial 
 Foreign Office, At about 11 o'clock on the same morning 
 Count Wedel handed me my passports — which I had 
 earlier in the day demanded in writing — and told me that 
 he had been instructed to confer with me as to the route 
 which I should follow for my return to England. He said 
 that he had understood that I preferred the route via the 
 Hook of Holland to that via Copenhagen ; they had there- 
 fore arranged that I should go by the former route, only I 
 should have to wait till the following morning. I agreed 
 to this, and he said that I might be quite assured that 
 there would be no repetition of the disgraceful scenes of 
 the preceding night as full precautions would be taken. 
 He added that they were doing all in their power to have 
 a restaurant car attached to the train, but it was rather a 
 difficult matter. He also brought me a charming letter 
 from Herr von Jagow couched in the most friendly terms. 
 The day was passed in packing up such articles as time 
 allowed. 
 
 The night passed quietly without any incident. In the 
 morning a strong force of police was posted along the usual 
 route to the Lehrter Station, while the embassy was 
 smuggled away in taxi-cabs to the station by side streets. 
 We there suffered no molestation whatever, and avoided 
 the treatment meted out by the crowd to my Russian 
 and French colleagues. Count Wedel met us at the station 
 to say good-bye on behalf of Herr von Jagow and to see 
 that all the arrangements ordered for our comfort had 
 been properly carried out. A retired colonel of the Guards 
 
116 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 accompanied the train to the Dutch frontier and was ex- 
 ceedingly kind in his efforts to prevent the great crowds 
 which thronged the platforms at every station where we 
 stopped from insulting us; but beyond the yelling of 
 patriotic songs and a few jeers and insulting gestures we 
 had really nothing to complain of during our tedious journey 
 to the Dutch frontier. 
 
 Before closing this long account of our last days in Berlin 
 I should like to place on record and bring to your notice 
 the quite admirable behaviour of my staff under the most 
 trying circumstances possible. One and all, they worked 
 night and day with scarcely any rest, and I cannot praise 
 too highly the cheerful zeal with which counsellor, naval 
 and military attaches, secretaries, aind the two young 
 attaches buckled to their work and kept their nerve with 
 often a yelling mob outside and inside hundreds of British 
 subjects clamouring for advice and assistance. I was 
 proud to have such a staff to work with, and feel most 
 grateful to them all for the invaluable assistance and 
 support, often exposing them to considerable personal 
 risk, which they so readily and cheerfully gave to me. 
 
 I should also like to mention the great assistance ren- 
 dered to us all by my American colleague, Mr. Gerard,^ 
 and his staff. Undeterred by the hooting and hisses with 
 which he was often greeted by the mob on entering and 
 leaving the embassy, his Excellency came repeatedly to 
 see me to ask how he could help us and to make arrange- 
 ments for the safety of stranded British subjects. He 
 extricated many of these from extremely difficult situations 
 at some personal risk to himself, and his calmness and 
 savoir-Jaire and his firmness in dealing with the Imperial 
 authorities gave full assurance that the protection of British 
 subjects and interests could not have been left in more 
 efficient and able hands. 
 
 I have, &c., 
 
 W. E. GOSCHEN. 
 
 ^ American Ambassador in Berlin. 
 
IV 
 
 THE RESPONSIBILITY: SOME GERMAN AND NEUTRAL 
 VERDICTS 
 
 We believe that to an attentive reader of the above 
 extracts the following facts will be clear : — 
 
 (1) That German statesmen were supporting and even 
 encouraging Austria in her designs upon Serbia, although 
 they were well aware that, in so doing, they were provoking 
 a European war. 
 
 (2) That it was not, indeed, desired either in Germany 
 or Austria that Serbia should give way to the Austrian 
 demands. 
 
 (3) That it was the general opinion that Germany was 
 in a position to influence in any way she chose the counsels 
 of Austria, who for years past had been drifting into a 
 state of vassalage to her. 
 
 (4) That Germany sent her ultimatum to Russia and 
 France at the moment when Austria had expressed her 
 approval of the proposal to arbitrate. 
 
 (5) That Germany was most anxious that England should 
 stand aside while she struck down her rivals in Europe. 
 
 (6) That the only moments when she seemed sincerely 
 desirous of recommending moderation to Austria were when 
 she feared the intervention of England. 
 
 (7) That the Allies strove earnestly for peace; that 
 German statesmen themselves acknowledged the efforts 
 of Lord Grey in that connection.^ 
 
 (8) That Italy, who was the ally of Germany and 
 Austria and bound to assist them in case they were 
 attacked, considered that in this case she was not called 
 
 1 See pp. 88 and 112. 
 117 
 
118 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 upon to do so, seeing that they were themselves the 
 aggressors. 
 
 And indeed Italy had good reason to look upon them as 
 such, seeing that on another occasion, twelve months 
 previously, Austria had officially communicated to her 
 her intention of provoking a war with Serbia. This fact 
 was disclosed by Signor Giolitti, Italian ex-Premier, in 
 the Chamber of Deputies on December 5, 1914. He 
 stated that on August 9, 1913, Austria confided to Italy 
 that " in common accord with Germany " she was about to 
 deliver an ultimatum to Serbia and that the ultimatum 
 was of substantially the same tenor as that actually sent 
 in July 1914. " The most damning evidence of German 
 duplicity during the close of July, 1914, is afforded by the 
 facts disclosed in the despatches exchanged between the 
 Italian Premier and the Italian Foreign Secretary in 
 August, 1913." 1 
 
 Those who still entertain any doubt as to the guilt of 
 the Central Powers will do well to note the following 
 opinions expressed by men who cannot possibly be accused 
 of bias. Mr. James M. Beck, one of the leaders of the 
 American Bar and late Assistant Attorney-General of the 
 United States, considers that, in this matter, the judgment 
 of an impartial court would be as follows : — 
 
 " (1) That Germany and Austria, in a time of profound 
 peace, secretly concerted to impose their will upon Europe 
 in a matter affecting the balance of power. Whether in 
 so doing they intended to precipitate a European war to 
 determine the hegemony of Europe is not satisfactorily 
 established although their whole course of conduct suggests 
 this as a possibility. They made war almost inevitable 
 by (a) issuing an ultimatum that was grossly uru-easonable 
 and disproportionate to any grievance that Austria may 
 have had, and (b) in giving to Servia, and Europe, insuffi- 
 cient time to consider the rights and obligations of all 
 interested nations. 
 
 ^ Kaiser, Krupp and KuUur, p. 28. 
 
THE RESPONSIBILITY 119 
 
 " (2) That Germany had at all times the power to induce 
 Austria to preserve a reasonable and conciliatory course, 
 but at no time effectively exerted that influence. On the 
 contrary, it certainly abetted, and possibly instigated, 
 Austria in its unreasonable course. 
 
 " (3) That England, France, Italy and Russia, through- 
 out the diplomatic controversy, sincerely worked for 
 peace, and in this spirit not only overlooked the original 
 misconduct of Austria, but made every reasonable con- 
 cession in the hope of preserving peace. 
 
 " (4) That, Austria having mobilised its army, Russia 
 was reasonably justified in mobilising its forces. Such act 
 of mobilisation was the right of any sovereign State, and, 
 as long as the Russian armies did not cross the border or 
 take any aggressive action, no other nation had any just 
 right to complain, each having the same right to make 
 similar preparations. 
 
 " (5) That Germany, in abruptly declaring war against 
 Russia for failure to demobilise, when the other Powers 
 had offered to make any reasonable concession and 
 peace parleys were still in progress, precipitated the 
 war. 
 
 " (6) That the invasion of Belgium by Germany was 
 without any provocation and in violation of Belgium's 
 inherent rights as a sovereign State. The sanctity of its 
 territory does not depend exclusively upon the Treaty of 
 1839 or the Hague Convention, but upon fundamental 
 and axiomatic principles of international law. These 
 treaties were simply declaratory of Belgium's rights as 
 a sovereign nation and simply reaffirmed by a special 
 covenant the duty of Germany sipd the other Powers to 
 respect the neutrality of Belgium. 
 
 " (7) England was justified in its declaration of war 
 upon Germany, not only because of its direct interests in 
 the neutrality of Belgium, but also because of the ethical 
 duty of the strong nations to protect the weak upon 
 adequate occasion from indefensible wrong. Apart from 
 this general ethical justification, England was, under the 
 Treaty of 1839, under an especial obligation to defend the 
 
120 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 neutrality of Belgium, and had it failed to respect that 
 obligation it would have broken its solemn covenant." ^ 
 
 He adds that — 
 
 " The German nation has been plunged into this abyss 
 by its scheming statesmen and its self-centred and highly 
 neurotic Kaiser, who, in the twentieth century, sincerely 
 believes that he is a proxy of Almighty God on earth, and 
 therefore infallible." 
 
 The author of J' Accuse, a work published anonjmiously 
 in Lausanne by a German and a German patriot, writes 
 as follows : — 
 
 " The points in the indictment against Germany I 
 summarise in the following sentences — 
 
 " (1) Germany gave Austria a free hand against Serbia, 
 although she was well aware that a European conflict 
 must arise out of that between Serbia and Austria. 
 
 " (2) She allowed Austria to address to Serbia an 
 ultimatum with exorbitant demands, and, notwithstanding 
 an almost complete compliance with these demands, she 
 allowed her to recall her Ambassador and to declare war. 
 
 " (3) By suggesting a localisation of the war she sought 
 to create the appearance of mediating in the interests of 
 peace, but that this proposal had no prospect of success 
 must have been known to her from the history of diplomacy, 
 and from the recent evidence of the Balkan crisis ; that, 
 as a matter of fact, it was known to her is clear from the 
 confessions contained in the (German) White Book. 
 
 " (4) She declined the proposal for a conference of the 
 four Powers. 
 
 " (5) She herself then advanced the proposal for direct 
 discussions between Vienna and Petrograd, but, at the 
 same time, she suffered Austria to decline to take part in 
 these discussions, and, instead, to declare war against 
 Serbia. 
 
 " (6) She left tmanswered the frequently repeated re- 
 1 The Evidence in the Case, pp. 243-5. 
 
THE RESPONSIBILITY 121 
 
 quest of the other Powers that she should herself propose 
 an alternative method of mediation in place of the proposal 
 of a conference which she had declined. 
 
 " (7) She left unanswered and undiscussed the various 
 formulae for agreement proposed by Grey. 
 
 " (8) In spite of all inquiries, she never said what 
 Austria wanted, but constantly restricted herself to saying 
 what Austria did not want. 
 
 " (10) She made to England a bid for neutrality, and 
 thus announced her intention of making war at a time when 
 the Entente Powers were still zealously labouring in the 
 interests of peace. 
 
 " (11) When at last negotiations on the Serbian Note 
 were opened with a prospect of success in Petrograd 
 between Austria and Russia, she upset these negotiations 
 by her ultimata to France and Russia, and made war 
 inevitable. 
 
 " (12) In the ultimatum to Russia she demanded that 
 demobilisation should also be carried out as against 
 Austria, although Austria herself had mobilised the whole 
 of her forces. 
 
 " (13) In place of the counter-mobilisation which she 
 had threatened to carry out, she at once declared war 
 without any ground, first on Russia and then on France. 
 
 " (14) As an afterthought she based these declarations 
 of war on the fact that the Powers opposed to her had 
 begun the war, whereas, on the contrary, the first acts of 
 war were committed by Germany. 
 
 " (15) She violated the neutrality of Belgium, and thus 
 in addition brought about war with England. 
 
 " These points in the indictment are proved, and justify 
 the judgment : Germany is guilty, along with Austria, 
 of having brought about the European war." ^ 
 
 Mr. August Cohn, a German, but a naturalised British 
 subject, writes that — 
 
 " The charge that England, from mean and sordid 
 1 J' Accuse (translated by Alexander Gray), p. 240. 
 
122 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 motives, brought all this fearful misery, this terrible mis- 
 fortune upon the world, is one of which we find it difficult 
 to speak with moderation. We know but too well how, 
 in spite of danger-signs, the British Government and 
 people clung almost stubbornly to the belief that a great 
 and intelligent nation would not allow its Government, 
 however despotic, however unscrupulous, to lay Europe 
 in ruins. That Germany's official apologists find it neces- 
 sary to make that charge shows to what straits their 
 Government is driven in its efforts to deceive its own 
 people, its allies, and neutrals. 
 
 " And in August, 1914, when England and Germany 
 faced each other as enemies, where was the joy that at 
 last the day had arrived when accounts could be settled 
 with the hated rival ? Where was the exultation that the 
 longed-for opportunity had come to spring at the adver- 
 sary's throat ? Not here, not in England. Consternation, 
 bewilderment at the reckless and wicked iniquity of a 
 Government which hurled Europe, striving for peace, 
 into the abyss of war ; pity for a people which had given 
 the control of its destiny into the hands of an ambitious 
 and unscrupulous caste — ^those were the feelings and 
 sentiments uppermost in the minds of the British people. 
 Hatred of the German people ? Even when news reached 
 us of the outbursts against England, of the attacks on the 
 Embassy at Berlin, Englishmen were amazed and pained, 
 but willing to find excuses for the demonstration of feeling 
 by a misguided populace. On the other hand, no one who 
 was in London in those fateful days will forget the satis- 
 faction and pride felt and expressed by Englishmen at 
 the courtesy and respect shown by the British Government 
 and public to the departing German Ambassador. There 
 was deep anger and bitter resentment at the invasion of 
 Belgium and the cynical repudiation of solemn inter- 
 national treaties, but it was directed against the German 
 Government, not against the German people. The very 
 remarkable fact — and one which gives the lie to the wild 
 charges of English hatred and jealousy — ^was the dis- 
 tinction which even the great masses of the population 
 
THE RESPONSIBILITY 123 
 
 endeavoured to draw between the guilt of the Prussian 
 military oligarchy and the German people. Nobody will 
 deny that this is a matter on which we are competent to 
 speak." ^ 
 
 Dr. Hermann Rosemeier, until September 1914 political 
 editor of the Berlin Morgenpost, addressed from Switzer- 
 land, in May 1916, " to his fellow-countrymen in Germany 
 and more especially to the German working-classes," an 
 Open Letter ^ containing the following passages : — 
 
 "... When Austria sent her infamous ultimatum to 
 Servia on July 23, 1914, no one who saw through the whole 
 affair ever doubted that it was the intention of the Cabinet 
 in Vienna to force Servia into war.^ The Appeal to the 
 German Social Democratic leaders, which appeared in the 
 Vorwaerts of July 25, 1914, called a spade a spade with 
 refreshing plainness. It said — 
 
 " ' The fields in the Balkans are still steaming from the 
 blood of thousands of slain. The ruins of desolated cities 
 and devastated villages are still smoking. Workless men, 
 widowed women, and orphaned children are still wandering 
 
 1 Same Aspects of the War as viewed by Naturalised British 
 Subjects, pp. 19-20. One of Mr. Cohn's sons was recently 
 killed fighting with the British in France. 
 
 * Translated by Julian Grande, who states : " Of all the 
 many publications issued since the war there is none which the 
 Gterman authorities have shown themselves more anxious to 
 prevent from entering Germany than this Open Letter by 
 Dr. Rosemeier. Nevertheless, I know that, despite all their 
 vigilance, a considerable number of copies have reached not only 
 the (Germans in Germany, but the German soldiers in the 
 trenches." 
 
 * " Baron Wangenheim, German Ambassador in Constanti- 
 nople, on July 15, 1914, eight days before the communication of 
 the Austrian ultimatum to Serbia, informed Senator Garroni, the 
 Italian Ambassador in Constantinople, that the Note would be 
 so worded as to render war inevitable. This important fact 
 was disclosed by Signor Barzilai in his speech at Naples on 
 September 26, 1915." — H. W. Wilson in The National Review, 
 January 1917. 
 
124 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 half-starved about the country. The dogs of war let 
 LOOSE BY AUSTRIAN IMPERIALISM are again ready to spread 
 death and destruction over all Europe. 
 
 " ' We may condemn the efforts of the " Greater Servia " 
 Nationalists, but the light-hearted way in which the Austro- 
 Hungarian Government has brought about a war calls for 
 the sharpest protest, for never in the history of the world 
 have such brutal demands been presented to an independent 
 State, and they can have but one result, that of directly 
 provoking war.' 
 
 " The Vorwaerts Appeal concluded that not a drop of 
 German soldiers' blood ought to be shed in order to further 
 the lust of power of the Austrian ruling classes. . . . 
 
 " Of what avail were all the proposals of the Entente? 
 Perhaps in Vienna they might have ended by yielding, 
 when matters really began to look grave and the nice little 
 punitive expedition to Servia threatened to become an 
 extremely serious war with Russia. In Berlin, however, 
 'they' were determined either to humiliate the Entente 
 or to force them into a war, the absolutely absurd hope 
 being cherished that England would stand aloof and watch 
 France being brutally crushed and Belgian neutrality 
 violated. The Government may have privately desired 
 that the Entente Powers should humble themselves, and 
 that a diplomatic victory might ensue without any blood- 
 shed. This, however, is not quite certain, and there are 
 very weighty reasons for believing that Bethmann-Hollweg 
 did desire war with Russia, although not with England, 
 and perhaps not with France either. As for the War 
 Party proper — ^the Crown Prince, the War Office and the 
 General Staff — ^they did wish for war, and particularly for 
 a war with France, she being a Republican Democracy. 
 Why else did they work out such fine plans for finishing 
 off France in a fortnight, or at most in four weeks, and for 
 marching straight away through Belgium and being done 
 with her ? And why else were the magnificent 42-centimetre 
 Morser guns in readiness, if war were not contemplated? 
 Possibly the Kaiser may have opposed it, either from con- 
 siderations of humanity, as we will do him the credit of 
 
THE RESPONSIBILITY 125 
 
 supposing, or from prudence, because in a world- war many 
 fine things may be destroyed, among them crowns. In any 
 case his opposition was of no practical effect, and on the 
 1st of August he declared war on Russia. . . . 
 
 " Such is the true history of the events leading up to the 
 war, reduced to their smallest compass. . . . People, who 
 afterwards allowed no one to outdo them in uproarious 
 advocacy of the war, then admitted to the writer in so many 
 words that the war was brought about by Germany with 
 the object of securing a predominant position in Europe. 
 Among those who made this startling admission were the 
 influential manager of the Vossische Zeitung, a man who had 
 the entry at all hours to Ministerial offices; Georg Bern- 
 hard, the ex-Social Democrat; and Rudolf Cuno, the 
 editor of the Berlin Morgenpost, the most widely read 
 newspaper in Germany. 
 
 " Yet these same persons, the Chancellor at their head, who 
 know precisely what took place, are not ashamed to continue 
 everlastingly telling the German people the fairy tale 
 about Germany having been ' ruthlessly attacked.' Every 
 expression of opinion about the causes of the war is carefully 
 suppressed should it contain the remotest hint that Ger- 
 many herself is not so entirely innocent of the catastrophe 
 which has overwhelmed mankind. Lying and deceit are 
 positively glorified as a nxoral duty. Characteristic of all 
 this witches' Sabbath, all this crazy and criminal fraud, 
 which Government, Parliament and Press have been and 
 still are perpetrating on the German people, is the house- 
 hold word which Rudolf Cuno, already mentioned, editor 
 of the Berlin Morgenpost, coined when speaking to the 
 writer of this Open Letter : ' Only a scamp does not now 
 help deceive the people with lies.' " 
 
 A book entitled The Truth about Germany was printed in 
 English at the beginning of the war and circulated in the 
 United States, with the signatures of thirty-four well 
 known men in Germany including Herr Albert Ballin and 
 Prince von Biilow. It was re-edited, exposed and criti- 
 cised under the title of Germany's Great Lie, by Mr. Douglas 
 
126 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 Sladen, who quotes the following letter from the 
 correspondent of the Daily Mail ^ at New York — 
 
 " The Press of the United States to-day calmly and 
 emphatically rejects the appeal for the sympathy of this 
 nation made by the leading savants, authors, statesmen, 
 financiers and industrial magnates of Germany in the form 
 of a book giving the Kaiser's case under the title The Truth 
 about Germany. 
 
 " In dealing with this appeal the New York Times 
 observes : ' No voice or pen, however eloquent or gifted, 
 can convince an impartial world of the justice of Germany's 
 cause or change the rooted belief of right-thinking men 
 that she is battling for ends that, if attained, would retard, 
 rather than advance, the cause of civilisation, and make 
 the peace, prosperity and happiness of the nations less 
 secure. 
 
 " ' These men of Germany ask us to give no heed to the 
 lies of their enemies. In this land of enlightenment public 
 opinion does not take form on anybody's lies. We take 
 no count of perversions sent out from London or Paris. 
 We have sought truth in its undefiled sources in the British 
 White Paper and in the memorandum of the German Foreign 
 Office, in the observed and acknowledged policies of the 
 combatant nations, and in the utterances of their men of 
 authority. The princes and professors who pay us the 
 compliment of this appeal to our candid judgment will not 
 impeach the testimony of their Foreign OflBce. 
 
 " ' If there was suspension of judgment in the first weeks 
 of the war, all doubt vanished and full conviction came 
 when the official documents and records were published. 
 The American people there read of the untiring efforts of 
 Sir Edward Grey to reach a peaceful adjustment through 
 a conference of the Powers, of his appeals, to which France, 
 Russia and Italy gave an immediate assenting response, 
 and which Germany alone met with evasion, excuse, dis- 
 favour and refusal. 
 
 " ' From the German memorandum they learn that the 
 1 Published in the Daily Mail, September 7, 1914. 
 
THE RESPONSIBILITY 127 
 
 Kaiser's Government had from the first sustained and 
 encouraged Austria in a poUcy of war, and had denied the 
 rights of any other Power to stand between her and the 
 Serbian objects of her wrath. It is wholly futile, it is an 
 affront to our intelligence for these German suppliants 
 for our favour to tell us now that Russia and England 
 brought on the war, that Germany did not choose the path 
 of blood, that the sword was forced into the hands of the 
 German Emperor; nor can our favour or sympathy be 
 won by misrepresenting the motives of England, France 
 and Russia. 
 
 " ' In the face of Sir Edward Grey's labours for peace, 
 why tell us that England " encouraged this war " 
 because she was determined to check the commercial 
 growth of Germany? Why tell us that the war was 
 " provoked by Russia " because of an outrageous desire 
 for revenge? 
 
 " ' These German advocates talk as though we had just 
 arrived from the moon. We are unmoved by their picture 
 of the Slav peril. Why is it that Germany fears the Slav ? 
 England is not afraid ; France has no fear ; Italy, Belgium 
 and Holland are all undisturbed. We would like to see a 
 satisfactory answer to the question why, when all the rest 
 of Europe is calm, Germany stands in terror of the 
 Slav? 
 
 " ' The authors of this book make a wretched defence of 
 Germany's crime against international morality and her 
 invasion of neutral Belgium. In our place, they say, the 
 Government of the United States would not have acted 
 differently. Speak for yourselves, gentlemen. Our recent 
 repeal of a statute that was by a great part of our people 
 deemed to be in conflict with one of our treaties speaks 
 for us.' 
 
 " The article refers to the disgust with which the in- 
 habitants of the United States listen to the Kaiser's 
 ' blasphemous invocations to Divine favour upon his bloody 
 enterprises,' and concludes : ' These gentlemen of Germany 
 plead in vain. We can give them no help. To quote their 
 own words in a truer sense than their own : The country 
 
128 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln places itself 
 upon the side of a just cause and one worthy of humanity's 
 blessing.' " 
 
 We may add the following remarks by Herr Maximilien 
 Harden,^ one of Germany's most famous journalists, which 
 appeared in his newspaper Die Zukunjt : " Why not admit 
 what is and must be the truth that everything was jointly 
 prepared by Vienna and Berlin. We should be . . . un- 
 worthy of the men who achieved Prussian predominance 
 in Germany ... if fifty years after Koniggratz things 
 could be otherwise." ^ 
 
 And again : " Let us drop," he writes, " our miserable 
 attempts to excuse Germany's action. Not against our 
 will and as a nation taken by surprise did we hurl ourselves 
 into this gigantic venture. We willed it ; we had to Tvill 
 it. We do not stand before the judgment-seat of Europe ; 
 we acknowledge no such jurisdiction. 
 
 " Our might shall create a new law in Europe ; it is 
 Germany that strikes. When she has conquered new 
 domains for her genius then the priesthoods of all the gods 
 will praise the good war. . . . 
 
 " Germany is not making this war to punish sinners or 
 to free oppressed peoples, and then to rust in the conscious- 
 ness of disinterested magnanimity. She sets out from the 
 immovable conviction that her achievements entitle her 
 to demand more elbow-room on earth and wider outlets 
 for activity. . . . 
 
 " Now Germany's hour has struck, and she must take her 
 place as the leading Power. . . . 
 
 " What territory could Germany take from France or 
 Russia that would be of any particular use to the German 
 
 ^ This is a nom de plume ; his real name is Max Witkowski. 
 He has not modified his convictions as to who is responsible 
 for the war, but has now become a pacifist. Die Zukunft of 
 May 27, 1916, begins with a lengthy review of the events imme- 
 diately preceding the war in which the aggressive attitude of the 
 German Chancellor is contrasted with Sir Edward Grey's efforts 
 to maintain the peace. The issue was confiscated by the 
 German Government. 
 
 2 August 1, 1914. 
 
THE RESPONSIBILITY 129 
 
 people ? No, what Germany is fighting for is not French, 
 Polish, Ruthenian, Esthonian, Lithuanian provinces — ^nor 
 is it milliards of indemnities. The object is to hoist the 
 storm-flag of the Empire on the narrow channel that 
 opens and closes the way to the Atlantic." ^ 
 
 ^ November 1914 ; quoted in the Daily Chronicle, November 
 18, 1914. 
 
KULTUE AND MORALITY 
 
 Thus the " Great Day " had come when Germany, as 
 she thought, was to enter upon the fulfilment of her destiny 
 and establish her ascendancy over the whole of the earth. 
 It had been hoped, as we have seen, that England would 
 stand aside and wait her turn while France and Russia 
 were being crushed. But, after all, " the intervention of 
 England would not make the slightest difference ! " as a 
 German, personally known to the writer, remarked; and 
 he added that " if God Himself came down from Heaven 
 to fight for the Allies, He would not be able to save them 
 from defeat." Moreover, God would assuredly fight on 
 their side and not on the side of the Allies. Did not the 
 Emperor say in his address to the armies proceeding to 
 the East ? " Remember that you are the Chosen People. 
 The Spirit of the Lord has descended upon me, because 
 I am the Emperor of the Germans. I am the Instrument 
 of the All-High. I am His Sword and His Vicar on earth. 
 Death and destruction to those who resist my will. Perish 
 all the enemies of the German people. God requires their 
 destruction, God Who by my mouth commands you to carry 
 out His will." 
 
 The whole nation was confident. On the 2nd of Sep- 
 tember the German armies were to enter Paris, and the 
 occupation of Petrograd — and, perhaps, London — ^would 
 follow at no distant date. And they persuaded them- 
 selves that the great German Eultur would spread itself 
 over the globe. The Emperor had often impressed upon 
 his people that they were the " salt of the earth." On 
 leaving for Tangier in 1906 he said : " The good God 
 
 130 
 
KULTUR AND MORALITY 181 
 
 would not have taken so much trouble on behalf of our 
 German Fatherland, if He did not reserve for us a great 
 destiny. We are the salt of the earth . . . God created 
 us that we might civilise the world." 
 
 A foreign invasion has often proved in the end a blessing 
 to the conquered. No one will deny that the Anglo-Saxon 
 race owes much of its greatness to its admixture with 
 the French ; and impartial historians have recognised the 
 healthy influence we have ourselves exerted over those 
 races which have been incorporated in the British Empire. 
 A person of cosmopolitan tendencies — and there are many 
 such in this country as in others — might regard the over- 
 throw of the constitution, under which he has hitherto 
 been living, with indifference or with pleasure, according 
 as it was supplanted by another equally good or better. 
 Let us then consider what this German culture — or Kultur 
 as they term it — is, and what is German morality. We 
 shall then be able to judge for ourselves whether it is 
 desirable that they should be imposed upon us and the 
 rest of mankind. 
 
 It is difficult to know what exactly we are intended to 
 understand by Kultur. " Kultur," writes Herr Mann, in 
 the Neue Rundschau of November 1914, " is a spiritual 
 organisation in the world which does not exclude ' bloody 
 savagery ' {sic). It is above morality, above reason, and 
 above science." ^ 
 
 Let us not confuse Kultur with what we understand by 
 civilisation. " Civilisation, as understood by the bulk of 
 mankind, is primarily a matter of conduct. It is an under- 
 standing of honour and of integrity. It is a recognition 
 of the rights of others. The Roman civilisation was not a 
 mere matter of good roads, good bridges and good aque- 
 ducts, though these things were built well. It did not rest 
 on conquest or on commerce. ' What Rome gave and 
 secured,' says Mr. Chamberlain, ' was a life morally worthy 
 of man.' Germany's campaign in Belgium — and the more 
 that is said in defence of this great wrong, the blacker does 
 it appear — is an affront to honour, a death-blow to integrity, 
 ^ Paroles Allemandes, 1915, pp. 84-5. 
 
132 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 a denial of just rights. It is a triumphant exposition of 
 brute force; of a hfe morally worthy of no man. It is 
 a rejection of civilisation and of all that civilisation 
 implies. It is an abrupt return to savage and elemental 
 conditions." ^ 
 
 To some Kultur appears to consist in experimenting in 
 the various branches of science : " The German Kultur 
 means pig-iron, Krupp's, ships, chemicals, music, discipline, 
 military service and professors." * 
 
 " The Kulturmensch is a person whose attainments in one 
 direction are so considerable as to let him be of service to 
 humanity in general and to the State in particular. A 
 Kulturmensch might be a bacteriologist with the manners 
 and appearance of a hog ; he might be an engineer who was 
 perpetually drunk, or a philologist whose chief private 
 characteristic was a tendency to unnatural vice." ^ 
 
 Most German writers, however, seem to identify Kultur 
 with a skilful direction of the affairs of State. By consider- 
 ing, therefore, what, to the German mind, constitutes the 
 highest fornx of statecraft, we shall arrive at an apprecia- 
 tion of their Kultur.* This state-craft acknowledges no 
 law and no morality, because the State is the embodiment 
 of might ; and might, as Haeckel and his followers say, is 
 above right, and the State can commit no wrong, and is 
 not even bound by its own engagements. " It is of the 
 very essence of the State," writes Treitschke, who openly 
 espouses and exaggerates the views of Machiavelli, " that 
 it cannot recognise any force above its own . . . and every 
 State, being sovereign, has an incontestable right to declare 
 war when it pleases. Consequently every State is in a 
 position to set aside contracts into which it has entered." ^ 
 
 ^ A Textbook of the War for Americans, p. 84. 
 
 2 The War Week by Week, p. 139. 
 
 ' Ford Madox Hueffer, When Blood is their Argument. 
 
 * " Ultimately the State is the transmitter of all culture." 
 — Treitschke. 
 
 * " Our idea of the State has been that of an institution for 
 the extension of personal liberty and freedom of action — ^the 
 liberty of one man ending where that of another begins. Like- 
 wise our conception of a State among other States has been that 
 
KULTUR AND MORALITY 183 
 
 " The State has no judge superior to itself, and con- 
 sequently will conclude all its treaties with that tacit 
 reservation." ^ 
 
 " Thus every State reserves to itself the right to judge of 
 its treaty obligations for itself, and the historian cannot 
 here step in with his purely conventional standards." ^ 
 
 " The State should not altogether break with morality ; 
 as long as it is impolitic to be immoral, the moral law 
 should be observed." ^ 
 
 " Should civilisation erect its temples on mountains of 
 corpses, over seas of tears and the groans of the dead? 
 Yes, it must. If a people has a right to dominate, its power 
 to conquer constitutes the highest moral power to which 
 the conquered must bow. Woe to the conquered." * 
 
 " The ideal statesman will pursue his purpose without 
 allowing himself to be arrested by scruples in the choice of 
 means and still less of persons." ^ 
 
 " When one is ready and strong it is one's duty to rob 
 the weak, and when one is ready it is one's duty to act at 
 once." ® 
 
 " The true philosopher," says Ronnberg, " does not 
 question the point. . . . He obeys and approves. By so 
 doing he merits this venerable name in doing that which 
 
 its rights and activities may only extend so far as they do not 
 transgress the just rights of another State. . . . 
 
 " Not so in modern Germany. There, for the last half cen- 
 tury, the final basis of human society and of those outward 
 forms of civilisation which express a desire of all mankind to 
 act together for common purposes, have been insistently stated 
 to be nothing but brutal strength. To the modern German, 
 as exhibited in the authoritative writings which are in this 
 volume, moral qualities, mental achievement, and spiritual 
 insight serve no useful purpose in the life of a State, unless they 
 can be used to bolster up the doctrine of blood and iron, and 
 the monstrous theory that human society rests on a foundation 
 of force." — Germany's War Mania, pp. 17-18. 
 
 1 Treitschke, Politik, vol. i. p. 103. 
 
 2 Ibid. » Ibid., pp. 31-8. 
 
 * Marshal von Haesseler, quoted in Paroles Allemandes, p. 124. 
 s Politik, vol. i. p. 66. 
 
 * This is what Bernhardi calls " die Pflicht zum Kriege.' ' 
 Deutschland und der Nachste Krieg, ch. ii. 
 
134 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 his functions require. Therefore so far as you are con- 
 cerned believe what you consider to be true, but do not 
 trouble the people with your doctrines. . . . You will thus 
 act according to your duty as a citizen of the State . . . 
 and you will remain, even when you teach what is against 
 your convictions, an honest man." ^ 
 
 "A State can commit no crime," says Professor Lasson; 
 " the observation of treaties is not a question of right, but 
 a question of interest." ^ 
 
 " Between States there is but one right, the right of the 
 strongest." * 
 
 "Is Germany strong? She is. Then what are you 
 talking about. Professors in spectacles and Theologians in 
 slippers? Is there such a thing as right? Have noble 
 ideas any value ? What chimeras are you defending ? One 
 principle only counts, one alone which sums up and contains 
 all the others — ^might." * 
 
 The State being above morality may declare war on any 
 pretext, or no pretext at all, whenever it deems it to its • 
 own advantage to do so, and may, and indeed should 
 carry on that war without regard to any international 
 engagements into which it had previously entered, or to 
 the commonly accepted principles of humanity. 
 
 "It is the idea which, based on the theory that war is a 
 ' biological necessity,* leads logically to the conclusion 
 reached by Major-General von Disfurth that any act com- 
 mitted in the carrying on of war is ' a brave act and fully 
 justified.' " 5 
 
 " Any philanthropic sentiment in war is a pernicious 
 error," ^ writes General Clausewitz ; and a manual issued 
 by the German General Staff lays down that every method 
 may be employed in war without which the object of the 
 war cannot be attained. 
 
 " Give no quarter ; be as terrible as the Huns of Attila," 
 
 ^ Quoted in UAllemagne et le Droit des Gens, p. 31. 
 2 Das Kultur-Ideal und der Krieg, p. 868. * Ibid. 
 
 * Maximilian Harden, Die Zukunft, quoted in Paroles Alle- 
 mandes, p. 68. 
 
 " A Textbook of the War for Americans, pp. 280-1. 
 ^ Quoted in Paroles Allemandes, p. 92. 
 
KULTUR AND MORALITY 135 
 
 said the Emperor William to his troops as they left for 
 China in 1900.i 
 
 War, they argue, should be " absolute." " The expres- 
 sion ' civilised warfare ' is a barely intelligible term." ^ 
 
 " The moment a national war breaks out, terrorism be- 
 comes a necessary military principle." ^ 
 
 " Military necessity can attempt no distinction between 
 public and private property. It has a right to take what 
 it needs wherever and however it can." * 
 
 " One cannot introduce a principle of moderation into 
 the philosophy of war, without committing an abstu-dity. 
 ... It is, then, an erroneous tendency to seek to neglect the 
 element of brutality in war merely because we dislike 
 it." 5 
 
 " In the good old time it often happened that a strong 
 nation drove, by violent and destructive combats, another 
 weaker nation from its home. To-day such violence no 
 longer takes place ; to-day everything is carried on in peace 
 in this miserable world, and those who have the upper 
 hand are for peace. The Uttle nations and the remnants 
 (Volkssplitter) have discovered a new word, 'international 
 law.'"« 
 
 " International law must beware of paralysing military 
 action by placing fetters on it." '' 
 
 " International law is in no way opposed to the exploi- 
 tation of the crimes of third parties (assassination, incen- 
 diarism, robbery, and the Uke) to the prejudice of the 
 enemy. . . . The ugly and inunoral aspect of such methods 
 cannot affect the recognition of their lawfulness." ® 
 
 " All mihtary effort requires that the combatant who 
 makes this effort shall be entirely free from the shackles 
 
 '^ But even Attila spared Troyes and its works of art. 
 ^ (ieneral Julius von Hartmann in the Deutsche Rundschau, 
 vol. xiii. 
 
 » Ibid., p. 458. * Ibid., p. 462. 
 
 5 Clausewitz, Vom Kriege, vol. i. pp. 4-5. 
 
 * Tannenberg, Gross- Deutschland, p. 74. 
 
 ' Von Hartmann in the Deutsche Rundschau, vol. xiii. 
 pp. 119-24. 
 
 * German War Book, translated^by Professor Morgan, p. 86. 
 
136 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 of a constraining legality. . . . Violence and passion are the 
 principal levers of every warlike act." ^ 
 
 " When war has once broken out everything is at stake, 
 for every war is a question of life or death. ... It would 
 be weak to mince matters as well as cowardly to allow any 
 feeling of pity to exist." ^ 
 
 " The national State, which realises the highest form of 
 the race, can be established only by the destruction of the 
 other States, which destruction can only logically be brought 
 about by violence." ^ 
 
 " We have universally adopted the principle that the 
 mass must atone for the fault of an individual. The village 
 in which the inhabitants have fired on our troops, will be 
 burnt to the ground. If the guilty is not discovered, some 
 representatives will be chosen from among the population 
 who will be executed by virtue of the martial law. . . . The 
 innocent must pay the penalty with the guilty; if the 
 latter cannot be determined, the innocent must suffer in 
 their place, not because a crime has been committed by 
 them, but in order that a crime be not again committed 
 in the future." * 
 
 " A stern and cruel method [that of placing civilians as 
 a shield in front of the troops], which placed the life of 
 peaceful inhabitants in serious danger, without there being 
 any fault on their part. Consequently, every non-German 
 opinion has denounced it as a breach of international law. 
 . . . We must reply to this unfavourable criticism that 
 this means was, in the circumstances given, the only one 
 from which we might look for some result. ... It is justi- 
 fied by the fact that it has been completely successful." ^ 
 
 1 Clausewitz, Vom Kriege, vol. i. p. 4. 
 
 * Das Kultur-Ideal und der Krieg, p. 56. ^ Ibid., p. 66. 
 
 * Walter Bloem in the Kolnische Zeitung, February 10, 1915. 
 8 " The German General Staff," Rules of Continental War. 
 
 " When it is officially denied that German troops have used 
 women and children as ' living shields ' in warfare, we are not 
 required to believe that Germans in general would think the 
 practice indefensible. On the Belgian precedent it would be 
 sound war policy if it could be shown to be useful." — J. M. 
 Robertson, The German Idea of Peace Terms, p. 13. 
 
KULTUR AND MORALITY 187 
 
 " ' Thou shaU not kill, thou shalt not steal.' These words 
 were called holy at one time. Before them one bent the 
 knee and the head and took off one's shoes. But, I ask 
 you, where could be found better brigands or better assassins 
 than were these holy words? Is there not robbery and 
 murder in life itself ? . . . Oh, my brothers, break to pieces 
 the ancient tablets." ^ 
 
 " A war conducted with energy cannot be directed merely 
 against the combatants of the enemy State and the posi- 
 tions they occupy, but it will and must in like manner seek 
 to destroy their whole intellectual and moral resources." ^ 
 
 " A policy of sentiment is sottish ; dreams of humanity 
 are stupid. . . . Policy is a matter of business. Justice 
 and injustice are notions necessarily considered only in 
 civil life. The German nation is always right because 
 it is the German nation and comprises eighty-seven mil- 
 lion inhabitants. Our fathers have left us much to 
 accomplish." ^ 
 
 " Ask the beech tree who has given it the right to raise 
 its head higher than the pine and the fir tree, the birch or 
 the palm ; summon it before the highest court over which 
 preside old men with toothless jaws, and through its leaves 
 will be heard a voice like that of the tempest crying out 
 that ' my right is my might.' . . . We have a will to con- 
 quer, and we must conquer. It is useless for diplomats in 
 frock-coats and spectacles to argue that we are simple, 
 honest people of a pacific temperament." * 
 
 " Be strict with the enemy ; 
 
 " Pay no attention to so-called international law ; 
 
 " Have no pity for old men, women, or children." ' 
 
 " Stifle in you every human feeling," says Heinrich 
 Vierordt in his " Hymn of Hate " ; " pierce the heart of 
 every enemy with your bayonet; make no prisoners; 
 
 1 Nietzsche, Also Sprach Zarathustra. 
 
 2 German War Book. ' Gross-Deutschland. 
 * Maximilian Harden, in Die Zukunft. 
 
 ® From a book published in 1915, entitled The German 
 Soldier's Ten Commandments of Iron, by Lieutenant Joachim 
 von der Goltz, quoted in the Swiss Press of the 8th July of that 
 year. 
 
138 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 render them for ever silent; transform the neighbouring 
 countries into deserts . . . carry out the judgment of 
 God . . . and afterwards you will stand on the ruins of 
 the world, cured for all time of your ancient folly, of your 
 love of foreigners." 
 
 To profess these principles — ^that might is above right, 
 and the State above morality ; that war is a necessary and 
 a healthy occupation, and that we should wage it at every 
 opportunity and with all the violence and ruthlessness of 
 which our animal nature is capable — ^is to advocate a 
 return to the primaeval condition of mankind when the 
 distinction between right and wrong was undeveloped, 
 and the weaker had to give way to the stronger, how- 
 ever just his cause ; in one word to turn ourselves, openly 
 and consciously, into soulless Frankenstein monsters, 
 after having striven all these centuries towards a higher 
 ideal; for their teaching is nothing less than this.^ It 
 is a reasoned and systematic adoption of the lower animal 
 instincts, the enthronement of all that is evil and bestial 
 in human nature.* 
 
 It is based, as they pretend, on the laws of evolution, 
 but is, on the contrary, subversive of those laws. If 
 brute force is still the principal factor in the development 
 of the human race, then we have reached no higher level 
 than our ancestors of the Stone Age.* 
 
 1 " Europe has submitted before to barbarian invasions, but 
 what she has never seen before is barbarism elevated to a dogma, 
 taught by professors, advocated by the highest intellects, sup- 
 ported by science." — Kaiser, Krupp and Kultur, p. 11&. 
 
 ^ " It is no exaggeration to say that this German philo- 
 sophy, taken as a whole, is an attempt to overthrow all 
 principles of morality as recognised from the days of antiquity 
 by both Pagans and Christians; it is a return — at the same 
 time conscious and unconscious — ^to the cult of the god Tott 
 or Tuiston, the god of Might, Unser Gott, a cult which lay 
 dominant at the bottom of the German soul." — Gabriel Hano- 
 taux in the Revue Hebdomadaire of February 6, 1915. 
 
 * " Every student of nature recognises and deplores the 
 cruelty inseparable from the struggle for existence under- 
 lying the great biological law of the survival of the fittest. 
 
 " But it has remained for these spokesmen of Germany to 
 
KULTUR AND MORALITY 139 
 
 It makes no difference that these principles are laid 
 down with reference in particular to the State; for if 
 the State recognises no law but that of necessity, so will 
 each individual member of that State consider himself 
 " above morality " in all his actions, and all the more 
 so when, as under the German system, every subject is 
 expected to regard his rulers as infallible and practically 
 to merge his individuality in the State. 
 
 It might have been thought, or at least hoped, that 
 these theories were nothing more than the ravings of 
 irresponsible pedants and atheists — and, indeed, one of 
 their foremost exponents, Nietzsche, passed the last ten 
 years of his life under restraint. But unfortunately we 
 have seen each one of their savage doctrines put into 
 practice over and over again during more than thirty 
 months, until the very name of Germany has become, and 
 must remain, a by-word for infamy and barbarity. 
 
 On the 26th of June, 1831, a treaty was signed by the 
 representatives of the five Great Powers of Europe, in- 
 cluding Prussia, guaranteeing the independence and neu- 
 trality of the Kingdom of Belgium. Article 5 of this 
 treaty is worded as follows : " Belgium shall form a 
 perpetually neutral State, . . . The five Powers . . . 
 guarantee to-day this perpetual neutrality as also the 
 integrity and inviolability of its territory." This treaty 
 was renewed between the same Powers on the 19th of 
 April, 1839. 
 
 By Article 2 of the fifth Convention of the Hague, 
 signed on the 18th of October, 1907, by the representatives 
 of forty-four States, including Germany, " belligerents are 
 
 apply to civilised nations, without essential change or modifi- 
 cation, eliminating all considerations of morality, of altruism, 
 of kindliness to the weak or helpless, of everything in fact 
 which serves to distinguish us from our fellow animals. There 
 is little enough at the best, but Bernhardi's 'biological neces- 
 sity ' of war, like the ' necessity ' — ^to overrun Belgium — of the 
 German Chancellor, is simply a barefaced return to the ethics 
 of the tiger." — A Textbook of the War for Americans, p. 32. 
 
140 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 forbidden to move across the territory of a neutral Power 
 troops and convoys," By Article 10 of that Convention, 
 the fact of a neutral Power rebelling, even by force, attacks 
 on its neutrality cannot be considered as a hostile act. 
 
 At the meeting of the Budget Committee of the " Reich- 
 stag '' of April 29, 1913, Herr von Jagow, the German 
 Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, declared that : 
 " Belgian neutrality is provided for by international con- 
 ventions, and Germany is determined to respect these 
 conventions." On the same occasion, Herr von Heeringen, 
 Minister of War, said that : " Germany will not lose sight 
 of the circumstance that the neutrality of Belgium is 
 guaranteed by international treaty." ^ 
 
 It is difficult to believe that, even at the time at which 
 they were made, there was any sincerity in these minis- 
 terial declarations, in view of the statement with reference 
 to Belgium and Holland contained in the German secret 
 report quoted above. It will be well to repeat it : " We 
 
 ^ Professor Morgan has called attention to the fact that 
 " the absolute inviolability of Belgium, under all circum- 
 stances and without exception, has been laid down in the 
 leading German textbook on International Law, which de- 
 clares that such treaties are the great ' landmarks of progress ' 
 in the formation of a European polity, and that the guarantors 
 must step in, whether invited or uninvited, to vindicate them." 
 He quotes Holtzendorff (Handbuch des Volkerrechts, III., pp. 93, 
 108, 109), as saying that "nothing could make the situation 
 of Europe more insecure than an egotistical repudiation by 
 the great States of these duties of international fellowship." 
 German Atrocities, p. 5. 
 
 The German jurist, Bluntschli, Professor at the University 
 of Heidelberg, also taught that a neutral State was in duty 
 bound to take up arms to resist the invasion of its country 
 by a belligerent, and that it was not an act of war to do so. 
 " The act of defending neutral territory," he writes, " by 
 arms or of repulsing an attack, does not annul its neutrality; 
 it confirms it." — See VAllemagne et le Droit des Gens, p. 120. 
 
 " Treaties made for peace conditions are obviously liable to 
 be broken in war, but a treaty made with special reference to 
 war belongs to that class of obligations whose infringement 
 is like cheating at cards. The offender gets no second chance." 
 — Joseph C. Fraley (of Philadelphia) in a brochure entitled 
 How and Why a War Lord Wages War. 
 
KULTUR AND MORALITY 141 
 
 must be strong in order to annihilate at one powerful 
 sweep our enemies in the East and West, but in the next 
 European war it will also be necessary that the small 
 States shall be forced to follow us or be subdued. In 
 certain conditions their armies and their fortified places 
 can be rapidly conquered or neutralised; this will prob- 
 ably be the case with Belgium and Holland." Moreover, 
 for years past, Germany had been building strategic rail- 
 ways on the Belgian frontier, and her military writers had 
 been discussing the advisability of entering France through 
 Belgian territory in the event of war. 
 
 "France," wrote General von Bernhardi, in 1911, "must 
 be so crushed as never to be able to rise again and 
 interfere with us. This result must be secured at any 
 cost, even at the cost of a European war. The neu- 
 trality oj Belgium will not stop us." ^ The Deutsche Kriegs- 
 Zeitung, or German War Journal, wrote on the 22nd of 
 September, 1914 : " The plan for the invasion of France 
 was thoroughly thought out a long time ago. It was 
 necessary for its success that it should take place in the 
 north by way oj Belgium." ^ 
 
 Already in 1906, in consequence of the growing suspicion 
 that Germany would, sooner or later, violate the neutrality 
 of Belgium, a conference had taken place between the 
 British Military Attache at Brussels and the Chief of 
 the Belgian War Office Staff as to the assistance which 
 England would be able to give to Belgium in the event 
 of a German invasion.* 
 
 ^ Vom heutigen Kriege (vol. i. p. 434, quoted by Davignon 
 in La Belgique et VAllemagne (English translation), p. 17. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
 3 The German Government has attempted, by tampering 
 with documents found in the Bel^an archives at Brussels, to 
 convince the credulous that Belgium had violated her own 
 neutrality by agreeing to the landing of British troops in 
 case of war, but the forgery has been amply exposed. The 
 following account of the proceedings of the German Govern- 
 ment in the matter appeared in an article in the National 
 Review, referred to above : — 
 
 " The Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, on October 13 and 
 
142 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 But it is, after all, immaterial what were their previous 
 intentions. It is enough that when war had been decided 
 upon the German armies " had to advance into France," 
 as Herr Bethmann-HoUweg said to the British Ambas- 
 sador,^ " by the quickest and easiest way so as to be able 
 to get well ahead with their operations and endeavour to 
 strike some decisive blow as soon as possible. It was a 
 matter of life and death for them, as if they had gone 
 by the more southern route, they could not have hoped, 
 in view of the paucity of roads and of the strength of the 
 fortresses, to have got through without formidable opposi- 
 tion, entailing great loss of time." Was not might above 
 right, at least where Germany was concerned, and was 
 it not an admitted principle that in war all expedients 
 
 November 24, 1915, published documents seized by the Ger- 
 mans in the Belgian archives, relating to armed assistance 
 by Great Britain if Belgium were attacked, and at the same 
 time the Gterman Government published a Dutch edition of 
 these documents, accompanied by a photograph of the text. 
 The photograph contained a passage on the margin, ' The 
 entry of the English into Belgium would only take place on 
 the violation of our neutrality by Germany,' which was omitted 
 in the Dutch translation and in the German newspaper. A 
 second passage was deliberately altered. It ran in the photo- 
 graph : ' Our conversation was quite confidential.' The 
 German Government altered this into ' our convention was 
 quite confidential,' making it appear that there was a secret 
 treaty between Great Britain and Belgium." 
 
 " What wonder that, knowing themselves forsworn, the 
 Germans should strive to cast the guilt of their perfidy on 
 Belgium's shoulders ! What wonder that, knowing them- 
 selves to be imprincipled aggressors, they should have the 
 hardihood to say that Belgium plotted against the peace of 
 Europe I There is no hatred so deep as that which we bear 
 to the man we have wronged. There is no sight so bitter to a 
 nation's eyes as the unstained honour of another nation it 
 has dishonourably despoiled. As long as history is taught, 
 the tale of Germany's broken word and Belgium's brave re- 
 sistance wUl be told to the world. As long as men stay men, 
 they wiU loathe the oppressor and revere the indomitable 
 courage of the oppressed. As long as truth stays truth, the 
 blot on Germany's escutcheon will remain uneffaced and un- 
 effaceable." — A Textbook of the War for Americans, pp. 84-5. 
 
 1 See p. 110. 
 
KULTUR AND MORALITY 143 
 
 were permissible by which victory would be ensured ! 
 As the Chancellor himself stated a few days later in the 
 Reichstag, " necessity knows no law." " Our troops," 
 he went on to say, " have occupied Luxemburg, perhaps 
 they have already entered Belgian territory. Gentlemen, 
 this is in contradiction to the rules of international law. 
 . . . The wrong — I speak openly — ^the wrong that we now 
 do we will try to make good again as soon as our military 
 ends have been reached." 
 
 The violation of the neutrality of the Grand Duchy of 
 Luxemburg, which was also guaranteed by the Powers, 
 including Germany and Austria, by the Treaty of May 18, 
 1867, would also facilitate the invasion of France, and 
 German troops accordingly passed the frontier on the 
 2nd of August.^ 
 
 ^ The Figaro of November 24, 1915, published the following 
 story in a letter from M. Fleury Bavarin, a former Deputy of 
 the French Senate : " The Kaiser repeats that he did not 
 wish for war ; that it was forced upon him, and that Germany 
 has merely defended herself. No one outside Germany is 
 deceived by this audacious lie. . . . But I would beg you to 
 give publicity to a little matter of a very convincing nature 
 which has been brought to my knowledge by a person re- 
 siding in Luxemburg, who has recently arrived in Paris. At 
 the beginning, or towards the middle of June 1914, there 
 arrived at a German hotel in the capital of the Grand Duchy 
 twenty tourists who were occupied fo^ several weeks in making 
 themselves acquainted with every corner of the town, visiting 
 both the French and the Belgian frontiers. They did not at 
 the time attract much attention, but when the war broke out 
 in August, and the Duchy was entered by German troops, the 
 tourists were seen to leave the hotel, dressed no longer as 
 civilians, but in mihtary uniform, and conduct the invaders 
 to the various posts, where guards were subsequently placed." 
 
VI 
 
 HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR: OFFICIAL REPORTS ON 
 
 ATROCITIES COMMITTED BY THE GERMAN AND 
 
 AUSTRIAN TROOPS IN EUROPE 
 
 But if, in her preparations for the conquest of Europe, 
 Germany has regarded the solemn treaties, into which she 
 entered, as so many scraps of paper, the methods which 
 she has employed in her attempt to bring it about, surpass 
 in their horror anything which has hitherto been recorded 
 in history. There is not the least exaggeration in this 
 statement. The atrocities which have been committed 
 in the past years by the officers and men alike of her 
 armies in Belgium, France, Russia and Serbia and of 
 her navy on the sea, have been already described in 
 hundreds of volumes and many thousands of newspapers, 
 in all the principal languages of the world ; but they are 
 of so shocking a nature that many people lack the nerve 
 to read them, while others confess their inability to realise 
 that in Europe of the twentieth century there should be 
 found men, and not only men but a nation, capable of 
 perpetrating such crimes. They prefer to imagine for 
 the sake of humanity that the incidents have not been 
 correctly related. But not only are a vast number of the 
 crimes reported based on unimpeachable evidence, often 
 on the statements contained in the letters and diaries of 
 Germans who have witnessed them or themselves partici- 
 pated in them, but they are justified — if such a word 
 can be used in this connection — ^by the orders issued by 
 commanders and other responsible persons. 
 
 " The armies of modern days being recruited indis- 
 criminately from all classes of the nation, it is not 
 astonishing that there should be certain degenerates among 
 
 14,4, 
 
HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR 145 
 
 them capable under exceptional circumstances of per- 
 forming criminal acts. It would be unjust to impute to 
 the whole of a nation the horror of certain isolated crimes. 
 There have been examples of such crimes in every war, 
 and the nations taking part therein are not dishonoured 
 by the excesses of a few individuals or by small groups 
 of their soldiers, any more than they are in time of peace 
 by the scandal of a crime committed in their midst. . . . 
 But it is a very different matter when, putting aside 
 individual crimes, we have to deal with wholesale execu- 
 tions or excessive severity shown with regard to persons 
 or their property by the express command of the military 
 authorities. In this case, so far from constituting excep- 
 tional crimes and contraventions against an established 
 discipline, these acts are to be attributed to the form of dis- 
 cipline itself and consequently to the system of command 
 and the social and moral ensemble of which this discipline 
 is the expression, the instrument and the support." ^ 
 
 " It is with my approval," said General von Biilow in 
 a proclamation posted at Li^ge on the 22nd of August, 
 1914, " that the Commander-in-Chief has caused the whole 
 district to be burnt, and that about two hundred persons 
 have been shot." 
 
 The following is an extract from a proclamation to the 
 communal authorities of the town of Li^ge — 
 
 August S2, 19U. 
 
 " The inhabitants of the town of Andenne, after having 
 protested their peaceful intentions, made a treacherous 
 surprise attack on our troops. 
 
 " It was with my consent that the General had the 
 whole place burnt down and about 100 people shot. 
 
 " I bring this fact to the knowledge of the town of 
 Liege, so that its inhabitants may know the fate with 
 which they are threatened, if they take up a similar 
 
 attitude. 
 
 " The General Commanding-in-Chief, 
 
 "VON BttLOW." 
 ^ L'Allemagne et le Droit des Gens, p. 124. 
 
146 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 And again at Namur on August 25 : " All the streets 
 will be occupied by a German guard who will take six 
 hostages in each street. If any disorder takes place in 
 the street the hostages will be shot. 
 
 " The Commandant of the City, 
 
 "VON BULOW." 
 
 " With a view to ensure the safety of our troops and 
 the tranquillity of the population of Rheims, the persons, 
 whose names are mentioned, have been seized as hostages 
 by the Commander of the German Army. These hostages 
 will be shot on the slightest disorder occurring. On the 
 other hand, if the town remains absolutely calm and 
 tranquil, the hostages and inhabitants will be placed 
 under the protection of the German Army. 
 
 "The General in Command. 
 
 " Rheims, September 12, 1916." 
 
 " In future the districts situated near the spot where 
 railway or telegraph lines have been destroyed will be 
 punished without mercy (it makes no difference whether 
 they are guilty or not). For this purpose, hostages have 
 been seized in all the districts situated near the railways 
 threatened with any attempt of this nature ; and immedi- 
 ately any attempt is made to destroy the railway and 
 telegraphic lines, they will be shot. 
 
 "The Governor, 
 
 " VOK DEE GOLTZ. 
 
 " Brussels, October 5, IQW 
 
 " The town of Wavre will be burnt and destroyed with- 
 out regard to anybody," wrote General von Vieber on 
 the 27th of August to the Burgomaster of that town, " if 
 a contribution of 3,000,000 francs is not paid in good time. 
 The innocent will suffer with the guilty." 
 
 In a placard posted at Hasselt, August 17, it was de- 
 clared that if inhabitants fired upon the soldiers of the 
 
HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR 147 
 
 German army, a third of the male population would be 
 put to death. 
 
 An order by General Stenger, commander of the 58th 
 Brigade, declares that — 
 
 " From to-day no more prisoners will be taken. All 
 the prisoners will be put to death. 
 
 " The wounded, whether armed or unarmed, will be put 
 to death. 
 
 " Prisoners, even when in large bodies, will be put to 
 death. No living man must remain behind us." 
 
 Extract from Brigade Orders, August 21, 1914, Mul- 
 hausen — 
 
 " All Frenchmen, whether wounded or not, who fall 
 into our hands, are to be killed. No prisoners are to be 
 taken." 
 
 Proclamation posted at Grivegn^e, September 8, 1914, 
 by Major Dieckmann — 
 
 " Whoever does not immediately obey the order ' hold 
 up arms ' renders himself guilty {sic) of death (se rend 
 coupable de la peine de mort)." 
 
 " Notice 
 
 " All the inmates of the house, with the exception of 
 children under fourteen years and their mothers and 
 aged persons, must be ready to be transported within an 
 hour and a half. 
 
 " An officer will decide definitely what persons will be 
 conducted to the concentration camps. For this purpose, 
 all the inmates of the house are to assemble in front 
 of it; in case of bad weather, they may remain in the 
 passage. The door of the house must remain open. 
 All complaints will be useless. No inmate of the house, 
 including even those who will not be transported, will be 
 permitted to quit the house before eight o'clock (German 
 time). 
 
148 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 " Each person will be entitled to thirty kilograms of 
 luggage ; if there is any excess the whole of the luggage 
 of the person, to whom it belongs, will be refused without 
 distinction. The luggage must be put together separately 
 for each person and a legible address firmly attached to 
 it. The address must contain the Christian and surname 
 and the number of the identity card. 
 
 " It is essential in the interests of the persons concerned 
 that they should provide themselves with utensils for 
 eating and drinking as well as a woollen coverlet, good 
 boots and linen. Each person must carry on him his 
 identity card. Any person attempting to evade the 
 transportation will be punished without mercy. 
 
 " Etappen-Kommandantur. 
 
 " Lille, April 1916." 
 
 The men who compose the German and Austrian armies 
 have tortured and mutilated and done to death in all 
 manner of ways the innocent inhabitants of the towns and 
 villages through which they have passed, hanging or shoot- 
 ing them down, men, women and children, singly or in 
 groups, or clubbing them with the butt-end of their rifles, 
 or hewing them to pieces with their axes, or spearing them 
 with bayonets, or burning them in their houses.^ 
 
 ^ At Sempst, Louvain, Liege and Dinant, families trying 
 to escape from their burning houses were shot or thrust back 
 into the fire. 
 
 The manner in which the Austrians in Serbia put their 
 victims to death were very varied according to Professor 
 Reiss. " Very often," he writes, " the victims were muti- 
 lated before or after death. The following methods of killing 
 and mutilation I have established by evidence. The victims 
 were shot, kiUed by the bayonet, their throats cut with knives, 
 they were violated and then kUled, stoned to death, hanged, 
 beaten to death with the butt-end of rifles or with sticks, 
 disembowelled, burnt alive, or their legs or arms were cut or 
 torn off, their ears or noses cut off, their eyes put out, their 
 breasts cut oft, their skin cut in strips, or the flesh torn from 
 the bone. Lastly, a little girl of ten months was thrown to the 
 pigs." 
 
HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR 149 
 
 They have bombarded and desecrated churches, and 
 stolen the sacred vessels from them. They have reduced 
 whole villages and large parts of towns to dust, destroying 
 historical edifices and works of art of incalculable value, 
 and have had themselves photographed among the ruins ; ^ 
 or, where there were no public buildings to destroy, no 
 banks to plunder or houses to pillage, they have devastated 
 the country. An eyewitness speaks of the country 
 which they are now abandoning in their retreat in the 
 west as " one indescribable scene of desolation, rapine 
 and wanton brutality." " At Bray St. Christophe," 
 says another eyewitness, " not content with blowing 
 the church of the cemetery to atoms, the departing 
 invaders tore its covering stones from some of the tombs 
 and destroyed the coffins, presumably for the metal they 
 contained." 
 
 They have outraged women and girls by thousands, 
 often murdering them afterwards. In the town of Dinant 
 alone they massacred more than six hundred persons in 
 one month.^ They have on numerous occasions, and with 
 despicable cowardice, placed women and children as a 
 screen between themselves and their enemies' rifles. They 
 have revelled in cruelty; even dumb animals have been 
 the victims of their barbarity.^ 
 
 Their prisoners have, in many cases, fared no better at 
 
 ^ " Postcards illustrating the ruin and destruction which 
 they have brought about, and the tortures they have in- 
 flicted upon the innocent inhabitants have been pubUshed and 
 distributed, showing that, so far from there being any shame 
 on account of the excesses committed by the soldiers, they 
 gloried in them." — UAllemagne el le Droit des Gens, p. 221. 
 
 2 In August, 1914. A complete list of their names is given 
 in the Belgian Ofiicial Reports, vol. ii. Annex 3. On pp. 106 
 seq. of the same Reports (English translation) a list is given 
 of 44 men between 65 and 80, of 57 women and girls, and 
 of 50 children, boys and little girls, some only a few months 
 old, butchered by German troops at that town. In the pro- 
 vince of Namur, they massacred nearly 2000 persons. 
 
 3 Belgian Official Reports on The Violation of the Rights of 
 Nations and the Laws and Customs of War, ii. 9. 
 
150 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 their hands than the inhabitants of the invaded towns. 
 Numbers have been shot, or battered or kicked to death 
 where they fell; others, carried to Germany have had to 
 endure the vilest treatment, both on their way there and 
 during their internment. And not only prisoners of war, 
 but vast numbers of the civil population of the invaded 
 towns are now being torn away from their families and 
 deported to Germany, where they will be forced to labour 
 for their oppressors like gangs of slaves.^ 
 
 From the air and from the sea they have hurled their 
 bombs on women and children under the pretence that 
 
 ^ " Parties of soldiers enter by force these peaceful homes 
 and tear youths from their parents, the husband from his 
 wife, and the father from his children. They stop with 
 bayonets the door through which wives and mothers wish 
 to pass in order to say a final farewell to those who are going 
 away. 
 
 " The Germans arrange their captives in groups of forty 
 and fifty and force them into railway trucks. As soon as 
 the train is full the officer in charge gives the signal for its 
 departure. And so thousands of Belgians are reduced to 
 slavery. They do not know whither they are going." — Pro- 
 test issued by Cardinal Mercier in the name of all the Bishops 
 of Belgium; quoted in the Pall Mall Gazette, November 14, 
 1916. 
 
 " In a note issued July 25, 1916, the French Government 
 challenged Germany to permit neutral Powers to inquire into 
 the seizure of non-combatants at LUle, Roubaix and Tourcoing, 
 in April 1916. The facts were that 22,000 girls over twenty, 
 women and men in these French towns, then in enemy occu- 
 pation, were seized by German soldiers from regiments defeated 
 at Verdun, and carried off in droves, altogether, pell-meU. 
 The men were to be employed in forced labour on the land, 
 on roads and in the manufacture of munitions. The women 
 were to cook and wash for the soldiers and to replace the 
 ofiicers' orderlies. Evidence was produced showing that 
 young women had been forced to work for the enemy under 
 fire, had been brutally ill-used, had been miserably fed, and 
 in some cases had been flogged. The German Govern- 
 ment refused to allow any neutral State to inquire into the 
 facts. See Les Allemands A Lille, French official publica- 
 tion." — H. W. Wilson, in the National Review, January, 
 1917. 
 
HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR 151 
 
 they were bombarding fortified towns. ^ They have strewn 
 
 ^ And yet their newspapers avow that the object of the 
 Zeppelin raids is to terrify and wreak vengeance on the non- 
 combatant citizens of London. 
 
 " Thousands bleed daily in the shell-fire on the Somme, 
 and the crews of our airships do not ask a softer fate. For 
 all, down to the last man, know that they strike England most 
 effectively to the heart, and that peace is brought most speedily 
 nearer when the fuU-fed shopkeepers on the Thames no longer 
 feel safe in their own houses, and when pale fear chases the 
 blood from their faces. The voice of compassion must be 
 silent against brutal England, which desires to root out our 
 whole race from the earth." — Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten, 
 September 26, 1916. 
 
 " England an island no longer ! The City of London, the 
 heart which pumps the life-blood into the arteries of the brutal 
 huckster nation, has been sown with bombs by German air- 
 ships, whose brave pilots had the satisfaction of seeing the 
 dislocated fragments of docks, banks and numerous other 
 buildings rise up to the dark skies in lurid tongues of flame. 
 At last the long-yearned-for punishment has fallen on England, 
 on this people of liars and hypocrites, the punishment for the 
 overflowing measure of sins in ages past. Not blind hatred is 
 it, nor raging anger, that inspires our airship heroes, but a 
 solemn, a religious awe at being the chosen instruments of 
 the Divine wrath ; and in that moment that they saw London 
 going up in smoke and fire they lived through a thousand 
 lives of an immeasurable joy which all who remain at home 
 must envy them." — Ibid. 
 
 The Berlin-Anzeiger has published a pretended photograph of 
 the " devastation " caused by the raid of September 23, 1915, in 
 Regent Street, " the famous shopping thoroughfare of London, 
 which is mostly in ruins in consequence of our air-raids ! " 
 
 " In the Zeppelin raids on Great Britain bombs were con- 
 sistently dropped on small towns and residential districts of 
 large towns. Military works were avoided; in general the 
 Gierman airships went nowhere near munition works. Full 
 statements by neutrals have been published on this head. 
 Down to September 4, 1916, 352 persons had been killed and 
 799 injured — almost all non-combatants and many of them 
 women and children — in German air-raids. The writer is able 
 to say, after personally examining the bomb-discharging 
 apparatus in L 33, that it was of such a nature as to make 
 hitting any target out of the question at a height of 5000 feet 
 or more, at which these airships attack." — The National 
 Review, January, 1917. 
 
152 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 mines in the open sea.^ They have torpedoed passenger 
 and hospital ships, laughing at their victims as they 
 struggled in the water,* or leaving them to perish in their 
 boats of cold and hunger. Nor are any means by which 
 they can bring them to their fate too foul in their eyes.' 
 
 " On December 16, 1914, the German battle cruisers, under 
 Admiral Hipper shelled Whitby, Scarborough, and the Hartle- 
 pools, killing 150 non-combatants, many of whom were women 
 and children, and wounding over 400. No notice was given; 
 no naval operations were undertaken; the fire was directed 
 at houses and residential districts. On AprU 25, 1916, a 
 similar purposeless attack was made on Lowestoft and Yar- 
 mouth, but on this occasion only very trifling loss was inflicted." 
 —Ibid. 
 
 " The attack or bombardment by any means whatever of 
 undefended towns, viQages, dwellings or buildings," is for- 
 bidden by Article 25 of the Hague Convention of 1907. 
 
 ^ " This question of laying mines outside territorial waters 
 was raised at the Second Hague Conference by the British 
 Government when the German representative. Baron Marschall 
 von Bieberstein, said in answer to a British proposal to forbid 
 mines as inhuman and dangerous to neutrals : ' The ofiicers 
 of the German navy, I say it loudly, will always fulfil in the 
 strictest fashion the duties which the unwritten law of humanity 
 and of civilisation lays on them.' " — Protocols of the Second 
 Peace Conference, p. 55; quoted in the National Review, 
 January, 1917. 
 
 ^ As in the case of the Falaba. It was stated, on the 19th 
 of April, 1916, by the President of the Board of Trade, that 
 up to that date 13,117 non-combatants had lost their lives 
 from ships torpedoed by German submarines. " This," writes 
 the Matin (Jime 3, 1916), " is another account to be added 
 to those which the Allies will have to settle with this abomin- 
 able nation and with its accomplices. When the day of reckon- 
 ing comes, we must remember not only the peaceable peasants 
 and bourgeois murdered or burnt alive, but the awful agony of 
 the women and children who perished in the waves, while the 
 brutal corsair looked on and jeered." 
 
 * A Dutchman on his return from a sea-voyage informed 
 the Telegraaf that a Dutch ship, while in the Bay of 
 Biscay, received the signal " S.O.S." On proceeding to the 
 spot from which the signal came it found there a German 
 submarine which was not in the least in distress, and the 
 captain of which expressed great disappointment that the 
 Dutch ship, which answered the signal, was not a British 
 one. 
 
HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR 153 
 
 They have fired on hospitals and ambulances.^ They 
 have poisoned the wells which supplied our East African 
 troops with drinking water. It can hardly add to their 
 infamy, if it be true, as reported, that they have used 
 explosive bullets,^ that they have attempted to infect the 
 population of Bucharest with the germs of mortal disease,* 
 
 ^ Evidence was given before Lord Bryce's Committee show- 
 ing " that the enemy shelled buildings on which the Red Cross 
 Flag was conspicuously flying, even when so close to them 
 that there could be no difficulty in making out the flag; that 
 he fired on stretcher-bearers and ambulances ; and that in one 
 case a Red Cross depot was shelled on most days in the week." 
 
 * In a French work entitled Comment VAllemagne fait la 
 Guerre, there is given a photographic reproduction of an order, 
 signed by the &gneral in command of the 8th German Army 
 Corps, forbidding the further use of explosive (dum-dum) 
 bullets. — Paroles Allemandes, pp. 118, 130. 
 
 * " The analysis made by Dr. Cantacerzene of the chocolates 
 and other sweets dropped by the Bulgaro-German aviators in 
 the course of their flights over the country, has proved con- 
 clusively that these bonbons contained the microbes of typhus 
 and other maladies. The Roumanian Government will send 
 copies of the analysts' report and samples of the poisoned 
 sweets to the Governments of the neutral countries." — The 
 Near East, November 24, 1916. 
 
 Documents have already been issued by the Roumanian 
 Government showing that cases buried in the ground of the 
 German Legation at Bucharest contained, amongst other 
 things, explosives of a high order and cultures of anthrax and 
 glanders bacilli. Inside the box, which contained the latter 
 was a type- written note to the following effect : " Herewith four 
 tubes for horses and four for horned cattle. Each tube is 
 sufficient for 200 head. If possible administer direct through 
 the animal's mouth ; if not, in its fodder. Should be obliged 
 for a little report on success. If there should be good news to 
 report, Herr K.'s presence here for a day desirable." 
 
 Copies of the documentary evidence have been forwarded 
 by the Roumanian Minister for Foreign Affairs to the neutral 
 and allied Governments with a Note in which he says : " It 
 has been proved, in a manner that is unfortunately beyond 
 dispute, that before our declaration of war against Austria- 
 Hungary, that is to say, at a period when the Roumanian 
 Government was observing a strict neutrality and main- 
 taining normal relations with the German Empire, the staff 
 of the Imperial Legation violated all the rules of neutrality 
 and all the duties of diplomatic representatives by introducing 
 
154 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 or blown up Norwegian ships with their crews and 
 passengers by means of bombs and infernal machines 
 placed on them through the agency of their diplomatic 
 representatives at Christiania. 
 
 There is no convention of the Hague which they have 
 not violated. 
 
 The instances of their savage brutality given below 
 form but an infinitesimal part of the abominable deeds 
 which have been recorded against them in official reports. 
 
 " Namur was entered August 24. The troops signal- 
 ised their entry by firing on a crowd of 150 unarmed, 
 unresisting civilians, only ten of whom escaped. ... As 
 the inhabitants fled from the burning houses they were 
 shot by the German troops." 
 
 " At Tamines a witness describes how he saw the public 
 square littered with corpses, and after a search found the 
 bodies of his wife and child, a little girl of seven." 
 
 " At Haecht several children were murdered. One of 
 two or three years old was found nailed to the door of a 
 farmhouse by its hands and feet — a crime which seems 
 
 secretly into the Roumanian capital considerable quantities 
 of an extremely powerful explosive, and bacillus-cultures which 
 were intended for the infection of domestic animals, and were 
 in consequence likely to produce terrible murrains, as well as 
 maladies transmissible to human beings. 
 
 " There is no possible doubt as to the manner in which the 
 substances in question must have been introduced into Rou- 
 manian territory. The extremely rigorous measures of frontier 
 police which were taken by the Roumanian Government from 
 the beginning of the European War and were continually 
 strengthened at later dates, are ample proof in themselves that 
 these explosives and bacillus-cultures were despatched through 
 diplomatic channels — as is corroborated by the seal of the 
 German Consulate at Brasso, placed upon the box of microbe- 
 cultures — and that they can only have reached the Imperial 
 Legation through the agency of diplomatic couriers, protected 
 by the special immunities attached to their office. The names 
 of the successive consignees of the package of phials also make 
 it possible to ascertain the time-limits within which the said 
 cultures were imported into Roumanian territory." 
 
HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR 155 
 
 almost incredible, but the evidence for which we feel bound 
 to accept. In the garden of this house was the body of a 
 girl who had been shot in the forehead." 
 
 " On one occasion children were roped together and 
 used as a military screen against the enemy. On another, 
 soldiers went into action carrying small children to protect 
 themselves from flank fire." 
 
 " At Eppeghem the dead body of a child of two was seen 
 pinned to the ground with a German lance." 
 
 " A witness from Malines states as follows : ' One day, 
 when the Germans were not actually bombarding the town, 
 I saw eight German soldiers in the street who were drunk. 
 They were singing and making a lot of noise and dancing 
 about. As the soldiers came along the street, I saw a 
 small child — ^whether boy or girl I did not see — come out 
 of a house. The child was about two years of age. The 
 child came into the middle of the street, so as to be in the 
 way of the soldiers. The soldiers were walking in twos. 
 The first line of two passed the child. One of the second 
 line, the man on the left, stepped aside and drove his 
 bayonet with both hands into the child's stomach, lifting 
 it into the air and carrying it away on his bayonet, he 
 and his comrades still singing.' " 
 
 " A British lance-corporal tells how a party of wounded 
 British soldiers were left in a chalk-pit, all very badly 
 hurt and unable to offer any resistance. One of them, 
 an officer, held up his handkerchief, as a white flag, which 
 attracted the attention of a party of about eight Germans. 
 The Germans came to the edge of the pit. It was getting 
 dusk, but the light was still good and everything clearly 
 discernible. One of them, who appeared to be carrying 
 no arms and who, at any rate, had no rifle, came a few 
 feet down the slope into the chalk-pit, within eight or ten 
 yards of some of the wounded men. He looked at the 
 men, laughed, and said something in German to the 
 Germans who were waiting on the edge of the cliff. There- 
 upon one of them fired at the officer, then three or four of 
 
156 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 the ten soldiers were shot, then another officer and the 
 witness and the rest of the soldiers." 
 
 " On the 6th of September, at Champguyon, Mme. 
 Lowet was present at the martyrdom of her husband. 
 She saw him in the hands of ten or fifteen soldiers who 
 were putting him to death before his own house, and ran 
 up and kissed him through the bars of the gate. She was 
 brutally pushed back and fell, while the murderers dragged 
 along the unhappy man, covered with blood, begging them 
 to spare his life and protesting that he had done nothing 
 to be treated thus. . . . When his wife found his body, 
 it was horribly disfigured. His head was beaten in, one 
 of his eyes hung from the socket, and one of his wrists was 
 broken." 
 
 On the 4th of September, German troops burnt the 
 town of Clermont-en-Argonne, " and, while the houses 
 blazed, the soldiers poured into the church, which stood 
 by itself on the height, and danced there to the sound of 
 the organ. Then, before leaving, they set fire to it with 
 grenades as well as with vessels full of inflammable liquid. 
 After the burning of Clermont, the bodies of the Mayor of 
 Vauquois, M. Poinsignon, which was completely carbonised, 
 and that of a young boy of eleven were found." 
 
 " At Menthe-et-Moselle about fifty soldiers forced their 
 way into the house of M. Vasse, who had collected a number 
 of people in his cellar in the Faubourg de Nancy. The 
 refugees made an effort to flee, but they were struck down 
 one after the other as they came out. M. Mantre was 
 murdered first, then his son Leon fell with his little sister, 
 aged eight, in his arms. As he was not killed outright, the 
 end of the rifle barrel was put to his head, and his brains 
 were blown out. It was next the turn of the Kieffer 
 family. The mother was wounded in the arm and shoulder. 
 The father and little boy, aged ten, and the little girl, 
 aged three, were shot. The murderers continued to fire 
 on them after they had fallen. Kieffer, stretched on the 
 ground, received another bullet in the forehead, and his 
 
HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR 157 
 
 son had the top of his head blown off by a shot. Last of 
 all, M. Stuiffert and one of Vasse's sons were murdered 
 while Mme. Mantre was wounded by three bullets. M. 
 Guillaume was dragged into the street and there found 
 dead. Simonin, a young girl of seventeen, came out last 
 from the cellar with her sister Jeanne, aged three. The 
 latter had her elbow almost carried off by a bullet." 
 
 " Nomeny, a pretty town of Gerbeviller, on the banks 
 of the Mortagne, fell a victim to the fury of the Germans. 
 . . . From the moment of their entry into the town, the 
 Germans gave themselves up to the worst excesses, entering 
 the houses with savage yells, burning the buildings, killing 
 or arresting the inhabitants, sparing neither women nor 
 old men. Out of 475 houses, 20 at most are still habit- 
 able. More than 100 persons have disappeared, of whom 
 50 at least have been massacred. Some were led into the 
 fields to be shot; other were murdered in their houses or 
 struck down as they passed through the streets, endea- 
 vouring to escape from the conflagration. Up to now 
 36 bodies have been identified. . . ." 
 
 " In the morning the enemy entered the house of M. 
 and Mme. Lingenfeld, seized their son, thirty-six years 
 of age, who wore the brassard of the Red Cross, tied his 
 hands behind his back, dragged him into the street and 
 shot him. They then returned to look for the father, an 
 old man of seventy. Mme. Lingenfeld then took to flight. 
 On her way she saw her son stretched on the ground and, 
 as the unhappy man was still moving, some German 
 soldiers drenched him with petrol to which they set fire 
 in the presence of the terrified mother. Meanwhile M. 
 Lingenfeld was led to La Prele, where he was executed." 
 
 " At Herimenil, on the 29th of August, the enemy, who 
 had arrived on the 24th, were guilty of monstrous acts. 
 The inhabitants were invited to go to the church and were 
 kept there for fotir days while their houses were sacked, 
 and the French bombarded the village. A woman, who 
 
158 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 had succeeded with great trouble in leaving the church for 
 a moment, was returning with a little milk for the children. 
 A captain, furious at seeing that this person had been 
 allowed to pass, cried out : ' I did not intend that the door 
 should be opened. I meant the French to fire on their 
 own people.' This same captain a short time before was 
 present when Mme. Winger, a young woman of twenty- 
 three, was going to the church in obedience to the general 
 order with her servants, a girl and two young women. 
 Considering that their progress was too slow he directed 
 the soldiers to fire on them and the four victims fell mortally 
 wounded. The Germans left their bodies in the street for 
 two days." 
 
 " A Belgian soldier, a volunteer, N , being wounded 
 
 in the arm, was captured by the Germans on August 18. 
 He was brought with twenty-seven other prisoners by road 
 along the Demer. Two German companies were placed 
 there. All the prisoners were driven before them and shot. 
 Those who, in order to escape the bullets, jumped into the 
 Demer, were shot in the river. The witness threw himself 
 on the ground, simulating death. A German soldier came 
 close to him and, noticing that he was alive, prepared to 
 shoot him. An officer interfered, saying that the man was 
 not worth the bullet and ordered him to be thrown into 
 the river. The witness succeeded in getting hold of the 
 branches of a bush on the bank, spent the whole night in 
 the water, and managed to escape in the morning. At 
 Surice, while the village was burning, a group of some fifty 
 or sixty persons of both sexes was driven along. The 
 eighteen men were separated from the women and told 
 that they were to be shot. Among them were the parish 
 priests of Anthee, Onhaye, and Surice, and another ecclesi- 
 astic. There were fathers and sons side by side ; opposite 
 them were their mothers and daughters, wailing and 
 praying. The massacre was carried out under their eyes. 
 All the men fell together, mown down by one voUey. 
 One or two showed signs of life, whereupon the soldiers 
 finished them off with the butt-ends of their rifles. They 
 
HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR 159 
 
 then turned out the pockets of the dead and stripped off 
 some of their clothes." 
 
 " At Bueken a massacre took place long after that 
 hamlet had been occupied by the German troops. They 
 had been staying there for ten days and the panic-stricken 
 inhabitants had been doing their best to keep them in 
 good temper by every possible means. On August 29 the 
 men were all arrested and led to a meadow and their hands 
 tied behind their backs. Then, according to the evidence 
 of the witness who described the scene to us, eighteen men 
 were shot including an old man of seventy and his three 
 sons. They were executed in the presence of their wives 
 and children. Before the volley was fired, an officer read 
 out a sort of sentence of death, in which it was declared 
 that one man was accused of being in possession of a book 
 belonging to a German soldier. This book had been left 
 by the soldier in the house where he had been quartered 
 for the last ten days. Another man was declared to have 
 been foimd carrying part of a German cartridge. The 
 women, in the hope of saving the lives of their husbands, 
 tried to call out, ' Long live Germany and the Kaiser.' 
 When the massacre was over, the women and children 
 were shut up in a room so small that no one could lie 
 down. They were confined there for two days without 
 food or drink." 
 
 " On reaching the square at Tamines the first thing we 
 saw was a mass of bodies of civilians, extending for at least 
 forty yards in length by six yards in depth. They had 
 evidently been drawn up in rank to be shot. . . . An 
 officer came forward and asked for volunteers to bury the 
 bodies. . . . Fathers buried the bodies of their sons and 
 sons those of their fathers. The women of the village 
 had been marched out into the square and saw us at our 
 work. All round were the burnt houses. There were in 
 the square both soldiers and officers. They were drinking 
 champagne. . . . We buried from 350 to 400 bodies. A 
 list of the names of the victims has been drawn up. . . . 
 While some of us were carrying the bodies, I saw some 
 
160 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 people stop and call to a German doctor. They had 
 noticed that the man, whom they were carrying, was still 
 alive. The doctor examined the wounded man and made 
 a sign that he was to be buried with the rest. The plank 
 on which he was lying was borne on again. I saw the 
 wounded man raise his arm elbow-high. They called to 
 the doctor again but he made the gesture that he was 
 to be thrown into the trench with the others." 
 
 " The Germans burnt, after sacking them, 264 houses in 
 Tamines. Many persons including women and children 
 were burnt or stifled in their own homes. Many were shot 
 in the fields. The total number of victims was over 650. 
 The commission of inquiry devoted special attention to 
 ascertaining whether the inhabitants of the village had 
 fired on the German troops. Every surviving witness 
 unanimously declared the contrary." 
 
 " At the village of War sage there was no inquiry. They 
 cried out : ' Man hat geschossen ' {Some one has fired) 
 and they began to burn the neighbouring houses. They 
 burst in the doors, broke the windows and dragged out the 
 inhabitants. Two men were killed and about twenty-five 
 houses and farms were set on fire. The soldiers fired 
 through the open windows. I immediately intervened 
 as Burgomaster and advised every one to keep calm. . . . 
 The officer in command chose at least a dozen of the inhabi- 
 tants, by chance including myself, and ordered us to march 
 in front of the troops in silence with our hands behind 
 our backs, declaring that if one shot were fired in the 
 village, we should all be instantly shot. When we reached 
 the camp we were commanded to lie down on the ground 
 or to kneel, and observe absolute silence. ... I declare 
 that we were not questioned ; they did not even tell us 
 of what we were accused; there was not the smallest 
 inquiry, no sort of investigation. We had been there 
 about a quarter of an hour when they took six of the 
 younger ones among us. They were Messrs. Leuter. . . . 
 They led them about fifty metres away from the group, 
 took off their jackets and shot them." 
 
HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR 161 
 
 " Directly they arrived in the district called ' Fonds 
 de Leffe ' the soldiers entered the houses, expelled the 
 occupants, killed the men and set fire to the houses. M. 
 Victor Poncelet was killed in his house in front of his wife 
 and children. M. Himmer, manager of the factory at 
 Leffe and Vice-Consul of the Argentine Republic, was shot, 
 with a number of his workmen : 152 of the staff of the 
 factory were murdered. The Premonstratensian Church 
 was, I am informed, entered during Mass. The men were 
 dragged out and shot on the spot. One of the Fathers 
 also was murdered. But what is the good of giving further 
 details ? One circumstance will sum up all. Of the whole 
 population of this district only nine men (apart from old 
 men) remain alive. The women and children were shut up 
 in the Abbey, which was pillaged." 
 
 " The prisoners were arranged in a long row to serve as a 
 screen against the fire of the French while the Germans 
 defiled behind this living rampart. As soon as the French 
 recognised the victims offered to them, they ceased to fire. 
 A young lady, Mdlle. Marsigny, was however killed before 
 her parents' eyes. She was struck in the head by a French 
 bullet. . . . The prisoners were exposed in this way for 
 nearly two hours and then taken back to prison. The same 
 thing occurred to a group of citizens who were exposed in 
 the prison square to the fire of the French. They were 
 made to keep their hands raised. They included a man of 
 eighty, M. Laurent, the Hon. President of the Tribunal, 
 his son-in-law, the judge, and the latter's wife and children. 
 There were no casualties, as the French ceased fire and the 
 Germans were able to cross without risk. . . . The number 
 subjected to this treatment was at least 150. . . . About 
 six o'clock, the others were taken to a place in front of my 
 house, not far from the prison. There the able-bodied 
 men were taken out and lined up in four rows against my 
 garden wall. An officer addressed them in German and 
 then, in the presence of the women and children, gave the 
 order to fire. All fell down. The soldiers, looking on 
 from the terrace formed by the garden of M. Fanquinet, 
 
 M 
 
162 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 the architect, burst into fits of laughter. ... I believe 
 the exact number killed here was 129. 
 
 " The troops who came by the Froidval road occupied 
 the district of Penant. The inhabitants were seized on the 
 arrival of the Germans and kept under guard. . . . When 
 the fire of the French slackened, the Germans began to 
 construct a bridge, but they were still annoyed by a few 
 shots. As these were infrequent, the Germans, honestly 
 or otherwise, came to the conclusion that they were fired by 
 francs-tireurs. They sent M. Bourdon, the Assistant 
 Registrar of the Court, to announce that if the fire con- 
 tinued, all the prisoners would be executed. He did so, 
 and, recrossing the Meuse, surrendered himself and in- 
 formed the German officers that he had been able to make 
 sure that only French soldiers were firing. A few more 
 French bullets were fired, and then a monstrous event took 
 place, which one's mind would refuse to believe, were it not 
 that the survivors who bore witness and the gaping wounds 
 of the dead bodies furnished absolutely conclusive proof. 
 The whole mass of prisoners, men, women, and children, 
 were pushed up against a wall and shot. Eighty victims 
 fell at this spot. Was it here or at the Neffe Viaduct, 
 which I mention later, that a three-months old child was 
 killed ? I no longer remember. 
 
 " That evening the Germans searched among the bodies. 
 Under the heap a few poor wretches were still living. They 
 were dragged out and added to some prisoners brought from 
 elsewhere and put to dig a grave for the dead. They were 
 to be deported to Germany. Among them was a fifteen- 
 year-old boy, the son of Registrar Bourdon, who was found 
 with the bodies of his father, mother, sister and brother. 
 
 " Those buried included a woman who was still living. 
 She groaned, but it mattered not. She was thrown into 
 the trench with the others. 
 
 " In the Neffe district the Germans searched the houses, 
 burning a fair number but leaving the rest alone. Some 
 of the people were left at liberty, others were expelled from 
 their houses and shot on the road. Others again were 
 arrested and taken to Germany. In some cases entire 
 
HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR 168 
 
 families were murdered, without regard to age or sex, in 
 particular the Guerigs and the Morelles. 
 
 " One house caught on fire where a woman was lying with 
 a broken leg. Some of the people asked permission from the 
 soldiers to rescue her. It was refused and she was burnt 
 alive. . . . All Monday and Tuesday the pillaging was 
 continued and the destruction of the city by fire was 
 completed." 
 
 " A woman of Li^ge gave us revolting details of the 
 manner in which the wounded transported into Germany 
 were treated under her eyes. On October 27, she was 
 returning by train from Brussels to Liege. ' At Landen,' 
 she declares, ' I got down on the platform and approached 
 a goods wagon. I saw there seven English soldiers, five 
 wounded and two dead. The five wounded, so the German 
 soldiers told me, had been there for four days. They com- 
 plained bitterly. There was a military kitchen on the plat- 
 form. A corporal of the 57th infantry took a bowl of soup 
 and bent down before the wounded. They made as if to take 
 the bowl, but the German soldiers kicked them in the 
 stomach and the corporal returned the bowl. The other 
 soldiers took buckets of water with a ladle and upset them 
 over the Englishmen, soaking them with water and throw- 
 ing the buckets over them. I said to the corporal : " It is 
 disgraceful of you to ill-treat wounded men.' ' He answered 
 me in good French : " These swine have got to die." I 
 answered : " Kill them then at once.' ' And he said : " Don't 
 be afraid. We are killing them all, but all in good time." ' " 
 
 " Andr^ Willem, sacristan of the village of Schaffan, 
 was tied to a tree and burnt alive." 
 
 " At Sempst were found the bodies of two men, partially 
 carbonised. One of them had his legs cut off at the knees ; 
 the other had the arms and legs cut off. A workman had 
 been struck several times by bayonets, and then, while 
 still alive, the Germans had poured petroleum over him 
 and thrown him into a house to which they set fire. A 
 
164 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 woman who came out of her house was killed in the same 
 way." 
 
 " Near Malines numerous corpses of peasants lay on the 
 ground in a position of supplication, their arms lifted and 
 their hands clasped." 
 
 " Some minutes passed : then under our eyes and amid 
 the shrieks of women who were cr jdng ' Shoot me too ; 
 shoot me with my husband ! ' and the wailing of the 
 children, the men were lined up on the edge of the hollow 
 way which runs from the high road to the bottom of the 
 village. They waved last greetings to us, some with their 
 hands, others with their hats or caps. The young Henri 
 Jacques was leaning on the shoulder of one of the priests, 
 as if to seek help and courage from him ; he was sobbing, 
 ' I am too young ; I can't face death bravely.' Unable 
 to bear the sight any longer, I turned my back to the road 
 and covered my eyes with my hands. The soldiers fired 
 a volley, and the men fell in a heap. Some one said to 
 me, ' Look, they are all down ! ' But they were not all 
 shot dead ; several were finished oft by having their skulls 
 beaten in with rifle-butts. . . . 
 
 " When the massacre was over the Germans plimdered 
 the corpses." 
 
 " Old men and boys and even women and young girls 
 were shot like rabbits. The slightest failure to comply with 
 the peremptory demands of the invader was punished 
 with instant death. The cure of Pradelle, having failed 
 to find the the key of the church tower, was put against 
 the wall and shot ; a shepherd near Rebais who failed to 
 produce bread for the German troops had his head blown 
 off by a rifle ; a young mother at Bailleul who was unable 
 to produce sufficient coffee to satisfy the demands of twenty- 
 three German soldiers had her baby seized by one of the 
 latter and its head dipped in scalding water." 
 
 " It was now 5. 15 p.m. and I could see that the Germans 
 had cut me and all these men off from our own troops. I 
 took the men of the — Highlanders back to where the others 
 
HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR 165 
 
 were. I now had about forty men with me. For the sake 
 of the wounded men we decided to surrender. . . . 
 
 " I stood on the top of the parapet and held up my hands. 
 A large party of Germans advanced. . . . When they drew 
 near I said : ' We surrender.' One German, speaking 
 English, said : ' All right, come along this way, every 
 one.' . . . 
 
 " About thirty of these Germans led us into a circular 
 traverse in Pekin Trench, and the English-speaking 
 German said, ' Pack in there and stay.' All the Germans 
 then went out of sight, . . . 
 
 " After we had been there about two minutes, a bomb was 
 thrown into the traverse where we were, one bomb from 
 one side and one from the other. I shouted to the men to 
 clear out if possible. Only one man and myself jumped 
 over the parapet. . . . I then jumped into a shell hole about 
 fifteen yards from the traverse. It was almost full of water, 
 in which I stood up to my neck. The other man was 
 shot." 
 
 " At Elewijit, on the 27th, they amused themselves by 
 mutilating the hands of four men : the three brothers 
 Vander Aa and Frangois Salu. A little further to the 
 east the, first German troops who had passed through 
 Schafen, near Diest, on the 14th or 24th August, had there 
 tortured the blacksmith Broeden. All day long he had 
 laboured, shoeing the horses of the enemy's cavalry ; only 
 in the evening he repaired to the church with the sacristan, 
 with the object of saving some precious articles, which 
 had not been placed in security. He was seized by the 
 soldiers. The Germans broke his wrists, his arms and 
 his legs — ^perhaps he suffered yet other tortures. When 
 he was practically lifeless. . . . they threw him head first 
 into a ditch dug for the purpose ; then the ditch was filled, 
 leaving his feet protruding." 
 
 " Private J. C , Scottish Fusiliers, 1st Batt. : ' At 
 
 Locre, near Bailleul, I was billeted in the church there 
 at the beginning of December. The church had not been 
 
166 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 shelled, but had been looted and the crucifixes had been 
 smashed, and all the images and things of value appeared 
 to have been torn away.' " 
 
 " Private S , C Company, 1st King's R.R. : ' It was 
 
 on September 11, I can never forget that date, it was 
 after we left the Marne, and a day or two before the Aisne, 
 we were engaged with the enemy at a distance of about 
 1200 yards. They put up a white flag in their centre and 
 waved it from side to side. We stopped firing, whereupon 
 they fired heavily from their right flank. A second time 
 they put up the white flag, this time on the right flank; 
 but we took no notice of this and kept on firing.' " 
 
 " J. G , Lance-Corporal, King's Own, 1st Batt. : 
 
 ' At the end of November, the second day after we arrived 
 at Nieppe, two of us entered an estaminet and found the 
 landlady crying ; she told us that about thirteen Germans 
 violated her daughter and shot her husband against a 
 wall in front of her eyes. She said there were a lot of 
 other cases in Nieppe.' " 
 
 " Private K , 1st Loyal North Lanes : ' On Monday 
 
 night we attacked them and took two trenches. Every- 
 thing was quiet till the next morning except for sniping. 
 At about 8.30 they advanced upon us, and the officer 
 of — Company, seeing the men were overpowered, put up 
 the white flag, and the men put their hands up to sur- 
 render. The Germans advanced, and when they got up 
 to the trenches, they shot them each in their trenches as 
 they stood. / saw this. I was on the left flank.' " 
 
 " Private W , [in the first Camerons] : ' We were 
 
 advancing. Black Watch on our right, Scots Guards on our 
 left. Germans put up white flag and we advanced to take 
 prisoners. At thirty yards they opened their ranks, and 
 machine-guns concealed behind fired upon us, the Germans 
 in front also firing their rifles.' " 
 
 " Private S— , 1st Batt. Glo'sters : ' On August 26, 
 first day of retreat from Fevrel, we were leaving the 
 
HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR 167 
 
 trenches, B Co. covering us on the left. It was just where 
 
 Captain S was shot. Private L , who had been 
 
 shot twice, was bayoneted when lying on the ground by 
 two Germans. I and the whole Company saw it.' " 
 
 " J. B , Despatch Rider, Signal Co., 1st Div. R.E. : 
 
 ' About September 16, near Paissy. At a distance of 
 about 800 yards we saw through our glasses one of our 
 
 despatch-riders (A of Signal Co., R.E.), shot while 
 
 riding his motor-cycle; he fell off, and while lying on 
 ground was speared by three Uhlans, one after the other. 
 Uhlans attempted to burn him with his own petrol, but 
 made oft when they saw us coming. We found his body 
 half-burned when we reached it.' " 
 
 Statements taken down, after cross-examination by a 
 Staff Officer at General Headquarters, as to incidents in 
 the neighbourhood of Ypres : — 
 
 " Private B. S , 1st Black Watch, says that he saw 
 
 Germans bayonet our wounded as they lay on the grotmd. 
 He was wounded in the leg himself, but, seeing this, he 
 managed to get away. 
 
 " Afterwards he was with German wounded, who told 
 him that they had been ordered to kill all English prisoners." 
 
 Statement by Major ■ , O.C. of a Cavalry Field Ambu- 
 lance : " On October 17, at Moorslede, north-east of 
 Ypres, the Germans were reported as having strangled a 
 young baker in this place. The inhabitants stated that he 
 had been taken by the Germans to bake for them, and 
 that he attemted to escape. The enemy caught him and 
 stuffed a woollen scarf he was wearing down his throat, 
 
 causing suffocation. One of my officers, Lieut, P , 
 
 viewed the body in the convent next day, and found the 
 scarf stuffed in the man's throat." 
 
 Driver B , R.F.A. : " Somewhere between Chantilly 
 
 and VUlers-Cotterets, about the end of August, just after 
 we started advancing, we were marching through a village, 
 and the villagers called us into a house and showed us the 
 
168 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 body of a middle-aged man, with both arms cut off by a 
 sword, pointed to him and said ' Allemands.' They told 
 our R.A.M,C. men in French that he had been killed when 
 trying to protect his daughter, 
 
 " In the next village, before we got to the Aisne, the 
 villagers showed us the dead body of a woman, naked, on 
 the ground, badly mutilated, her breasts cut off, and her 
 body ripped up. They said ' Allemands.' " 
 
 Private W. D , Hampshires : " About seven weeks 
 
 ago, when the Germans tried hard to break through, we 
 were about two hours from a place which we call the 
 Chateau, where the Germans pitched shell every day, 
 especially at a big tower place which is there. Our platoon 
 were in the trenches in the order left to right of 5,6,7,8, 
 and then came C Company in their trenches. The wounded 
 left with the dead in the C trench were half buried by its 
 having been blown in. The Germans enfiladed the 
 wounded, shot them, bayoneted them, jumped on them." 
 
 " A. X., of the 26th Regiment, deposes as follows : He 
 was ordered, and the order was read to the regiment, to 
 kill everybody and everything met with in the course of 
 the campaign, and to destroy everything Serbian. . . . 
 A peasant who served as guide to the troops was shot by 
 Commandant Stenger and his soldiers. ... A Croatian 
 named Dochan boasted of having killed a woman, a child, 
 and two old men and invited his comrades to come with 
 him to see his victims." 
 
 " E. X., of the 6th Regiment of Infantry, states that the 
 Hungarian captain, Nobosnai, gave orders before crossing 
 the frontier that everj^hing living should be killed from 
 children of five to the oldest men. When the frontier had 
 been crossed and the troops had arrived at the first Serbian 
 village, the captain gave orders that two hundred houses 
 should be burnt and every one killed, even the children in 
 the cradle. About thirty women, children and old men 
 
HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR 169 
 
 were taken prisoners and driven before the troops during 
 the fight. E. X. saw these civiUans wounded or killed by 
 the bullets of the opposing forces. This happened at 
 Okolischte." 
 
 " Lieutenant Draguicha Stoiadinovitch, 13th Regiment 
 of Infantry, deposes as follows : ' On the 7th and 8th 
 August, being in command of the advance sentries, my 
 rounds took me to the village of Zoulkovitch and its 
 neighbourhood. I saw in a ravine the bodies of twenty- 
 five boys from twelve to sixteen years of age and two old 
 men of more than sixty years heaped one upon the other, 
 mutilated with bayonet thrusts and pierced with bullets. 
 Exploring a house I foimd in it two dead women; their 
 bodies were riddled with bullets. In another house an old 
 woman lay dead with her daughter. . . . Near a fire-place, 
 in which the fire had gone out, was seated an old man 
 covered with bleeding wounds inflicted with bayonets, 
 haggard and dying. He said to me : " I don't know how 
 it happens that I am still alive. For three days I have 
 sat here looking on my dead wife and child, whose bodies 
 lie before the door. After having covered us with shame 
 they brutally bayoneted us and then the cowards took to 
 flight." In a court,' continues the lieutenant, ' I found a 
 little boy of four years old who had been thrown there after 
 being killed. His body had been partially eaten by dogs. 
 Near him lay a young woman in whose lap had been placed 
 her nursling child with its throat cut. ... On the floor 
 an old woman,'']who had also been killed, was just visible 
 under a heap of carpets. On the opposite side of the village 
 I found two old men killed before the door of a little 
 cottage. Opposite the latter two young girls were 
 stretched out dead. The peasants told me that the 
 Austrians had brought all the inhabitants of both sexes, 
 including the children, to their camp and ordered them to 
 shout " Long live the brave Austrian army ! Long live 
 the Emperor Francis Joseph ! " and those who refused 
 were shot on the spot.' "... 
 
 " Lieutenant levreme Georgevitch, Drina division, states 
 
170 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 that, in the Commune of Domitza, Maxime Vasitah, aged 
 fifty-three, was Idlled by being fastened to the wheel of a 
 mill which was set in motion. Every time the wheel 
 brought him round before the Austrian soldiers they 
 amused themselves by plunging their bayonets into him." 
 
 " Colonel Dioura Dokitch, commanding the 20th Regi- 
 ment of Infantry of the first Ban, states : ' In the meadow 
 near the brook on the left bank of the ladar I saw the 
 following scene. ... A group of men, women, and children, 
 fifteen in all, stretched out dead and joined together by 
 their hands, the majority being killed with the bayonet, 
 A young girl had been struck with the bayonet in the left 
 jaw and the blade had come out by the cheek-bone. Many 
 of the corpses had no teeth.' " 
 
 " I have already mentioned the deposition of Colonel 
 D. X., of the 28th Regiment of Infantry, who stated that 
 he had been present at the massacre of sixty civilians near 
 the church at Shabatz. I ascertained that there was in fact 
 a large common pit behind the church of Shabatz and I 
 had it opened. The pit was 10 metres long and 3'50 
 metres wide. At a depth of one metre a number of bodies, 
 heaped together in different positions, were disclosed. 
 Some had their feet uppermost ; others lay on their sides, 
 or were doubled up. Everjrthing showed that the bodies 
 were covered with earth, just as they fell into the pit. 
 How many of those who were thus buried were alive at 
 the time? . . . The age of the victims, to judge by the 
 bodies, varied between ten and eighty. It was impossible 
 to determine exactly the number of people buried in this 
 grave. I personally ascertained that there were at least 
 eighty." 
 
 " Near the railway station at Lechnitza there is a com- 
 mon pit 20 metres long, 3 metres broad and 2 metres deep. 
 In this pit are buried 109 prisoners aged between eighteen 
 and eighty. They were hostages from a neighbouring village, 
 whom the Austro-Hungarians brought to this place, where 
 they had already begun to dig their graves. They were 
 
HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR 171 
 
 bound together with ropes, encircled by a wire. Then 
 the soldiers took their place on the railway embankment, 
 about 50 metres from the victims, and fired at them. They 
 all fell down the pit and other soldiers immediately covered 
 them with earth without ascertaining whether they were 
 dead or only wounded. But it is certain that some of 
 them were not mortally wounded, and some perhaps were 
 not wounded at all, but they were put into the grave with 
 the others and buried alive. 
 
 " While this execution was going on, a second group of 
 prisoners was brought up, and when the first were shot 
 these others were forced to shout : ' Long live the Emperor 
 Franz- Josef ! ' 
 
 " I had this pit opened and have satisfied myself by the 
 position of the bodies that they fell pell-mell into the 
 hole. It seems that some of them tried to escape from 
 the pit." 
 
 " In the town of Shabatz more than 1000 safes were 
 opened and rifled. I could only find in the town two safes 
 remaining unbroken, and there were marks upon those 
 showing clearly that an unsuccessful attempt had been 
 made to open them." 
 
 " Ivan Efremow, of a Cossack Regiment, received a 
 wound in his leg at Tarnowa, May 23, 1915, and was 
 made prisoner. As he professed ignorance in reply to a 
 number of questions regarding the position of the Russian 
 forces, the interpreting officer struck him several times 
 with his fist in the face, . . . 
 
 " He was then led into another room where he was stripped 
 and placed upon a table. . . . The officer took a needle, 
 attached to the wires of an electrical machine, and applied 
 it to Efremow's leg. Efremow, in spite of the electric 
 shock, refused to answer the questions. This torture 
 lasted half an hour, and one of the doctors watched Efre- 
 mow's pulse all the time. 
 
 " On the fourth day, Efremow was again interrogated. . . . 
 The interpreting officer brought a red-hot bar of iron about 
 
172 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 as thick as a finger, and ordered his men to place the 
 prisoner in a sitting posture on a chair. The doctors then 
 took hold of his arms, while the officer lifted up his legs 
 and rubbed the red-hot iron over the soles of his feet. . . . 
 He fainted. . . . He subsequently escaped, and a medical 
 examination confirmed the truth of his story." 
 
 " A Russian prisoner, who escaped, recounted before 
 the Commission how an officer ordered the killing of a 
 Cossack captured at the same time as himself. Two 
 soldiers dragged the Cossack aside and hacked the whole 
 of his body with big knives. 
 
 "They tore oft some strips of skin from the shoulders 
 to the legs, and did not cease their barbarity until the man 
 was dead." 
 
 " In the latter half of June the regiment, in which this 
 witness was one of the rank and file, took part in a battle 
 near Ivangorod. When the fighting was over, the regiment 
 settled down to rest. Some of the men, however, went 
 to help the sanitary attendants to bring in the wounded 
 and place them in a wooden cart-house or shed, roofed 
 with straw, at one end of the village. According to state- 
 ments made by the Red Cross bearers, from sixty-six to 
 sixty-eight men were lodged in this building. At eleven 
 o'clock at night there was a sudden and violent rattle of 
 rifle fire. The village had been surrounded by the Germans. 
 The witness seized his rifle and started to leave with three 
 comrades, but in the darkness they stumbled into a German 
 trench, and were taken prisoners. Their weapons were 
 taken from them, and all four Russians were led to the 
 same cart-shed to which the witness Doruzhka had assisted 
 to carry the Russian wounded. A German officer on the 
 spot gave an order to his German soldiers, and then he 
 gathered up an armful of the straw littered over the floor 
 of the shed, placed it against one of the corners of the 
 building, and set fire to it with a match. The witness 
 declares that he almost fainted when he saw this officer 
 setting fire to the shed. The straw blazed up at once, the 
 
HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR 173 
 
 flames began to envelop the wooden walls, and when it 
 reached the roof, piercing shrieks came from the wounded 
 inmates calling for help. At this moment the officer, who 
 fired the shed, approached the prisoners, who were stand- 
 ing near, and without uttering a word, he discharged his 
 revolver point blank at one of the comrades of the witness, 
 who instantly fell to the ground dead. Then this officer 
 struck witness's other comrade with something in the 
 lower part of the body, and by the light of the conflagra- 
 tion witness noticed that the man's intestines were pro- 
 truding. Doruzhka rushed to one side and managed to 
 break away from a group of German soldiers and escaped 
 unhurt, although three shots were fired after him. The 
 witness, after tramping all night, fell in with one of the 
 Russian pickets. 
 
 " The foregoing was deposed to by the witness Doruzhka 
 on examination by the Examining Magistrate of the 1st 
 Dnieprovsky District." 
 
 " In their leisure moments the German soldiers amused 
 themselves with practical joking at the expense of the 
 prisoners. They announced that an extra portion of food 
 would be given out, and when the Russians hurried to the 
 kitchen, a whole pack of dogs were let loose on them. The 
 animals flew at the prisoners and dispersed them in all 
 directions, while the Germans looked on and roared with 
 laughter. Sometimes the prisoners were offered an extra 
 ladle of soup, or piece of bread, if they would expose their 
 backs to a certain number of blows with a whip. Our 
 hungry and tormented soldiers often bought an extra 
 piece of bread at this price, and it was thrown to them as 
 if they had been dogs." 
 
 " Having received no food for two days, the Russian 
 prisoners, who fully expected to get some bread at this 
 station, were gazing with hungry and longing looks into 
 the distance, when they saw women dressed as Sisters of 
 Mercy distributing bread and sausages to the German 
 soldiers. One of these Sisters went up to the truck in 
 
174 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 which I was standing, and a Russian soldier at the door 
 stretched out his hand for something to eat, but the woman 
 simply struck it and smeared the soldier's face with a 
 piece of sausage. She then called all the prisoners ' Russian 
 swine ' and went away from the side of the train." 
 
 " Well may the Russian Govermnent say in their cover- 
 ing communication that ' the forms of punishment ' — if we 
 can speak of punishment when no offence had been com- 
 mitted — ' remind one of the tortures of the Middle Ages.' 
 Other documents in my possession recite how the prisoners 
 were harnessed to ploughs and carts, like cattle, and lashed 
 with long leather whips; how a man, who fainted from 
 exhaustion, was immediately bayoneted, while another 
 who fell out of the ranks to pick up a rotten turnip shared 
 a like fate ; how wounded men were forced to stand naked 
 for hours in the frost until gangrene set in, tied up for 
 hours to posts with their toes just touching the ground 
 until, the blood rising to the head, copious haemorrhage 
 took place from the mouth, nose and ears ; how yet others 
 who, exhausted with hunger and fatigue, could not keep 
 up on the march, were bayoneted or clubbed where they 
 lay. As for the conduct of the German populace, let the 
 following speak for itself — 
 
 " ' The peaceful inhabitants along the routes traversed 
 in Germany showed the greatest hostility towards the 
 prisoners, whom they reviled as " Russian swine and 
 dogs." Women and even children threw stones and sand 
 at them, and spat right in their faces. . . . Even the 
 wounded men were not spared by these demented Germans, 
 who struck them, pulled their moustaches, and spat in 
 their faces.' " 
 
 The above examples of Teutonic modes of warfare are 
 taken almost at random from the Belgian Official Reports 
 on the Violation of the Rights of Nations and the Laws 
 and Customs of War, the Official Report of the French 
 Commission, the Report of the Committee appointed by 
 
HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR 175 
 
 His Majesty's Government, under the presidency of Lord 
 Bryce, the Official Investigation by Professor Morgan and 
 the Official Report by R. A. Reiss, Professor of Criminology 
 at the University of Lausanne, who was deputed by the 
 Serbian Government to inquire into the atrocities com- 
 mitted by the Austro-Hungarian troops. They are based 
 for the most part on the testimony of eye-witnesses. 
 Infinite pains were taken to sift the evidence, as Avill be 
 seen from the following quotations from the prefaces of 
 these works. 
 
 " There might be some exaggeration in one witness, 
 possibly delusion in another, inaccuracy in a third. When, 
 however, we found that things that had, at first, seemed 
 improbable were testified to by many witnesses, coming 
 from different places, having had no communication with 
 one another, and knowing nothing of one another's state- 
 ments, the points in which they all agreed became more and 
 more evidently true. And when this convergence of testi- 
 mony, this convergence upon what were substantially 
 the same broad facts, showed itself in hundreds of deposi- 
 tions, the truth of these broad facts stood out beyond 
 question. The force of the evidence is accumulative. Its 
 worth can be estimated only by perusing the testimony as a 
 whole. If any further confirmation had been needed, we 
 found it in the diaries in which German officers and private 
 soldiers have recorded instances just such as those to which 
 the Belgian witnesses depose.^ 
 
 " It [our Report] includes, however, a very limited part 
 of the findings at which we should have been able to arrive, 
 if we had not submitted all the evidence, which was before 
 us, to severe criticism and rigorous examination. We have, 
 indeed, believed it to be our duty only to place on record 
 those facts which, being established beyond dispute, con- 
 stitute with absolute certainty what may be clearly termed 
 crimes, omitting those, the proving of which were, in our 
 view, insufficient, or which, however destructive and cruel 
 they were, might have been the results of acts of war 
 
 ^ Report of the Committee appointed by H.B.M. Gk)vern- 
 ment. 
 
176 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 properly so-called, rather than of wilful excesses, attributable 
 to the enemy. 
 
 " Thus we are convinced that none of the incidents which 
 we have investigated could be disputed in good faith. In 
 addition, the proof of each of them does not depend only 
 on our personal observations; it is founded chiefly on 
 photographs and on a mass of evidence received in judicial 
 form, with the sanction of an oath. . . . 
 
 " In truth, it can be stated that never has a war carried 
 on between civilised nations, assumed the savage and 
 ferocious character of the one which at this moment is 
 being waged on our soil by an implacable adversary. Pil- 
 lage, rape, arson, and murder are the common practice 
 of our enemies ; and the facts which have been revealed to 
 us day by day at once constitute definite crimes against 
 common rights, punished by the codes of every country 
 with the most severe and the most dishonouring penalties 
 and prove an astonishing degeneration in German habits 
 of thought since 1870." i 
 
 " In the pages of this book there is unfolded, in the 
 sober and restrained language of a sworn judicial statement, 
 the story of shameful and unspeakable crimes. It is the 
 plain narrative, in all its poignant reality, of the outrages 
 committed by the German soldiery when opposed to the 
 chivalrous and heroic resistance of the Belgian nation. We 
 finish its perusal with a shudder of horror. And yet there 
 remains with us the thought that the inquiry of which it 
 is the outcome is still proceeding, that there are other large 
 areas to which it has not been possible to extend investiga- 
 tions, that the picture of carnage and destruction is there- 
 fore still incomplete, and that as yet we know but a 
 part of the truth. The veil will be lifted only as Belgium is 
 cleared of the enemy ; as this work proceeds the melancholy 
 list of crimes and misdeeds will assuredly be lengthened. 
 
 " For the honour of humanity and of the twentieth cen- 
 tury we might well desire that we were not compelled to 
 
 1 Official Report of the French Commission on German 
 Atrocities in France. English Translation pubHshed by the 
 Daily Chronicle. 
 
HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR 177 
 
 give full credence to the stories of the atrocious acts, which 
 have been committed far from the field of battle and in the 
 by-ways, as it were, of the theatre of war. Unhappily 
 doubt is not admissible. The book is a clear, precise, and 
 synthetic summary of statements made by actual witnesses 
 — persons who have seen with their own eyes the deeds to 
 which they testify; many, indeed, have either endured 
 tortures themselves or have suffered through those who 
 were dearest to them. One and all have spoken their 
 woes with hearts overflowing and eyes filled with tears. 
 Their testimony is confirmed by indisputable proofs. 
 
 " These are to be found in the ruined heaps, which en- 
 cumber the streets of Belgian towns and country roads, 
 more particularly in the district of the Meuse, from Dinant 
 to Hastiere, and in those of Aerschot, Louvain, Malines 
 and Termonde ; in the shattered walls, the tottering gables, 
 and the sad fire-blackened stones, which remain as land- 
 marks tracing the route followed by devastating and 
 murderous hordes. 
 
 " And, again, they are to be found in the printed proclama- 
 tions issued by the German commanders, which are still to be 
 seen, although partly destroyed by the flames, on all wall 
 spaces in the towns and villages. These serve to show the 
 extent of the error into which leaders may be drawn by a 
 spirit of ferocity, and to make one realise the blind and piti- 
 less savagery which, in many places, has filled the ordinary 
 soldiery and stimulated them to commit the worst excesses. 
 
 "All the evidence has been certified and submitted to 
 severe criticism by the Commission appointed by the Bel- 
 gian Minister of Justice at the beginning of the war. The 
 Commission was instructed to conduct an inquiry into acts 
 committed in violation of International Law by the invaders 
 of the country. Meetings have been held at Brussels, 
 Antwerp and Havre ; a Delegation appointed by the Com- 
 mission also met in London. The names of the eminent 
 men appointed as members of the Commission are in 
 themselves a sufficient guarantee of high competence and, 
 at the same time, of absolute impartiality." ^ 
 
 ^ Preface to the Report of the Official Belgian Commission. 
 
178 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 " My method of inquiry was twofold — ^I availed myself 
 of both oral evidence and written evidence. As regards 
 the former, the evidence taken at the base hospitals was 
 wholly of this character. The method which I adopted in 
 taking it was as follows : — 
 
 " I made it a rule to explain to the soldier or officer, at 
 the outset, that the inquiry was an official one, and that 
 he must be prepared to put his name to any testimony he 
 might elect to give. 
 
 " I allowed the soldier to tell his story in his own way and 
 in his own words ; but after, or in the course of, the recital, 
 I always cross-examined him as to details, inquiring in 
 particular (1) whether he directly witnessed the event him- 
 seK ; (2) what was the date and place of the occurrence — ^to 
 establish these, I have frequently gone over the operations 
 with the witness with the aid of a military map and a 
 diary of the campaign ; (3) whether, in the case of hearsay 
 evidence, he heard the story direct from the subject of it, 
 and, in particular, whether he was versed in the language 
 employed ; (4) whether he could give me the name of any 
 person or persons with him, particularly officers, who also 
 witnessed the event or heard the story. 
 
 " After such cross-examination I then took down the 
 narrative, if satisfied that it possessed any value, read it 
 over to the soldier, and then obtained his signature. This, 
 however, was often only the first stage, as I have not infre- 
 quently been able to obtain confirmation of the evidence 
 so obtained, by subsequent inquiries at General or Divi- 
 sional Headquarters, either among members of the staff 
 or from company officers or from the civil authorities. . . . 
 
 " I have often found the statements so made subsequently 
 corroborated; I have rarely, if ever, found them con- 
 tradicted. I ascribe this result to my having applied 
 rigid rules as to the reception of evidence in the first 
 instance." ^ 
 
 " I conducted my inquiry with every necessary precau- 
 
 ^ German Atrocities : an Official Investigatimi, by J. H. Mor- 
 gan, M.A., late Home Office Commissioner with the British 
 Expeditionary Force. 
 
HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR 179 
 
 tion. I did not limit myself to interrogating himdreds of 
 Austrian prisoners and hundreds of eye-witnesses ; I went 
 to the spot, sometimes with shells bursting around me, to 
 inform myself of everything that it was possible to investi- 
 gate ; I opened graves ; I examined the dead and wounded ; 
 I visited bombarded towns; I went into houses and I 
 carried on there a scientific inquiry, using the most scru- 
 pulous methods. In short, I did my utmost to investigate 
 and verify the facts which I report in this work." ^ 
 
 The Russian Official Commission, appointed to inquire 
 into the subject of atrocities committed upon Russian 
 peasants includes : " Instances of mutilation, eyes and 
 tongues torn out, the killing and burning of the wounded, 
 outrages on women and children, pillages, and contribu- 
 tions levied on captured villages." 
 
 Let those who have any lingering doubt as to the truth of 
 these stories read the statements of the witnesses them- 
 selves. They will see that those who have investigated 
 them, far from exaggerating, have erred on the other side 
 and refrained from recording events which some juries 
 might consider as " non proven." 
 
 ^ Comment les Austro-Hongrois ont fait la guerre en Serine, 
 by Professor R. A. Reiss, Librairie Almand Colin, Paris. 
 
VII 
 
 THE TESTIMONY OF GEBMAN SOLDIERS AND 
 OTHER EVIDENCE 
 
 The following incidents are recorded in the diaries of 
 German officers and soldiers killed or captured by the 
 Allies. Facsimiles of some of them are given in the works 
 of Dampierre, Bedier,^ etc. It will be noticed in a few cases 
 that the German soldiers themselves were ashamed of the 
 black crimes they coromitted. 
 
 " At Lou vain 180 inhabitants are stated to have been 
 shot after digging their own graves. ..." 
 
 " August 24 : We took about a thousand prisoners. 
 At least five hundred were shot. The village was burnt 
 and its inhabitants were also shot." ^ 
 
 The German soldier Matbern, of the 4th Company of 
 Jagers, states in his diary that at a village between Birnal 
 and Dinant, on August 23, " about 220 inhabitants were 
 shot and the village was burnt. . . . All villages, ch^eaux, 
 and houses were burnt down during the night. It was a 
 beautiful sight to see the fires all round us in the distance." 
 
 " Mutilation of the wounded is the order of the day," 
 wrote Paul Gloede of the 9th Pioneers in his diary. 
 
 " How many innocent people must have fallen with 
 those who were shot ! The village has been literally pil- 
 laged. The Huns and the lansquenets of the Middle Ages 
 
 ^ Les Crimes Allemands, d'aprks des temoignages allemands. 
 2 From the diaries of German soldiers, names unknown. 
 
 180 
 
THE TESTIMONY OF GERMAN SOLDIERS 181 
 
 could not have done better. Houses are still burning, and, 
 where the fire did not destroy them, we rased to the ground 
 what was left standing." — {From the notebook oj a German 
 Officer mortally wounded at GozSe, " Belgian Official Report," 
 vol. ii. pp. 168-70.) 
 
 " The inhabitants, without exception {samt-und-sonders) 
 were brought out and shot. This shooting was heart- 
 breaking, as they all knelt down and prayed, but that was 
 no ground for mercy. A few shots rang out, and they fell 
 back into the green grass and slept for ever." — (From the 
 diary of Eitel Anders.) 
 
 " After shooting in one night more than seventy civilians, 
 we sat down to eat our night meal among the dead bodies. 
 We had eaten nothing since the morning. The requisition 
 in the houses brought us quantities of wine and liqueurs, but 
 no provisions." — {Diary oj Private P.H. oj llSth Regiment 
 oj Injantry. Fascimile published in " L'Allemagne et 
 le Droit des Gens.") 
 
 " The charming village of Gue d'Hossus appears to have 
 been burnt down without any cause. A cyclist, they say, 
 fell from his machine which caused his gun to go off. Imme- 
 diately he was fired at. The male inhabitants were simply 
 flung into the flames. It is to be hoped that such horrors 
 (Scheusslichkeiten) will not recur. At Leppes about two 
 hundred men were shot. There it was necessary to make 
 an example, and if innocent people had to suffer that 
 was inevitable, but one ought to require a verification of 
 any suspicion of culpability in order to control this shoot- 
 ing without distinction of all the men." {From a notebook 
 found on a Saxon Officer ; " L'Allemagne et le Droit des 
 Gens," p. 247.) 
 
 " The carnage was horrible. The village was completely 
 burnt down, the French were thrown into the houses on 
 fire, civilians and all burnt together." — {Diary of the German 
 Soldier Hassemer at Sommepy {Marne) : " Paroles Alle- 
 mandes," p. 166.) 
 
182 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 " At Lingeviller, August 22, the village was destroyed 
 by the 11th Battalion Pioneers. Three women were hanged 
 from the trees." — [From an unsigned diary : " Paroles 
 Allemandes," p. 167.) 
 
 " Together with Mobins I regaled myself in a house on 
 preserved French vegetables. That day I ate of fifteen 
 different kinds of things just as they came. There was 
 wine too, and handkerchiefs. . . . That day anyhow I 
 satisfied my hunger." — {From the diary oj a N on-Commis- 
 sioned Officer, O.L.: " L'Allemagne et le Droit des Gens," 
 p. 155.) 
 
 " The village of Sensenruth has been taken by assault 
 and pillaged. Cigarettes, cream, honey, handkerchiefs, 
 stockings. The men plunder and sack the houses one by 
 one. At the house of the schoolmaster the cellar has been 
 emptied, red wine, champagne." — {From the diary oj the 
 
 N on-Commissioned Officer Sch VIII Reserve Corps, 69th 
 
 Infantry Regiment: "L'Allemagne et le Droit des Gens," 
 p. 161.) 
 
 " Incendiary bombs were thrown into the houses. In the 
 evening military choral service : ' Nun danket alle Gott ' 
 {Now thank we all our God)." — {From the diary of Moritz 
 Grosse, 177th Injantry: Bedier, " Les Crimes Allemands 
 d'apres des temoignages allemands," p. 28.) 
 
 " The inhabitants fied through the village. It was 
 horrible. Blood was plastered on all the houses, and as for 
 the faces of the dead, they were hideous. They were all 
 buried at once, to the number of sixty. Among them many 
 old men and women, and one woman about to be delivered. 
 It was a ghastly sight. There were three children who had 
 huddled close to one another and had died together. The 
 altar and the ceiling of the church had fallen in. They had 
 been telephoning to the enemy. And this morning, Sep- 
 tember 2, all the survivors were driven out, and I saw 
 four little boys carrying on two poles a cradle in which was 
 a child of five to six months old. All this was horrible to 
 
THE TESTIMONY OF GERMAN SOLDIERS 183 
 
 see. A blow for a blow. Thunder for thunder. Every- 
 thing was pillaged. And I also saw a mother with her two 
 little ones : and one had a large wound in the head, and 
 had lost an eye." — {From the diary of P. Spielmann, Ersatz 
 Battalion, 1st Guard Infantry Brigade. The reference is to 
 a massacre oj 'people in a village near Blamont on September 1, 
 1914 : " Les Crimes Allemands d'aprhs des tSmoignages 
 allemands," pp. 7-8.) 
 
 " In this way we destroyed eight houses with their inmates. 
 In one of them two men with their wives and a girl of 
 eighteen were bayoneted. The little one almost unnerved 
 me, so innocent was her expression. But it was impossible 
 to check the crowd, so excited were they, for in such 
 moments you are no longer men but wild beasts." — {Un- 
 signed diary: "Les Crimes Allemands d'apres des timoign- 
 ages allemands," p. 17.) 
 
 " This way of making war is absolutely barbarous. I am 
 astonished that we could make any complaint of the con- 
 duct of the Russians, for we conduct ourselves in France in 
 a much worse fashion ; and on every occasion and on the 
 smallest pretext we have burnt and plundered. But 
 God is just and sees everything. His mills grind slowly, 
 hut they grind exceeding small." — {From, the diary oj Non- 
 commissioned Officer X. of the 46iA Regiment of Infantry, 
 5th Reserve Corps: BSdier, "Comment VAllemagne essaie 
 de justifier ses crimes," p. 46.) 
 
 " When the offensive becomes difficult, we gather to- 
 gether the Russian prisoners and hunt them before us 
 towards their compatriots, while we attack the latter at the 
 same time. In this way our losses are sensibly diminished. 
 We cannot but make prisoners. Each Russian soldier 
 when made prisoner will now be sent in front of our lines, 
 in order to be shot by his fellows." — {Extract from the 
 diary of a German Soldier forwarded by the Extraordinary 
 Commission of Inquiry instituted by the Russian Govern- 
 ment : " German Atrocities," by J. H. Morgan, p. 98.) 
 
184 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 " December 19, 1914 : The sight of the trenches and 
 the fury, not to say bestiality, of our men in beating to 
 death the wounded Enghsh affected me so much that, for 
 the rest of the day, I was fit for nothing." — {Extract Jrom 
 a diary of a German Soldier oj the 13th Regiment, 13th 
 Division, Vllth Corps, captured by the Fifth (French) Army, 
 and reproduced in the First (British) Army Summary, No. 
 95 : Ibid., p. 99.) 
 
 (After promising to send a ring made out of a shell.) 
 " It will be a nice souvenir for you from a German warrior, 
 who has been through everything from the start and has 
 shot and bayoneted so many Frenchmen, and I have 
 bayoneted many women. During the fight at Batonville 
 [ ?Badonviller] I bayoneted seven (7) women and four (4) 
 young girls in five (5) minutes. We fought from house to 
 house and these women fired on us with revolvers ; they 
 also fired on the captain too, then he told me to shoot them 
 all— but I bayoneted them and did not shoot them, this 
 herd of sows, they are worse than the men." — (Contents oj a 
 letter jound on a prisoner oj the 86th Regiment, but written by 
 Johann Wenger, lOth Company Body Regiment, 1st Brigade, 
 1st Division I.A.C. Bav., dated IGth March, 1915, Peronne, 
 and addressed to a German girl : Ibid., p. 99.) 
 
 " Here, also, things take place which ought not to be ; yes, 
 atrocities are committed here also, but naturally on the 
 English and Belgians; all are shot down without mercy." 
 (Eoctract jrom the diary oj a German Soldier, Richard Gerhold : 
 Ibid., p. 103.) 
 
 " The Bavarians make hardly any prisoners ; they kill 
 those they capture with their knives." — (Letter jound on a 
 German Soldier in Poland.) 
 
 Professor Bedier ^ gives three facsimiles of portions of 
 an article by Non-Commissioned Officer Klemt, published 
 in the Jav£rsches Tageblatt, October 18, 1914, entitled 
 
 ^ Les Crimes Allemands d^aprks des temoignages allemands, 
 p. 34. 
 
THE TESTIMONY OF GERMAN SOLDIERS 185 
 
 " A Day of Honour for our Regiment, 24th September 
 1914." He describes how on that date his force left 
 Hannonville in the morning, and, supported on the march 
 by Austrian batteries, was suddenly received by a double 
 fire from artillery and infantry. The losses were enormous. 
 And yet the enemy was invisible. At last, however, it 
 was seen that the firing came from above, from trees where 
 French soldiers were posted. From now on I shall no 
 longer summarise but quote. 
 
 " We brought them down like squirrels, and gave them a 
 warm reception, with blows of the butt and the bayonet : 
 they no longer need doctors : we are no longer fighting 
 loyal enemies but treacherous brigands. 
 
 " By leaps and bounds we got across the clearing. They' 
 were here, there and everywhere hidden in the thicket. 
 Now it is down with the enemy ! And we will give them 
 no quarter. Every one shoots standing, a few, a very few, 
 fire kneeling. No one tries to take shelter. We reach a 
 little depression in the ground : here the red trousers dead 
 or wounded lie in a heap on the ground. We knock down 
 or bayonet the wounded, for we know that those scoundrels 
 fire at our backs when we have gone by. There was a 
 Frenchman there stretched out, full length, face down, 
 pretending to be dead. A kick from a strong fusilier soon 
 taught him that we were there. Turning round, he asked 
 for quarter, but we answered : ' Is that the way your tools 
 
 work, you ' and he was nailed to the ground. Close to 
 
 me I heard odd, cracking sounds. They were blows from 
 a gun on the bald head of a Frenchman which a private 
 of the 154th was dealing out vigorously; he was wisely 
 using a French gun so as not to break his own. Tender- 
 hearted souls are so kind to the French wounded that they 
 finish them with a bullet, but others give them as many 
 thrusts and blows as they can. 
 
 " Our adversaries had fought bravely. . . . But whether 
 wounded slightly or severely, the brave fusiliers spare their 
 country the cost of caring for many enemies." 
 
 " In some cases without any military necessity, or any 
 
186 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 pretence that a crime had been committed, whole popula- 
 tions have been dispersed by superior orders as in the 
 ancient days of slavery, and the men have been carried 
 away to a distance and the women have been left on the 
 spot or removed elsewhere. Thus, at Valencien nes, as we 
 
 learn from the diary of a soldier, Heinrich B on"ti^ 
 
 26th of September 1914, all the male inhabitants between 
 eighteen and forty-eight were arrested and sent to Germany. 
 
 And in the diary of another soldier, Conrad B , with 
 
 reference to the same event it is stated that ' we had to 
 turn the civilians out of their houses and conduct them to 
 the station.' " ^ 
 
 " Order passed to shoot all the male inhabitants ... a 
 frightful Sunday." ^ 
 
 " In the diary of a German officer which came into my 
 possession an entry recording the undiscriminating butchery 
 of some two hundred civilians concluded with the otiose 
 remark : ' In future there ought to be an inquiry into 
 their guilt instead of shooting them.' " ^ 
 
 " We were passing through an industrial district of the 
 Walloon country. A young woman, or rather a little girl, 
 greeted us with a long nose. A lieutenant had her seized, 
 drew his sword and cut off her wrist. ' Thus, ' said he, 
 ' will everybody be punished who dares to insult the 
 German flag.' . . . 
 
 " I had been, until then, a good German ; after this, I 
 recognised that this was not the race to which I belonged, 
 and I took an oath to escape as soon as I could from the 
 humiliation of being with such brutes." * 
 
 ^ V Allemagne et le Droit des Gens, pp. 150-1. The depor- 
 tations which have been carried out so extensively during the 
 last few months had already begun at this early date. (See 
 above, p. 150.) 
 
 ^ From a German soldier's diary. See Professor Morgan, 
 German Atrocities, p. 22. 
 
 » Ibid., p. 21. 
 
 * Statement made by a German deserter, the son of a German 
 engineer and a Polish lady, and formerly an officer in the 
 Reserve; published in the Temps, July 18, 1915. (See 
 below, p. 246.) 
 
THE TESTIMONY OF GERMAN SOLDIERS 18T 
 
 " In an encampment of prisoners in France," writes the 
 Spanish Count Melgar, to the Matin of the 3rd January, 
 1916, " I had occasion to read a number of diaries found on 
 German soldiers. There I found a complete confirmation 
 of their Emperor's orders : ^ ' To-day we have shot 
 forty men at H. : to-day we have burnt, with petroleum, 
 all the houses at L. together with their inmates ! ' It is 
 superfluous to add that I have seen with my own eyes 
 hundreds of mutUated Belgians and that I have gathered 
 from the lips of nuns and priests, of unimpeachable 
 character, facts of appalling horror." 
 
 There are no doubt thousands of crimes which have not 
 come to the notice of various conunittees, but which 
 are none the less authentic, as, for instance, the case of the 
 little boy of seven who was shot dead at Senlis by a German 
 soldier, at whom he had playfully pointed his toy gun.^ 
 
 ^ Alluding to a letter which Count Melgar alleges the Kaiser 
 addressed to the Emperor Francis Joseph saying : " My heart 
 bursts with grief at such a thought, but it is absolutely neces- 
 sary to put everything to fire and sword ; to slaughter men and 
 women, the aged as well as children, and not to leave a single 
 tree standing or a single roof intact. If we adopt this r6gime 
 of terror — ^the only one which befits a vile people like the 
 French — ^it is certain that the war will be over within two 
 months, while, if we show respect for the principles of humanity, 
 it might continue for several years. I shall, therefore, have 
 recourse to this method, which in spite of appearance, will save 
 bloodshed." ... 
 
 ^ This incident was pathetically described in the following 
 lines by the French poet, Miguel Zamacois : — 
 
 " C'est un petit gar§on. . . . C'est un petit bonhomme 
 Heureux de rien . . . de tout . . . d'un baton, d'une pomme. 
 n a des yeux rieurs, des cheveux en criniere : 
 H est fier, car depuis la semaine demidre 
 H salt sifler entre ses dents ! 
 
 " Nous le connaissons bien. II meprise les ' filles ' ; 
 Sa poche n'en peut plus de ficeUe et de billes ; 
 
 De tout un baggage enf antin ; 
 H montre quatre sous qu'U croit etre une somme ; 
 Rit du matin au soir, et ne fait qu'un grand somme 
 
 Depuis le soir jusqu'au matin. 
 
188 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 Or that of the English schoolboy, who took a kodak picture 
 of some German soldiers near the station at Brussels. The 
 gentleman, in whose charge he was, was stunmoned from 
 inside the station, and the boy shot dead in his presence. 
 
 " A traitor has just been shot, a little French lad {ein 
 Franzosling) belonging to one of those gynmastic societies 
 which wear tricolour ribbons {i.e. the Eclaireurs, or Boy 
 Scouts), a poor young fellow who in his infatuation wanted 
 to be a hero. The German column was passing along a 
 wooded defile, and he was caught and asked whether the 
 French were about. He refused to give information. 
 
 " Des amusements neufs, on n'en invente guere ! 
 Etant petit gar5on U s'amuse a la guerre 
 
 Comma tous les petits gargons ! 
 II s'amuse d'instinct a defendre sa terre, 
 Et partage deja la haine hereditaire 
 
 Pour ceux-Ia que nous maudissons. 
 
 " Or voici qu'un matin, a travers le village. 
 Passant las annamis, avac tout I'etalage 
 
 Da laurs precedes revoltants. 
 On se bat ? Cast I'assaut du droit centre la ruse ? 
 Bah ! Est-ee una raisen pour na plus que s'amusa 
 Un petit gar§en da sapt ans ? 
 
 " Et parca qu'il faut bian a sept ans que Ton joue, 
 Du c6te das seldats le petit met en joue 
 
 Sen fusil da bois managant. . . . 
 Un Fran9ais eut seuri du geste minuscule 
 Et paut-Stra singe I'annami qui recule 
 Pour amusar cat innocent. 
 
 " Pour montrar que vous etiaz forts 
 Vous avaz dirige contra I'arme enfantine, 
 Qu'U allait deposar pour prendre sa tartina, 
 Les vrais fusils qui font des morts ! 
 ***** 
 " S'U est vrai, Majaste, ca crime qu'on raconte, 
 Cemme il pesara lourd le matin du grand compte. 
 
 Pour la debitavir aux abois ! 
 Comma il pesara lourd lersque dans le silence 
 Une main pesera I'anfant sur la balance 
 Et son petit fusil da bois." 
 
THE TESTIMONY OF GERMAN SOLDIERS 189 
 
 Fifty yards further on there was fire from the cover of a 
 wood. The prisoner was asked in French if he had known 
 that the enemy was in the forest and did not deny it. 
 He went with firm step to a telegraph post and stood up 
 against it, with the green vineyard at his back, and received 
 the volley of the firing party with a proud smile on his face. 
 Infatuated wretch ! It was a pity to see such wasted 
 courage." ^ 
 
 " Bold Exploit oj Two Dragoons jrom Duisberg. — ' A patrol 
 of German dragoons, entering a village incautiously, were 
 surprised to find it occupied by the French. The majority 
 escaped, but the two leading men were surrounded by 
 eight French infantry soldiers. They pretended to sur- 
 render {sie ergdben sich anscheinend), but when a French 
 sergeant came forward to receive their carbines, one of the 
 dragoons, purporting to hand over his weapon, shot the 
 man through the head and then galloped off with his com- 
 rade. The other seven Frenchmen, who had grounded 
 their rifles and were quite off their guard, failed to hit them 
 as they rode off.' This is called ein kilhnes Beiterstuckchen, 
 and spoken of as a gallant stratagem." ^ 
 
 This is what Mr. Powell, a well-known American author 
 and journalist, saw : — 
 
 " In many parts of the world I have seen many terrible 
 and revolting things, but nothing so ghastly, so horrifying 
 as Aerschot. Quite two-thirds of the houses had been 
 burned, and showed unmistakable signs of having been 
 sacked by a brutal soldiery before they were burned. 
 
 " Ever5rwhere were the ghastly evidences. Doors had 
 been smashed in with rifle-butts and boot-heels ; windows 
 had been broken ; pictures had been torn from the walls ; 
 mattresses had been ripped open Avith bayonets in search 
 of valuables ; drawers had been emptied upon the floors ; 
 the outer walls of the houses were spattered with blood 
 and pock-marked with bullets ; the side-walks were slippery 
 
 ^ Quoted by Sir Theodore Andrea Cook in Kaiser, Krupp and 
 KuUur, from Kriegs-Chronik, a German publication consisting 
 partly of soldiers' letters from the Front. 
 
190 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 with broken bottles ; the streets were strewn with women's 
 clothing. 
 
 " It needed no one to tell us of that orgy of blood and 
 lust. The story was so plainly written that any one could 
 read it. . . . 
 
 " Piecing together the stories told us by those who did 
 survive that night of horror, we know that scores of towns- 
 people were shot down in cold blood ; and that, when the 
 firing squads could not do the slaughter fast enough, the 
 victims were lined up and a machine-gun was turned upon 
 them. 
 
 "We know that young girls were dragged from their homes 
 and stripped naked and violated by the soldiers — ^many 
 soldiers — ^in the public square in the presence of officers. 
 
 " We know that both men and women were unspeakably 
 mutilated, that children were bayoneted, that dwellings 
 were ransacked and looted, and that finally, as though to 
 destroy the evidence of their horrid work, soldiers went 
 from house to house with torches, methodically setting fire 
 to them. . . . 
 
 " In comparison to its size, the Germans had wrought 
 more widespread destruction in Louvain than did the 
 earthquake and fire combined in San Francisco. 
 
 " The looting had evidently been unrestrained. The 
 roads for miles in either direction were littered with furni- 
 ture and bedding and clothing. Such articles as the soldiers 
 could not carry away they wantonly destroyed. Hangings 
 had been torn down, pictures on the walls had been smashed, 
 the contents of drawers and trunks had been emptied into 
 the streets, literally everything breakable had been broken. 
 This is not from hearsay, remember ; I saw it with my own 
 eyes. And the amazing feature of it all was, that among 
 the Germans there seemed to be no feeling of regret, no 
 sense of shame. Officers in immaculate uniforms strolled 
 about among the ruins, chatting and laughing and 
 smoking. . . . 
 
 " Several American correspondents, among them Mr. 
 Richard Harding Davis, who were being taken by train 
 from Brussels to Germany, and who were held for some 
 
THE TESTIMONY OF GERMAN SOLDIERS 191 
 
 hours in the station at Louvain during the first night's 
 massacre, have vividly described the horrors which they 
 witnessed from their car window. On the second day 
 Mr. Hugh S. Gibson, Secretary of the American Legation 
 in Brussels, accompanied by the Swedish and Mexican 
 charges, drove over to Louvain in a taxicab. Mr. Gibson 
 told me that the Germans had dragged chairs and a dining- 
 table from a near-by house into the middle of the square 
 in front of the station and that some officers, already con- 
 siderably the worse for drink, insisted that the three diplo- 
 matists join them in a bottle of wine. And this while the 
 city was burning and rifles were cracking, and the dead 
 bodies of men and women lay sprawled in the streets ! " '^ 
 
 " Mr. Powell had an interview with the commanding 
 General, von Boehn, which, as Dr. Prince says, is destined 
 to become classic. 
 
 " It had been sought by the General, who had expressed 
 a wish to have an opportunity to talk with Mr. Powell, 
 to give him the German version of the treatment of the 
 Belgian civil population for the enlightenment of the 
 American pubUc. Mr. Powell was accordingly invited to 
 dine with the General. Here is more of the conversation 
 as given by the former as ' nearly verbatim ' as he could 
 remember it. 
 
 " ' But why wreak your vengeance on women and 
 children ? ' I asked. 
 
 " ' None have been killed,' the General asserted 
 positively. 
 
 " ' I am sorry to contradict you. General,' I asserted, 
 with equal positiveness, ' but I have myself seen their 
 bodies. So has Mr. Gibson, the Secretary of the American 
 
 ^ " Whatever explanation may be put forward in the future 
 concerning Aersehot or Vis6 or Louvain or Termonde, it will 
 not be possible to deny the brutal fact that to avenge the murder 
 real or pretended, of a single officer or of a small group of men, 
 German generals, of the twentieth century, did not hesitate to 
 order systematic massacres and devastations such as one thought 
 had been abolished for ever from the range of human possi- 
 bility." — L'Alhmagne et le Droit des Gens, p. 222. 
 
192 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 Legation in Brussels, who was present during the destruc- 
 tion of Louvain.' 
 
 " ' Of course,' replied General von Boehn, ' there is 
 always danger of women and children being killed during 
 street fighting if they insist on coming into the streets. It 
 is unfortunate, but it is war ! ' 
 
 " ' But how about a woman's body I saw with the hands 
 and feet cut oft ? How about the white-haired man and his 
 son whom I helped to bury outside of Sempst, who had 
 been killed merely because a retreating Belgian soldier had 
 shot a German soldier outside their house ? 
 
 " ' There were twenty-two bayonet wounds in the old 
 man's face. I counted them. How about the little girl, 
 two years old, who was shot while in her mother's arms by 
 an Uhlan, and whose funeral I attended at Heyst-op-den- 
 Berg? How about the old man near Vilvorde, who was 
 hung by his hands from the rafters of his house and roasted 
 to death by a bonfire being built under him ? 
 
 " ' The General seemed taken aback by the exactness of 
 my information.' 
 
 " I have not space to quote further . . . but I hope 
 all Americans who may read this will remember that the 
 evidence given above is that of Americans, of ' neutrals,' 
 not of French, or Belgians, or British, or Russians. I 
 would ask them to read also the description of his own 
 mental attitude given by Mr. Powell. 
 
 " ' An American, I went to Belgium at the beginning of 
 the war with an open mind. I had few, if any, prejudices. 
 I knew the English, the French, the Belgians, the Germans 
 equally well. I had friends in all four countries and many 
 happy recollections of days I had spent in each. When 
 I left Antwerp, after the German occupation, I was as pro- 
 Belgian as though I had been born under the red-black- 
 and-yellow banner. I had seen a country, one of the 
 loveliest and most peaceable in Europe, invaded by a 
 ruthless and brutal soldiery; I had seen its towns and 
 cities blackened by fire and broken by shell; I had seen 
 its churches and its historic monuments destroyed; I had 
 seen its highways crowded with hunted, homeless fugitives ; 
 
THE TESTIMONY OF GERMAN SOLDIERS 193 
 
 I had seen its fertile fields strewn with the corpses of what 
 had once been the manhood of the nation ; I had seen its 
 women left husbandless and its children fatherless ; I had 
 seen what was once a garden of the Lord turned into a 
 land of desolation; and I had seen its people — a people 
 whom I, like the rest of the world, had always thought of 
 as pleasure-loving, inefficient, easy-going — I had seen this 
 people, I say, aroused, resourceful, unafraid, and fighting, 
 fighting, fighting. Do you wonder that they captured my 
 imagination, that they won my admiration? I am pro- 
 Belgian; I admit it frankly. I should be ashamed to be 
 anything else.' " ^ 
 
 The French newspapers of July 8, 1915, gave the fol- 
 lowing account of a barbarous act alleged to have been 
 committed by the Germans at Peronne. A few days ago 
 some shots were fired at the German patrol. The military 
 authorities were convinced that these shots were fired from 
 a house occupied by a M. Dubecq, a huissier of the courts, 
 in the St. Fursy Street. In vain M. Dubecq pointed out 
 that the direction of the bullets fired alone showed that this 
 was impossible. The German soldiers locked him and his 
 daughter inside the house, which they drenched with 
 petroleum and burnt to the ground. 
 
 " Then it was," says Major Corbett-Smith, " that our 
 men first saw a little of the hideous work of the invaders 
 upon the civilian population, and if anything more were 
 needed to brace them up to fight to the last man, they had 
 it in that brief hour in the recaptured town. . . . Up the 
 main street everywhere was horrible evidence that they 
 had been at work. Mingled with dead or wounded com- 
 batants were bodies of women and children, many terribly 
 mutilated, while other women knelt beside them with stone- 
 set faces or gasping through hysterical weeping. From 
 behind shutters or half-closed doors others looked out, 
 blinded with terror. But there was one thing which, 
 for the men who saw it, dwarfed all else. Hanging up in 
 
 1 A Textbook of the War for Americans, pp. 110-15. 
 o 
 
194 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 the open window of a shop, strung from a hook on the 
 cross-beam like a joint in a butcher's shop, was the body 
 of a Httle girl, five years old, perhaps. Its poor little hands 
 had been hacked off, and through the slender body were 
 vicious bayonet stabs." ^ 
 
 " One of our officers, a subaltern in the Sappers, heard 
 a woman's shrieks in the night coming from behind the 
 German trenches near Richebourg I'Avoue; when we 
 advanced in the morning, and drove the Germans out, a girl 
 was found lying naked on the ground, ' pegged out ' in the 
 form of a crucifix." ^ 
 
 " On the 24th August, 1914, the (Jermans shot fifteen 
 civilians of Gerbeviller, by groups of five, at a place called 
 ' la Presle,' about a kilometre from Gerbeviller, on the 
 Luneville road. 
 
 " Whilst the preparations for the execution were taking 
 place. General Clauss, commanding the 6th Regiment of 
 Bavarian infantry, remained seated imder a large ash- 
 tree, near a table on which stood some champagne, about 
 thirty metres away from the place of execution : he had 
 given orders to fire at the moment when he raised his glass. 
 
 " The order was executed." * 
 
 1 The Retreat from Mons, p. 170. 
 
 ^ Morgan, German Atrocities, p. 63. 
 
 ^ Testimony of Sister Julie, published in Le Vieux Dieu 
 Allemand (by Flavien Brenier, Paris, 1916), p. 73. 
 
 Compare the above with the account of the tortures inflicted 
 on Melchior Nonnenmacher, chief of the insurgent peasants in 
 1525, given by Alexander Weill [The Revolt of the Peasants, 
 p. 216) — 
 
 " The unfortunate man was chained to an apple-tree, round 
 which . . . the Duke ordered bundles of wood to be placed in 
 such a way that his friend, the musician, should be nicely and 
 slowly roasted. He himself and his generals piled on the first 
 logs. . . . On all sides were dying, dead and wounded. ... At 
 each groan which escaped the wretched man, the nobles burst 
 into a roar of laughter and took a sip of wine. . . . The agony 
 of the unhappy Nonnenmacher lasted for a whole hour. When 
 he finally fell backwards, motionless, his fellow-prisoners mur- 
 mured a prayer in a low voice whilst the conquerors broke into 
 a coarse song." 
 
THE TESTIMONY OF GERMAN SOLDIERS 195 
 
 A writer in the Petit Parisien, M. de Smit, guarantees 
 the truth of the following story, which was told him by a 
 near relation of the person whom it concerns. The scene 
 was apparently a farm in a Belgian village. One day, four 
 German officers entered the courtyard and asked for 
 something to eat and drink. The farmer's wife did her 
 best to please them, and after suppljang their wants walked 
 into the garden, leaving her husband with them. Shortly 
 afterwards, they followed her there, and one of them asked 
 her in French what they owed her. " Nothing," she said. 
 " Thank-you," said another officer, with a chuckle, " but 
 we wanted to leave a little souvenir at the house." " Yes," 
 remarked the others, and they left the garden together. 
 The woman then returned to the house, where she found 
 her husband decapitated and his head lying on a plate. 
 
 In the " Journal d'un Grand BIess6," published in the 
 Correspondant, by M. Ch. Hennevois, the writer states that 
 he lay half hidden on the ground and saw German patrols 
 go up to men, wounded like himself, who were crjdng for 
 water, and kill them with their bayonets and with the 
 butt-end of their rifles, and then strip and plunder the 
 bodies. 
 
 The following incident is quoted by the Gaulois, in its 
 issue of September 30, from the Russkoye Slovo — 
 
 " During an engagement at the hamlet Esserlicheck, 
 N.-E. of Vilkomir, half a Russian company with their 
 officers, Lieuts. Baljen, Moits and Kister, were taken 
 prisoners by the Germans. All the men were put to death 
 by the enemy after they had been subjected to horrible 
 torture. The tongues of some of them were torn out and 
 their bodies pierced again and again with bayonets; two 
 were thrown into a pond. Lieut. Kister, already wounded 
 in the neck, received a number of bayonet thrusts, the last 
 of which tore out his eyes and penetrated his skull. Lieut. 
 Baljen was buried alive." 
 
 The Novoye Vremja describes the horrible torture in- 
 flicted on a Cossack who was taken prisoner by the Germans 
 
196 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 and afterwards escaped. He stated that his ears were cut 
 off, and strips of skin peeled oft his thighs so as to corre- 
 spond to the stripes worn by the Cossacks on their trousers 
 
 His evidence was taken before several superior Russian 
 officers and an American colonel. 
 
 According to the Echo de Paris, evidence was given before 
 the Conunission at Petrograd appointed to report on 
 atrocities committed in Russia by Germans, to the effect 
 that 800 Russian prisoners were buried alive in Galicia. 
 
 Eight English prisoners were condemned to twelve 
 months' hard labour for refusing to work on the construction 
 of a Zeppelin : that is, for refusing to assist in the murder 
 of their wives and children. 
 
 " At Douai," states Major Vandaleur, who was made 
 prisoner October 13, 1914, " I was subjected to continual 
 abuse and revilement. . . . No food was given, no straw. 
 . . . On October 17 ... we were all marched off to the 
 railway station, being reviled at and cursed all the way 
 by German officers as well as German soldiers. One of 
 our officers was spat on by a German officer. . . . We were 
 driven into closed-in wagons from which horses had just 
 been removed, fifty-two men being crowded into the one 
 in which the other four officers and myself were. So tight 
 were we packed that there was only room for some of us 
 to sit down on the floor. This floor was covered fully three 
 inches deep in fresh manure. ... At Mons I was pulled 
 out in front of the wagon by the order of the officer in 
 charge of the station, and after cursing me in filthy lan- 
 guage ... he ordered one of his soldiers to kick me back 
 into the wagon, which he did" [Major Vandaleur was 
 wounded]. ..." One of these wagons is considered to be 
 able to accommodate six horses or forty men, and this 
 only with the doors open to admit of ventilation." In this 
 wagon they were seventy-two hours.^ 
 
 1 Report of Major Vandaleur, quoted by H. W. Wilson in 
 the National Review, January, 1917. 
 
 Still more loathsome things of a similar nature — ^too loath- 
 some, indeed, to be repeated here — are recorded in the Belgian 
 Official Reports. 
 
THE TESTIMONY OF GERMAN SOLDIERS 197 
 
 In an article of twenty-four pages in the Revue des 
 Deux Mondes, a rSsumi is given of a volume published by 
 M. Rezanof, describing the abominable ill-treatment to 
 which Russian residents and tourists in Germany were 
 exposed, when the war broke out. The accounts are, in 
 all cases, based on evidence collected by the Russian Minister 
 for Foreign Affairs. Many persons are stated to have lost 
 their reason in consequence of the brutalities to which they 
 were exposed. Of some it has been impossible to obtain 
 any trace. Others were shot as spies at the frontier 
 stations; women and girl fugitives were stripped abso- 
 lutely naked in public, and kept standing for an hour in 
 that condition, on the pretence that it was necessary to 
 examine their clothes. In one instance, the father of two 
 girls, who, beside himself at the indignity offered to his 
 daughters, struck one of the officials, was immediately shot 
 by order of a colonel. 
 
 " While a number of wounded were being attended to in 
 a hospital at Gomery, a patrol of the 47th German Infantry 
 appeared, and began a general massacre of the wounded 
 and medical staff. Assistant-Surgeon Vaissi^re was mor- 
 tally wounded ; the hospital full of wounded was deliber- 
 ately set on fire; Stretcher-bearer Gresse was shot; and 
 in all about 400 wounded Belgian soldiers were killed or 
 burnt to death. Statements regarding this affair have been 
 made by the Chief Surgeon Simonin and six stretcher- 
 bearers." 1 
 
 The Petrograd Red Cross Society publishes a list of forty- 
 six Sisters of Charity killed by Austro-German guns which 
 directed their fire upon Russian ambulances and hospitals. 
 
 The Russian Red Cross Hospital Ship, Portugal, was 
 deliberately sunk in the Black Sea by the enemy on 
 March 30, with 115 persons attached to the Red Cross. 
 The enemy had been officially informed of its name, and 
 the ship bore all the signs required by Article V of the 
 Hague Convention of 1907. 
 
 1 The National Bevietv, January, 1917. 
 ■" Several of the statements alluded to are printed in Bland, 
 Germany's Violations of the Laws of War, p. 58. 
 
198 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 On the 1st of February, 1915, the English Hospital 
 Ship Asturias, was attacked by a German warship. In 
 November, 1916, the Britannic and the Braemar Castle, 
 both hospital ships, were torpedoed, the former in the 
 Mediterranean, and the latter in the ^gean Sea. 
 
 Towards the end of March 1917, a second attempt on 
 the Asturias succeeded. She was sunk without warning, 
 " while steaming with all navigating lights and with all the 
 proper Red Cross signs brilliantly illuminated." Shortly 
 after, the hospital ship Gloucester Castle was sunk. 
 
 On April 17 two others, the Donegal and the Lanjranc, 
 were torpedoed. The latter carried 234 British wounded, 
 167 German wounded and a medical personnel of 52. 
 British patrol vessels, at the risk of being torpedoed, 
 rescued 152 German wounded. One of these ships was not 
 distinguished as a hospital ship, and for a significant 
 reason : — " Owing to the German practice of sinking hos- 
 pital ships at sight, and to the fact that distinctive marking 
 and lighting of such vessels render them more conspicuous 
 targets for German submarines, it has become no longer 
 possible to distinguish our hospital ships in the customary 
 manner." ^ 
 
 It has been alleged, in palliation of some of these atroci- 
 ties, that the soldiers were drunk when they committed 
 them or that there was provocation. Here are instances 
 of " provocation " : — 
 
 " Just before we got to Malines," says a witness, who 
 had fallen temporarily into the hands of the Germans, " on 
 August 5, 1 saw a woman with a child in her arms stand- 
 ing on the side of the road, on my left hand, watching the 
 soldiers go by. Her name was G , aged about sixty- 
 three and a neighbour of mine. The officer asked the 
 woman for some water in good French. She went inside 
 her son's cottage to get some and brought it immediately 
 The ofiicer went into the cottage garden and drank the 
 water. The woman then remarked to the prisoners, 
 ' Instead of being given water they deserve to be shot.' 
 
 1 Announcement of the Secretary of the Admiralty, The Times, 
 April 28, 1917. 
 
THE TESTIMONY OF GERMAN SOLDIERS 199 
 
 The officer shouted to us to march on. We went on, and 
 mimediately I saw the officer draw his revolver and shoot 
 the woman and child. One shot killed both." ^ 
 
 " About three hours out of Malines we were taken 
 prisoners by a German patrol and marched into a little 
 wood, where there was a house. . . . The officer knocked 
 at the door, but the peasant did not come. He then ordered 
 the soldiers to break down the door, which two of them did. 
 The officer said he [the peasant] did not come quickly 
 enough. . . . His hands were tied behind his back, and he 
 was shot at once without a moment's delay. The wife 
 came out with a little sucking child. She put the child 
 down and sprang at the Germans ; like a lioness she clawed 
 their faces. One of the Germans took a revolver and 
 struck her a tremendous blow with the butt-end on her 
 head. Another took his bayonet, fixed it, and thrust it 
 through the child; he then put his rifle on his shoulder 
 with the child upon it; its little arms stretched out once 
 or twice. The officer ordered the house to be set on fire, 
 and straw was obtained and it was done. The man and 
 his wife and child were thrown on to the top of the straw. 
 There were about forty other peasant prisoners there, 
 and the officer said, ' I am doing this as a lesson and example 
 to you; when a German tells you to do something next 
 time you must move more quickly.' The regiment of 
 Germans was a regiment of Cuirassiers, with cross-bones 
 and the death's head on the cap." ^ 
 
 ^ Report of Lord Bryce's Committee, pp. 50-1. 
 
VIII 
 
 A GERMAN DEFENCE 
 
 The German Government has published a White Book 
 of many pages in reply to the atrocities which have been 
 laid to their charge in Belgium and, in the words of Pro- 
 fessor Morgan, " no more damning and incriminating 
 evidence has ever been put forth by a nation arraigned 
 at the bar of public opinion." ^ 
 
 An attempt is made in it to justify rather than to deny 
 the horrors perpetrated by the German army in Belgium, 
 and to this end the Belgian civilians are themselves accused 
 of having committed atrocities on the troops in occupation 
 of the country. With a view to discover evidence confirm- 
 ing these charges, an inquiry was held by certain officers 
 of the German army, the witnesses consisting of persons 
 under their authority. That is to say, the inquiry was con- 
 ducted by those who had to justify the orders which they 
 gave to these witnesses, who were bound by military dis- 
 cipline to carry them out. The evidence in most cases is 
 based on hearsay, and this even where the pretended 
 eye-witnesses themselves could have been called upon to 
 make direct statements; moreover the statements would 
 not bear any sort of cross-examination in a court of 
 justice. 
 
 The German Defence has been commented upon by a 
 neutral. Professor Struycken of the Faculty of Law at the 
 University of Amsterdam, who describes it as a " collection 
 of evidence, mostly on oath, which is intended to prove 
 that the numerous executions, burnings and acts of devas- 
 
 ^ German Atrocities, p. 5. 
 200 
 
A GERMAN DEFENCE 201 
 
 tation carried out by the German troops in Belgium were 
 a Kriegsnotwendigkeit {' necessity of war ') in view of the 
 treacherous and criminal behaviour of the civil popula- 
 tion." " One would gladly," he adds, " have had the 
 direct evidence of many of the soldiers concerned, which, 
 being that of eye-witnesses, would have had the greatest 
 importance — but their evidence is not found in the White 
 Book. The possibility of guilt on the part of the civilian 
 population is certainly not excluded, but the fact that the 
 military authorities in Berlin are satisfied with this method 
 of investigation, and apparently regard the evidence now 
 published as satisfactory, makes us shudder at the thought 
 of the evidence on which, in the confusion of the fighting, 
 in the witches' cauldron of Dinant, in burning Aerschot, 
 and in so many other places in unhappy Belgium, sentence 
 of death was carried out on thousands of citizens by ofiicers 
 and by soldiers of lower rank. 
 
 "Man hat geschossen (' There has been firing ') was the 
 ordinary signal for death and destruction. . . . 
 
 " It has, on many previous occasions in the course of 
 the war, been noticeable that the Germans have apparently 
 formed a low estimate of the insight and critical judgment 
 of the neutrals whom they seek to convince of the justice 
 of their cause. The German White Book furnishes a fresh 
 instance of this. If neutrals are to be convinced that the 
 extreme severities carried out against the population in 
 Belgitmi were justified, it will be necessary for much clearer 
 evidence to be brought forward than that contained, in 
 this book. We are anxious to receive enlightenment as to 
 the events which have occurred, and do not wish to found 
 our judgment solely on Belgian, French and English reports, 
 into which exaggerations may easily have found their way ; 
 but desire that the Germans, too, may bring forward evidence 
 which will stand the test of criticism, and will in fact prove 
 that which it is desired to prove, instead of proving the exact 
 opposite." 
 
 The accusations are, as a rule, made in general terms, 
 and atrocities committed by the Germans themselves are 
 described as necessary reprisals. It is admitted " that 
 
202 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 hostages were shot at various places," and this procedure 
 is said to have been " amply justified ! " ^ 
 
 The indiscriminate shooting of ciAdlians, including priests, 
 is also admitted. One instance of the style of evidence 
 contained in this Defence is sufficient. A German staff- 
 surgeon says : " On the bank of the Meuse, between the 
 river and the garden wall . . . lay a heap of civilians who 
 had been shot. ... I estimate about thirty or forty. . . . 
 I have heard that the Grenadier Regiment No. 101 carried 
 out the execution. Among the people who were shot were 
 some women, but by far the greater number were young 
 lads. Under the heap I discovered a girl of about five 
 years of age, alive and without any injuries. I took her 
 out and brought her down to the house where the women 
 were. She took chocolate, was quite happy, and was 
 clearly unaware of the seriousness of the situation. I then 
 searched the heap of bodies to see whether any other child 
 were underneath, but we only found one girl of about ten 
 years of age, who had a wound in the lower part of the thigh. 
 I had the wound dressed, and brought her at once to the 
 women. . . . Mother and daughter were very thankful 
 to me." 2 
 
 The Belgian Government has itself published a lengthy 
 reply to the German Defence, from a risumS of which, 
 published in English under the title of Truth and Travesty, 
 we append the following extracts : — 
 
 "As to looting, it is sufficient that there was a leader 
 present, officer or non-commissioned officer, for it to be 
 lawful. Looting is then called ' requisition.' Looting by 
 single individuals is alone considered blameworthy. More- 
 over, it was with a total absence of shame that most of those 
 who made this confession acknowledged the great number 
 of occasions of organised looting. A typical reply was 
 given by the men of the reserve corps. 
 
 " Questioned as to whether they had witnessed or taken 
 part in looting, a number of them replied with a candour 
 
 ^ Appendix C, German White Book. 
 
 ^ The incident is apparently recounted by way of illustrating 
 the tender solicitude of the German officer. 
 
A GERMAN DEFENCE 203 
 
 that disarmed criticism : ' There was no chance ; the first 
 line troops had been there ' ; or, ' Everything had been 
 cleared, and we had searched in vain through the houses, 
 the doors of which had been forced open ; there was nothing 
 left to take.' 
 
 "The conclusions of Lieutenant Loustalot, as to the 
 responsibility of the German command for the sack and 
 massacre of Dinant, are confirmed up to the hilt by the 
 depositions taken. ' We went there as if going to drill, 
 commanded and led by our officers and non-commissioned 
 officers,' said a witness from the 108th Foot. This state- 
 ment, which is not the only one of its kind, accurately sums 
 up the whole story." ^ 
 
 " Such is the German White Book," writes Professor 
 Morgan. " I think it is not too much to say that it bears 
 the stamp of the forger's hand upon it, the same hand that 
 forged the Ems telegram and garbled the Belgian docu- 
 ments captured in Brussels. It was conceived in iniquity 
 and brought forth in falsehood. It confesses but does not 
 avoid." Let the reader study it. He will come to no other 
 conclusion. He will see that it is nothing but an attempt 
 to prove that black is white and white is black, and that 
 the crime is only aggravated by the vain effort to justify 
 it. " The huge fact of the crushing of Belgium submerges 
 all details. Our thought is expressed in these words of 
 Emerson : ' What you are speaks so loudly we cannot hear 
 what you say.' " ^ 
 
 Times without number proposals have been made to the 
 German commanders in Belgium by eminent persons, 
 including Cardinal Mercier and the Belgian Bishops, that 
 a neutral commission should be appointed to inquire into 
 the atrocities committed by the German troops and the 
 truth of their defence, but no reply even has ever been 
 vouchsafed to these proposals. 
 
 1 Truth and Travesty: an Analytical Study of the Reply 
 of the Belgian Government to the German White Book, by 
 Fernand Passelecq, Direetor of the Belgian Documentary 
 Bureau, pp. 53-5. 
 
 " David Starr Jordan, quoted in A TexibooJe of the War for 
 Americans, p. 121. 
 
IX 
 
 MURDER BY LAND AND SEA 
 
 Of all the crimes which Germany has committed since 
 the war began none have horrified the world to the same 
 degree as the sinking of the Lusitania and the judicial 
 murders of Miss Cavell and of Captain Fryatt. The Litsi- 
 tania, an unarmed ^ passenger ship, was torpedoed without 
 warning by German submarines. The ship sank in twenty 
 minutes, and with it 1198 of the passengers and crew, 
 many of them women and hapless little children. This 
 cruel, cowardly act was extolled in the German Press : 
 " The sinking of the Lusitania is a success for our sub- 
 marines which must be placed beside the greatest achieve- 
 ment in this naval war. . . . The sinking of the great 
 British steamer is a success, the moral significance of which 
 is still greater than the material success. With joyful pride 
 we contemplate the latest deed of our navy, and it will not 
 be the last." ^ 
 
 " Whoever cannot prevail upon himself," said Pastor 
 D. Baumgarten, in the course of an address on the Sermon 
 on the Mount, " to approve from the bottom of his heart 
 the sinking of the Lusitania — ^whoever cannot conquer the 
 sense of the gigantic cruelty {ungeheure Grausamkeit) to 
 unnumbered perfectly innocent victims . . . and give him- 
 self up to honest delight at the victorious exploit of German 
 defensive power — him we judge to be no German." ^ 
 
 ^ A German — or pro-German — who swore at an inquiry held 
 at New York that the Lusitania was armed, was convicted of 
 perjury. 
 
 2 Kblnische Zeitung, May 10, 1915 ; quoted by A. Hurd in 
 Murder at Sea, in which the story is eloquently told. 
 
 * Deutsche Eeden in schwerer Zeit, No. 24, p. 7. 
 
 204 
 
MURDER BY LAND AND SEA 205 
 
 Hundreds of congratulatory telegrams were sent to 
 Admiral von Tirpitz, while in New York, " where riotous 
 scenes of jubilation took place among the Germans in 
 German clubs and restaurants . . . many Germans got 
 drunk in toasting ' Der Tag.' " ^ 
 
 A medal was struck in Germany to commemorate the 
 exploit, and it is stated that the Order of Merit of the First 
 Class was bestowed by the Emperor on the Commander of 
 the submarine which did the ghastly work. 
 
 The main facts of the murder of Miss Cavell are known 
 in most English homes, and abroad, in the friendly coun- 
 tries, there can hardly exist a newspaper which has not 
 expressed its horror at the crime. 
 
 " The summary execution by a belligerent of an inoffen- 
 sive inhabitant affects us more than the death of hundreds 
 of soldiers in a regular engagement. The reason of this is, 
 that the general principles of humanity, which are the very 
 essence of Christianity, have found their most noble expres- 
 sion in the laws of chivalry, which is the true moral basis 
 of the military traditions of modern Europe. The English, 
 French and Spanish — ^to cite only the three principal 
 military Powers of the Middle Age — have passed down from 
 generation to generation this common ideal, which already 
 contained in germ the fundamental principles of the inter- 
 national law of our days — fidelity to a word once given, 
 loyalty in the means of inflicting damage on the enemy, 
 respect and protection of the weak." ^ 
 
 " Why has this crime caused such widespread indig- 
 nation? " said M. Painlev^, the French Minister for Public 
 Instruction, at a mass meeting organised by the Ligue 
 de Droits de Londres, on the 28th of November, in honour 
 of the memory of Miss Cavell, and in aid of the French Red 
 Cross Society. " By what extraordinary circumstance 
 has it come about that in the midst of scenes of death 
 and desolation, almost too tragic for the imagination to 
 
 1 Murder at Sea, p. 14. 
 
 ^ VAllemagne et le Droit des Gens, p. 11. 
 
206 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 conceive, the love and compassion of all nations have been 
 so centred in one individual sufferer. 
 
 " Germany has spread death over the world. She has 
 carried her hideous engines of destruction, her scientific 
 methods of massacre, from the North Sea to the Vosges, 
 and from the Baltic to the Balkans. ... By her deed 
 millions of soldiers lie dead, mown down in the flower of 
 their youth, and the streets of every large town are full of 
 mutilated men. It would seem impossible to single out 
 any one in particular for compassion. What, indeed, does 
 one murder signify, when murders are committed without 
 number; when whole nations, men, women and children, 
 are trodden underfoot, torn to pieces, and doomed to 
 extermination? And yet with the simple story of the 
 putting to death of Miss Cavell the whole civilised world 
 has trembled with indignation and horror. . . . 
 
 " Not until the day when Germany feels within herself 
 some shame and remorse for this crime can there possibly 
 be peace between her and humanity. Even if violence 
 and iniquity shoidd win the victory over justice and right 
 (an absurd and inconceivable hypothesis) there is not a 
 man, worthy of the name of man, who would not rather 
 perish with Miss Cavell than triumph with her assassins ! " 
 
 It is just this absence of human qualities, chivalry, 
 gratitude, pity, remorse and shame in the commission of 
 some of their crimes that has amazed the civilised world. 
 Consider the circumstances of Miss Cavell's murder. 
 " Miss Cavell," wrote the American Minister to Belgiimi, 
 in his appeal on her behalf to Baron von Bissing, the 
 German Governor of Brussels, " is the head of the Brussels 
 Surgical Institute. She has spent her life in alleviating 
 the sufferings of others, and her school has tmned out many 
 nurses who have watched by the bedside of the sick all 
 the world over, in Germany as in Belgium. At the be- 
 ginning of the war Miss Cavell bestowed her care as freely 
 on the German soldiers as on others. Even in default of 
 all other reasons her career as a servant to humanity is 
 such as to inspire the greatest sympathy and to call for 
 
MURDER BY LAND AND SEA 207 
 
 pardon. ..." He appealed in vain to the " feelings of 
 humanity and generosity " of this brute in human shape ; 
 they existed no more in him than in his associate. Baron 
 von der Lacken, to whom the Minister wrote : " Stand 
 by and save from death this unfortunate woman. Have 
 pity on her." She was condemned to death at five o'clock 
 in the afternoon of October 11 on the charge of assisting 
 English and French soldiers to cross the frontier, whereby 
 she hoped to save their lives, and shot at two o'clock in 
 the night. We need not go into the circumstances of her 
 trial ; they have been very carefully set forth by Mr. James 
 Beek,^ and the illegality as well as the barbarity of the 
 sentence clearly demonstrated. After quoting the law 
 which she was alleged to have transgressed, " I affirm," 
 he writes, " with confidence, that under this law Miss 
 Cavell was innocent, and that the true meaning of the law 
 was perverted in order to inflict the death sentence upon 
 her. . . . No one suggests that Baron von Bissing had 
 any personal feeling against Miss Cavell; indeed, his con- 
 duct would have been the more tolerable if it had been 
 actuated by anger. He killed her in cold blood and to 
 strengthen the German occupation in Belgium. To the 
 Prussian idea, as already illustrated by official proclama- 
 tion, it was a matter of no consequence whose life was 
 taken or whose right was invaded; it served to terrorise 
 the Belgian people." Even the final appeal of our Minister 
 for the surrender of her mutilated body was denied. For 
 her part she forgave her butchers : " I must have no bitter- 
 ness towards any one," were among her last words. 
 
 In discussing the illegal as well as the inhuman character 
 of the sentence, we are admitting for a moment that the 
 Germans had a right to exercise in Belgium the privileges 
 of belligerents in a hostile country. In reality, their 
 position in Belgium is nothing better than that of a band 
 of brigands who, in order to avoid the resistance which 
 they expect to meet if they attempt to enter a house 
 
 1 Edith Cavell, by James Beck, late Assistant Attorney 
 General, United States. 
 
208 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 they intend to plunder by the front door, break their way 
 through an adjoining property — ^which they have previously 
 sworn to respect — murdering and robbing the owners of 
 that property on their way, because they ventured to 
 oppose their intrusion. 
 
 Captain Fryatt was the master of the Great Eastern 
 Railway Company's steamship Brussels, running between 
 Harwich and Rotterdam. He has been described by one 
 who knew him intimately as " a perfect tj^e of the British 
 sailor, a master of his craft, a devoted husband and father, 
 and a man of blameless life." 
 
 In February, 1915, the German Government published 
 their nefarious intention of destroying, on and after the 
 18th of that month, every enemy merchant vessel found 
 in the waters surrounding Great Britain and Ireland, 
 including the English Channel, " without it being always 
 possible to warn the crew or passengers." Captain Fryatt 
 was aware of this. He was also, no doubt, aware of the 
 fact that twenty-two merchant ships had already been 
 sunk without warning by German submarines since the 
 above-mentioned announcement had been made. When 
 therefore on the 28th March his vessel was pursued by one 
 of these submarines which, according to one account, 
 signalled to him to stop, he ordered the engines to be put 
 at full speed, hoping by this means to ensure the safety of 
 his crew and passengers. A few minutes later the sub- 
 marine dived with the intention, no doubt, of torpedoing the 
 Brussels, but it is believed that at that moment she was 
 herself rammed by that vessel. 
 
 In recognition of his skill and bravery on this occasion 
 Captain Fryatt was presented with a gold watch by the 
 Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty and another by 
 the Great Eastern Railway Company. 
 
 On the 23rd June, 1916, more than a year after the 
 incident recorded above, the Brussels was captured, while 
 on a voyage to Tilbury from the Hook of Holland, by a 
 flotilla of German torpedo boats and taken with all on board 
 to Zeebrugge ; and it was there that the murder took place. 
 
MURDER BY LAND AND SEA 209 
 
 Captain Fryatt was shot, after some sort of mock trial, 
 for having dared to defend his ship and those on board 
 against the attack of the submarine. He had at least 
 the comforting thought on the day of his martyrdom 
 that, but for his action, those who sailed with him on the 
 18th March might have perished like the victims of the 
 Falaba which was sunk on the same date. 
 
 This crime has been spoken of in neutral countries in 
 scathing terms, as was foreseen by the German Press 
 itself. " It will probably arouse the same storm of 
 indignation against German barbarism as was evoked by 
 the Cavell case, but that must not disturb us," wrote the 
 Kolnische Volkszdtung (29th July, 1916). The New York 
 Herald described it as the " crowning German atrocity " 
 and the New York Times as " a deliberate murder — a trifle 
 to the Government that has so many thousands to answer 
 for." A Dutch paper wrote : "In the year in which 
 Captain Fryatt made the fatal mistake of attempting to 
 save his ship from destruction, Germany's licensed sub- 
 marine assassins torpedoed and sank forty unarmed British 
 vessels without the slightest warning. These adored heroes 
 of the Fatherland succeeded in a single year in slaughtering 
 more than 2000 men, women and children. . . . The 
 cowardly method of warfare that has made the German 
 navy distinct from all others has been worthily upheld. ..." 
 It is announced that in Holland a subscription has been 
 set on foot for the purpose of raising a memorial in honour 
 of the naurdered man. In our own country a mass meeting, 
 organised by the British Workers' National League, pro- 
 tested in the name of the people of England against this new 
 crime and expressed sjonpathy with the widow, to whom 
 the foUoAving letter was written at the King's command — 
 
 " In the sorrow which has so cruelly stricken you the 
 King joins with his people in offering you his heartfelt 
 sympathy. 
 
 " Since the outbreak of the War, His Majesty has 
 followed with admiration the splendid services of the 
 Mercantile Marine. 
 
210 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 " The action of Captain Fryatt in defending his ship 
 against the attack of an enemy submarine was a noble 
 instance of the resource and self-rehance so characteristic 
 of that profession, 
 
 " It is therefore with the feelings of the deepest indigna- 
 tion that the King learnt of your husband's fate, and in 
 conveying to you the expression of his condolence I am 
 commanded to assure you of the abhorrence with which 
 His Majesty regards this outrage." 
 
 " The Government are of opinion," said Mr. Asquith in 
 the House of Commons, " that this country will not 
 tolerate the resumption of diplomatic intercourse with 
 Germany after the War until reparation has been made 
 for the murder of Captain Fryatt and similar outrages. 
 Some of our Allies have suffered from brutalities even more 
 gross and on a more extended scale." 
 
ATROCITIES IN AFRICA 
 
 The Blue Book relating to " German Atrocities and 
 Breaches of the Rules of War in Africa " (June, 1916), 
 admits us to another Chamber of Horrors. In this volume 
 of eighty-six pages we read of the murder and mutilation 
 of the natives — men, women and children — and the destruc- 
 tion of their villages ; of the firing on medical officers and 
 stretcher-bearers, although wearing brassards and waving 
 Red Cross flags ; of the poisoning of the wells and the use 
 of expanding bullets. " On some occasions," wrote Major- 
 General Dobell ^ in a despatch to the War Office, " it is said 
 that no Europeans were present during the enactment of 
 the brutalities described, but sufficient evidence is here 
 available to show that German Europeans encouraged 
 such acts by personally cutting the throats of wounded 
 British soldiers with knives, firing on peaceful inhabitants 
 to terrorise them, and shooting natives without trial." 
 Major-General Dobell enclosed a memorandum by Mr. 
 Elphinstone ^ in which he says that : "It should be borne 
 in mind that the civilians killed by the Germans are the 
 natives of a country under their protection, whom they had 
 ruled for many years; the murders were not committed 
 by an invading army. In fact, owing to the treatment 
 meted out, it was to the invading army to whom the 
 wretched natives fled for protection; they very soon 
 summed up the difference of treatment by the German and 
 the Allied Forces." 
 
 ^ Commanding the Allied Forces in the Cameroons. 
 * Chief Political Officer with the British Forces in the 
 Cameroons. 
 
 211 
 
212 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 To the German Governor at Jaunde, Major-General 
 Dobell wrote as follows : "I take this opportunity to bring 
 to your Excellency's attention the barbarous manner 
 in which German troops are carrying on warfare, especially 
 in the Edea districts. With regard to this, I enclose a 
 report of the cases treated by the French medical au- 
 thorities, which removes any doubt as to the facts of the 
 case. This report can only contain a small proportion of 
 the unspeakable atrocities actually committed by your 
 troops. 
 
 " It requires no reference to the Hague Convention to 
 point out that the brutalities, which have been conunitted 
 against unarmed non-combatants and innocent women 
 and children, are contrary to every principle of civilised 
 warfare and against every dictate of humanity. 
 
 " I am unable to believe that such acts could be per- 
 petrated without the sanction of your military authorities, 
 and in some cases I have reason to think that Europeans 
 were actually present directing operations. 
 
 " In the name of humanity I request your Excellency to 
 put an instant stop to such proceedings. Should they 
 continue, I shall be obliged to give directions that any 
 German soldier captured and found guilty of taking part 
 in these atrocities shall be deemed to have forfeited his 
 right to be regarded as a prisoner of war and will be dealt 
 with accordingly. 
 
 " I would also draw your Excellency's attention to the 
 fact that my subordinate commanders have reported 
 cases of natives armed with poisoned arrows fighting in 
 your ranks. This is contrary to Article 23 of the Hague 
 Convention concerning the Laws and Customs of War on 
 Land. 
 
 " I need not point out to your Excellency that, for my 
 part, I use the utmost endeavour that the laws and customs 
 of war are respected by the troops fighting imder my 
 command and expect your Excellency to take similar 
 measures." 
 
XI 
 
 THE MURDER OF A NATION : THE EXPLOITS OF GERMANY'S 
 
 ALLIES 
 
 The story of murder and plunder is not complete without 
 some account of the atrocities committed by the nations 
 with whom the Central Powers have allied themselves. 
 With their approval nearly the whole of the Armenian 
 inhabitants of Turkey have been barbarously butchered, 
 and those who have not been killed, or have not succeeded 
 in escaping, have been thrown into prison or sold into 
 slavery. 
 
 I say, " with their approval," for no one who realises 
 how complete an ascendancy the Germans have gained 
 over their Turkish Allies since the war began, can suppose 
 that they could not at any moment have put an end to 
 the massacre of this people, had they wished to do so. 
 One word from the Kaiser would have sufficed. Massacres 
 in Turkey are not perpetrated by uncontrollable mobs. 
 They are organised. The butchery of the Armenians at 
 Adana in 1909 began by order from Constantinople and was 
 suddenly stopped by another order from Constantinople, 
 an officer riding through the streets and calling out 
 " Paydos ! " (Cease work !) 
 
 Four hundred years ago, the Turkish Sultan, Selim I, 
 was minded to massacre the whole of the Christian popula- 
 tion of his dominions, but was dissuaded by his counsellors. 
 As the German historian, von Hammer, writes : " Thanks 
 to the humanity of the Grand Vizier, Piri Pasha, and the 
 Mufti Djemali, Selim did not blacken the last days of his 
 reign by a wholesale massacre of the ' Infidels.' " ^ It was 
 
 *■ Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches. 
 213 
 
214 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 only when, in the twentieth century, a Sultan was de- 
 pendent on the counsels of Christian German advisers, 
 that it became possible to carry out Selim's designs, almost 
 to the letter. Therefore, this crime also : " A crime," as 
 Lord Bryce says, " more hideous than any which have been 
 committed since the time of Tamerlane," is at their door. 
 Three-quarters or four-fifths of this intelligent nation have 
 perished, and the story of the tortures to which they were 
 subjected and the manner of their death surpasses anything 
 we read even in the accoimts of the atrocities in Belgium 
 and France and Serbia. 
 
 " The worst and most unimaginable horrors," says one 
 of the witnesses, " were reserved for us at the banks of 
 the Euphrates and the Erzindjan plain. The mutilated 
 bodies of women and girls and little children made every- 
 body shudder. . . . Their cries went up to heaven. At 
 the Euphrates, the brigands and gendarmes threw into 
 the river all the remaining children under fifteen years 
 old. Those who could swim were shot down as they 
 struggled in the water." 
 
 " In the district of Bitlis," according to information 
 pubUshed by the Armenian newspaper Gotchnag, of New 
 York, " in one village 1000 Armenian men, women and 
 children were crowded into a wooden house and the house 
 set on fire." 
 
 In another large village of the same district only Turkish 
 people escaped the massacre. 
 
 In another they roped together men and women by 
 dozens and threw them into the Lake of Van. 
 
 A young Armenian, who succeeded in escaping, relates 
 that the Ex-Vali (Governor) of Van ordered the massacre 
 of all the male inhabitants of Bitlis between the ages of 
 fifteen and forty, and the order was carried out. 
 
 According to the Messagiere (August, 1915), the 
 Italian Consul-General at Trebizond, M. Gorrini, stated 
 that the orders from Constantinople were peremptory 
 and had to be obeyed; of 14,000 Gregorians, Catholics 
 and Protestants not more than a hundred were left at the 
 time of his departure. Every day, hundreds of dead 
 
THE MURDER OF A NATION 215 
 
 bodies were to be seen in the streets. Women were out- 
 raged ; children were taken from their famiUes and thrown 
 into the Black Sea or the rivers. " After witnessing 
 these daily scenes for a month," said the Consul, " without 
 being able to interfere, one is inclined to ask whether all 
 the cannibals and wild beasts in the world have con- 
 gregated in Stamboul. Such massacres cry out for the 
 vengeance of the whole of Christianity. If all I know was 
 known — all I have heard and seen — ^the Christian Powers 
 who remain neutral would cry anathema and rise against 
 Turkey — against this barbarian Government and the 
 savage ' Committee of Union and Progress,' and hold 
 responsible the Austro-Germans who tolerate or assist in 
 the perpetration of crimes unparalleled in modern history." 
 
 " From whatever source it comes," wrote the Gaulois 
 (October, 1915), " whether from Constantinople, Smyrna, 
 Angora, Van or elsewhere, there is no variation in the 
 description of the appalling scenes which have accompanied 
 the slaughter of the Armenian population of the Turkish 
 Empire since the beginning of the war. The Turks have 
 drawn up a plan for the complete extermination of the 
 Armenians, and they are carrying it out with a ferocity 
 which makes the hair stand on end — ^with a refinement of 
 cruelty of which there are few examples, even in the 
 remotest periods of the history of mankind. They kill, 
 massacre, pillage, burn and devastate under the very eyes 
 of their German patrons who encourage them in their 
 abominable work. The number already murdered is 
 appalling; The report speaks of 800,000 to 1,000,000. 
 Only those who adopt the Mohammedan religion are 
 spared, and even they are deported to a great distance 
 from their towns and villages, and separated from their 
 wives and children, who are forcibly converted to Islam 
 and distributed among the Mussulman families ! Abdul 
 Hamid was justly called ' the Red Sultan.' By what 
 name will the young Turks and their so-called Christian 
 Teuton friends and allies be known in history? " 
 
 The Temps learns that beyond Orfa and in parts of 
 Mesopotamia there is not a single Armenian left. 
 
216 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 The Presbjrterian Board of Foreign Missions has issued 
 a statement as to the conditions of the deported Armenians 
 in northern Arabia and Syria, including the following 
 eyewitness's report from a missionary : — 
 
 " At Meskeneh I saw women and children throw them- 
 selves into trenches, and beg the grave-diggers to bury them. 
 The Government furnishes no bread. 
 
 " In Hamar, of 7000 deportees 3000 were naked. They 
 gathered locusts, and ate them, cooked or uncooked, 
 according as they could get fire. 
 
 " Some even caught dogs in the street and ate them 
 raw. 
 
 " In Rekka 15,000 deportees live in tents in a camp on 
 both sides of the Euphrates. The people are not allowed 
 to enter the city. 
 
 " EverjTvhere there are terrible pictures of nakedness, 
 hunger and death. The authorities are doing nothing. 
 
 " Some of the people, in despair, threw themselves into 
 the river. Everywhere we met caravans of Armenians 
 carried from their homes. 
 
 " We often saw whole rows of ghastly forms rising 
 suddenly out of graves and asking for bread and water. 
 All have dug their own graves and are awaiting death. 
 The number is not less than 30,000 as I write. 
 
 " Some who cannot beg lie in cots on the ground until 
 death releases them. Nobody looks to them, dead or 
 alive. 
 
 "At a Government investigation, it was shown that 
 there had been cannibalism, and the dying had been 
 fought over to obtain their flesh for food. 
 
 "It is to be remembered that these people have done 
 no wrong. It was desired by the Turkish Government 
 that they should be got rid of." 
 
 The testimony of two Mussulmans (ex-officials), published 
 in The Times,^ confirms the stories related above. 
 
 ^ January 1, 1917. 
 
THE MURDER OF A NATION 217 
 
 " In August, 1915 " (relates the first eyewitness), " I 
 saw in the suburbs of Mush large numbers of dead bodies 
 of Armenian men, women and children lying in the fields. 
 Some had been shot, some stabbed, and nearly all horribly 
 mutilated. . . . 
 
 " In the same month of August, at about two hours 
 from Zaart, I saw masses of Armenian bodies piled up in 
 two ravines. I estimate the number at about 15,000. I 
 learned that the Armenian Bishop of Zaart had . . . been 
 shot in a cave near by. 
 
 "... On my way back from Zaart to Mush there were 
 500 Armenians herded together in a stable near Mush and 
 locked in. Through an opening in the roof the gendarmes 
 threw flaming torches; I saw the flames and heard the 
 screams of the victims, all of whom were burned alive. . . . 
 
 " Besides those whom the Turks had killed and burnt 
 alive, thousands were thrown into the Euphrates. Many 
 drowned themselves out of fear of a worse death." 
 
 The second eyewitness stated — 
 
 " In April, 1915, an order came from Constantinople to 
 Erzeroum, where I was quartered, that the Armenians 
 inhabiting frontier towns and villages should be deported 
 into the interior. ... In May I was transferred to Trebi- 
 zond. In July an order came that all the Armenians of 
 that vilayet should also be deported to the interior. As I 
 was a member of the court-martial I knew that deportation 
 meant massacre. Besides the deportation order, an 
 Imperial Iradeh commanded that all deserters, when 
 caught, should be shot without trial. A secret order, 
 however, said ' Armenians ' instead of ' deserters.' A 
 ' fetva ' from the Sheikh-ul-Islam accompanied the Iradeh, 
 saying that the Armenians had shed Moslem blood, and 
 that it was lawful to kill them. I heard that all Armenian 
 men were being massacred on their way into the interior. 
 ... At Trebizond the children, whom the American Consul 
 had taken charge of, were removed, taken out to sea in 
 boats, stabbed, put into sacks and thrown into the sea. 
 
218 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 Some of their bodies were afterwards washed up on the 
 shore. . . . 
 
 " At Trebizond Moslems were warned that they would be 
 liable to the death penalty if they sheltered Armenians. 
 The best looking women were picked out by Government 
 officials, outraged and murdered. 
 
 " At Kamach I saw in prison the Kurdish chieftain, 
 Murza Bey. I asked him why he was there. He said, ' I 
 have killed 70,000 Armenians, and now they have arrested 
 me for striking a gendarme.' " 
 
 " In Haftevan and Salmas 850 corpses were found in the 
 wells and cisterns alone, all without their heads. The 
 Commander-in-Chief of the Turkish troops had promised 
 a sum of money for every Christian head. The wells are 
 soaked with the blood of Christians. . . . The soldiers who 
 passed through from Satchbulak carried on the point of 
 the bayonet the head of the Russian consul ; the nuns had 
 run into the street and prayed for pity but in vain." ^ 
 
 " It was heartrending to hear the cries of the people 
 and children who were being burnt to death in their houses. 
 The soldiers took great delight in hearing them and when 
 people who were out in the streets during the bombardment 
 fell dead, the soldiers merely laughed at them. 
 
 " The survivors were sent to Urfa (there were none left 
 but sick women and children); I went to the Mutesarrif 
 and begged him to have mercy on the children at least, but 
 in vain. He replied that the Armenian children must 
 perish with their nation. All our people were taken from 
 our hospital and orphanage; they left us three female 
 servants. Under these atrocious circumstances, Moush 
 was burnt to the ground. Every officer boasted of the 
 mmiber he had personally massacred as his share in 
 ridding Turkey of the Armenian race. 
 
 1 From a statement made by a German missionary in a 
 letter quoted in Germany, Turkey and Armenia, being " a selec- 
 tion of documentary evidence relating to the Armenian atrocities 
 from German and other sources," published by J. J. Keliher & 
 Co., 1917, p. 19. 
 
THE MURDER OF A NATION 219 
 
 " We left for Harpout (Kharpout). Harpout has become 
 the cemetery of the Armenians ; from all directions they 
 have been brought to Harpout to be buried. There they 
 lie, and the dogs and the vultures devour their bodies. In 
 Harpout and Mezreh the people have had to endure terrible 
 tortures. They have had their eye-brows plucked out, 
 their breasts cut off, their nails torn off; their torturers 
 hew off their feet or hammer nails into them just as they 
 do in shoeing horses. This is all done at night-time ; and 
 in order that the people may not hear their screams and 
 know of their agony, soldiers are stationed round the 
 prisons, beating drums and blowing whistles. It is 
 needless to relate that many died of these tortures. When 
 they die the soldiers cry : ' Now let your Christ help you.' 
 
 " One old priest was tortured so cruelly to extract a 
 confession that, believing that the torture would cease 
 and that he would be left alone if he did it, he cried out in 
 his desperation, ' We are revolutionists.' He expected 
 his tortures to cease, but, on the contrary, the soldiers 
 cried : ' What further do we seek ? We have it here from 
 his own lips.' And instead of picking out their victims 
 as they did before, the officials had all the Armenians 
 tortured without sparing a soul." ^ 
 
 " The following morning, at a very early hour, we 
 heard the procession of exiles passing in front of our house, 
 along the high road leading to Erzindjan. We followed 
 them and kept up with them as far as the town, about an 
 hour's walk. It was a very large gang — only two or three 
 of them men, all the rest women and children. Many of 
 the women looked demented. They cried out : ' Spare us, 
 we will become Moslems or Germans or whatever you Avill ; 
 only spare us. We are being taken to Kamakh Boghaz 
 to have our throats cut. . . .' The crowd was being 
 moved on continually by the mounted gendarmes, brandish- 
 ing their whips. . . . 
 
 " On the road we broke our journey near a Greek 
 
 ^ From a statement by a German eyewitness of occurrences 
 at Moush; communicated by the American Committee for 
 Armenian and Syrian Relief. Ibid., pp. 26-7. 
 
220 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 village. A savage-looking man was standing by the road- 
 side. He began to talk with us, and told us he was stationed 
 there to kill all the Armenians that passed, that he had 
 already killed 250. . . . 
 
 " One day we met a convoy of exiles . . . the scene will 
 never be forgotten by either of us ; a very small number of 
 elderly men, a large number of women — vigorous figures 
 with energetic featiu:es — a crowd of pretty children, some 
 of them fair and blue-eyed, one little girl smiling at the 
 strangeness of all she was seeing, but on all the other 
 faces the solemnity of death . . . and so they passed, some 
 of them greeting us on the way — all these poor people, 
 who are now standing at the throne of God, and whose cry 
 goes up before Him. . . . 
 
 " At another place, there were ten gendarmes shooting 
 them down while Turkish workmen were finishing off the 
 victims with knives and stones. . . . 
 
 " One night we slept in an Armenian house where the 
 women had just heard that the men of the family had been 
 condenmed to death. It was frightful to hear their cries 
 of anguish : ' Cannot your Emperor help us ? ' " ^ 
 
 " In the village of Tel-Armen and in the neighbouring 
 villages, about 5000 people were massacred, leaving only 
 a few women and children. The people were thrown alive 
 down wells or into the fire." ^ 
 
 "In an Armenian school at Marash, I saw over a 
 hundred women and children with bullet-wounds in their 
 legs and their arms and with all sorts of mutilations; 
 among them were children of one and two years. 
 
 " On the 13th August thirty-four Armenians, including 
 two boys of the age of twelve years, were shot at Marash. 
 Again, on the 15th August, twenty-four were shot and 
 fourteen were hanged. The twenty-four who were shot 
 were tied together with a heavy chain that went round 
 their necks and were made to stand up together in one 
 
 1 From a statement by two Red Cross nurses of Danish 
 nationality, formerly in the service of the German Military 
 Mission at Erzeroum, communicated by a Swiss gentleman of 
 Geneva. Ibid., pp. 35-42. 2 /j^'d., p. 63. 
 
THE MURDER OF A NATION 221 
 
 mass. They were shot in the presence of the Mohammedan 
 population behind the American College. With my own 
 eyes I saw the bodies, while still convulsed in the agonies 
 of death, being handed over to the arbitrary disposal of 
 the rough civilians who pulled the hands and the feet of 
 the corpses, and during the next half-hour the policemen 
 and gendarmes shot continuously with revolvers on these 
 corpses, some of which were terribly disfigured, while 
 the population looked on with amusement. Afterwards 
 the same people marched up and down in front of the 
 German hospital and shouted ' Yasha Almanya ' {Long 
 live Germany). Again and again I have been told by 
 Mohammedans that it was Germany who caused the 
 Armenians to be extirpated in this way. . . . 
 
 " Kadir Pasha said to me at Marash : ' I know that, 
 pursuant to an order of the Government, the whole male 
 population within the area of the 4th Army Corps was 
 killed.' . . . 
 
 " In Ras-el-Ain a convoy of 200 girls and women arrived 
 in a state of complete nudity ; their shoes, their chemises, 
 ever5rthing, in short, had been taken away from them and 
 they were made to walk for four days under the hot sun — 
 the temperature was 122° in the shade — ^in their condition 
 of nakedness, jeered at and derided by the escorting 
 soldiers. . . . Whenever the wretched exiles appealed 
 to the humanity of the officials the reply was : ' We have 
 strict orders from the Government to treat you in this 
 way.' ... 
 
 " In Besneh the whole population, consisting of 1800 
 souls, principally women and children, were expatriated; 
 it was alleged that they were to be deported to Urfa. 
 When they reached the Goksug, a tributary of the Eu- 
 phrates, they were compelled to take their clothes off and 
 thereupon they were all massacred and thrown into the 
 
 ^ The author was informed at Alexandretta that, for six 
 months after the Armenian massacres of 1909, the inhabitants 
 would not eat fish caught in the sea on account of the number 
 of bodies which had been thrown into it. 
 
222 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 " On a single day, latterly, 170 corpses were observed 
 drifting down the Euphrates; and on several other days 
 the number was fifty to sixty, Mr. A., an engineer, in the 
 course of one ride, saw forty corpses. Those which were 
 stranded on the river-shore are devoured by the dogs, 
 while those which are caught by the sandbanks in the 
 river are eaten up by the vultures. . . . 
 
 " At Arab Punar a Turkish major, who spoke German, 
 expressed himself as follows : ' I and my brother have 
 taken a young girl at Ras-el-Ain who had been left on the 
 road. We are very angry with the Germans for doing 
 these things.' When I contradicted them, they said : 
 ' The Chief of the General Staff is a German ; von der Goltz 
 is the Conunander, and so many German officers are in 
 the army. Our Koran does not permit the treatment 
 which the Armenians have to suffer at present.' ... At 
 Nuss Tell a Mohammedan inspector spoke similarly in 
 conversation with a clerk. When I reproached him about 
 this utterance, in the presence of others, he said : ' It is 
 not only I who say this ; every one will tell you the same 
 tale.' 
 
 " At Bridjik the prisons are always full in the day-time ; 
 they are emptied at night. Tell Armen, a village of 3000 
 inhabitants, was raided; the inhabitants were massacred, 
 the dead and living were thrown into the wells or burnt. 
 Major von Kusch was a witness of the devastation. A 
 German cavalry captain saw unburied corpses on both 
 sides of the road with their throats cut. Innumerable 
 corpses of children were seen on the way by Mr. S." ^ 
 
 " This is the teaching of the Germans," says the simple 
 Turk, when asked about the authors of these measures. 
 The better educated Mohammedans are convinced that, 
 though the German people may disapprove of such horrors, 
 the German Government took no steps to prevent them 
 out of consideration for their Turkish allies. 
 
 " Mohammedans of more refined feelings, Turks as well 
 as Arabs, shake their heads disapprovingly; they do 
 
 ^ Extracts from the records of a German who died in Turkey. 
 Ihid., pp. 67-79. 
 
THE MURDER OF A NATION 223 
 
 not even conceal their tears when, in the passage of a 
 convoy of deported Armenians through the town, they 
 see Turkish soldiers violently using their heavy sticks 
 against women in an advanced state of pregnancy or dying 
 persons who cannot drag themselves any farther. They 
 cannot imagine that their Government has ordered these 
 cruelties, and think that all excesses are the fault of the 
 Germans, who, during the war, are the instructors in all 
 matters. Even the Mullahs declare in the mosques that 
 it was not the Sublime Porte but the German officers who 
 had ordered the ill-treatment and the annihilation of the 
 Armenians. 
 
 " The things which in this place have been before every- 
 body's eyes during many months will, indeed, be and 
 remain a blot on Germany's shield of honour in the eyes 
 of all oriental nations. . . . 
 
 "Another man (Herr Spiecker, of Aleppo) saw some 
 Turks tying a number of Armenians together and sending 
 a number of shots from rook-rifles into the mass of human 
 beings ; then they went away, laughing aloud, while their 
 horribly convulsed victims expired slowly. Other men were 
 sent rolling down steep slopes with their hands tied behind 
 their backs. Below, there were women who mangled those 
 who had rolled down, with their knives, continuing these 
 tortures until they were dead. A Protestant minister, who, 
 two years ago, had given a most cordial reception to my 
 colleague Dr. Graeter, had his finger-nails torn out. 
 
 " The German Consul at Mosul said, in my presence, in 
 the German Club at Aleppo, he had seen hacked-off chil- 
 dren's hands on his way from Mosul to Aleppo in sufficient 
 number to pave a street.^ 
 
 " In the German hospital at Urfa there is also a little girl, 
 both of whose hands have been hacked off. Herr Holstein, 
 
 ^ The editor of these documents here appends the following 
 note — 
 
 " The fact, which comes out clearly in several of the docu- 
 ments included in this pamphlet, that many German Consuls 
 reported indignantly about these horrors and that their reports 
 were left unheeded, throws a lurid light on the attitude of the 
 German Government." 
 
224 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 the German Consul at Mosul, also saw, in the neighbourhood 
 of an Arab village, shortly before reaching Aleppo, shallow 
 graves with corpses of Armenians with reference to whom 
 the Arab villagers said that they had killed them by order of 
 the Government. One of them said proudly that he had 
 killed eight. . . . 
 
 " We are the allies of Turkey, and having eliminated the 
 influence of the Frenchman, the Englishman, and the 
 Russian, we are the only ones who have anything to say in 
 Turkey. We may indignantly repudiate the lies circulated 
 in enemy countries that the massacres have been organised 
 by German Consuls ; we shall not, however, destroy the 
 belief of the Turkish people that Germany has ordered 
 the Armenian massacres, unless some energetic steps are 
 at last taken by German diplomatists and German officers. 
 ... It would be a serious mistake to assume that the 
 Turkish Government would, of its own accord, desist from 
 the annihilation of women and children, unless the strongest 
 pressure were to be exercised by the German Government. 
 
 " A short time before my departure from Aleppo, in May, 
 1916, all the women and children encamped at Ras Agin, 
 on the Baghdad railway line, whose number was estimated 
 at 20,000, were mercilessly slaughtered." ^ 
 
 Any one who wishes to complete this tale of horrors may 
 read The Murder of a Nation,^ by A. J. Toynbee, or the 
 collection of documents from which our last quotations 
 were taken, or the Blue Books. 
 
 Nor is Turkey alone in her imitation of Germany's 
 methods of warfare. The Matin learns from Salonika 
 that the Serbian refugees arriving there give terrible 
 details of the atrocities committed in their country by the 
 Bulgarians : "All the Serbians who fall into the hands of 
 the Bulgarians are barbarously tortured to death, without 
 regard to their age or sex. Nameless acts of cruelty 
 have been committed, notably in the environs of Nish, 
 
 ^ " A word to the accredited representatives of the German 
 people," by Dr. Martin Niepage, Higher Grade Teacher at the 
 German Technical School at Aleppo. Ibid., pp. 96-111. 
 
 ^ Hodder & Stoughton. 
 
THE MURDER OF A NATION 225 
 
 where hundreds of women and children have been burnt 
 in the churches, in which they have taken refuge, hoping 
 that the sacred character of these edifices would inspire 
 the invaders with mercy. In Macedonia, pillage and in- 
 cendiarism have been carried on with such method that no 
 house remains standing where the Bulgarians have passed." ^ 
 
 According to the Agence des Balkans, the Bulgarian 
 troops which invaded Serbia systematically massacred the 
 civil population, burning the towns and villages. Nameless 
 atrocities were committed by them in the Timok and the 
 district of New Serbia. Hundreds of men were shot, 
 hanged, or burnt alive. Children were mutilated in abom- 
 inable fashion and tortured to death. Women and young 
 girls were handed over by the oflBcers to their men, and in 
 most cases shot or burnt, after having been outraged. 
 Prisoners and wounded were covered with petroleum 
 and burnt alive or their eyes and tongues were torn out. 
 Some atrocities are too hideous to be mentioned. 
 
 " The frightful atrocities," reports another newspaper, 
 " committed by the Bulgars and Germans at Tutrakan 
 have caused great indignation throughout Roumania. 
 Those who were waverers as regards the policy of taking 
 sides against the Central Powers are among the first to 
 demand ample reprisals upon the enemies across the 
 Danube, and a fight to the finish is called for. ' Let not a 
 Bulgar be allowed to remain on earth ' is, the general cry. 
 Prisoners were put up against walls and shot in batches by 
 the Germans. The ambulance corps in Tutrakan, while 
 waiting for wounded to be brought in, were set upon by 
 the populace and put to unheard-of tortures, women and 
 children aiding gleefully in the atrocious work. The 
 hospitals in Bucharest contain hundreds of proofs of the 
 savagery of the Bulgars ; but those who escaped are but a 
 handful compared with those who fell victims to the fright- 
 ful tortures inflicted on them by those fiends in human 
 shape. The Roumanian authorities are causing strict inves- 
 tigations to be made, and soon another set of horrors will be 
 ready to present, with protest, to the neutral Powers." 
 
 ^ November, 1915. 
 
XII 
 
 THE TREATMENT OF PEISONERS 
 
 Of the treatment of our soldiers and those of our Allies 
 imprisoned in Germany we have examples in the oflBcial 
 reports on the encampments at Wittenberg and Garde- 
 legen. The sufferings endured by the British prisoners 
 at Wittenberg, where 15,000 persons were crowded into a 
 space of 10^ acres, are described in a report presented by 
 the Committee appointed by the Government to inquire 
 into the treatment by the enemy of British soldiers taken 
 prisoners. Let the reader study it.^ 
 
 Meanwhile the following short summary of the story 
 given by a daily newspaper will suffice : — 
 
 " To-day the whole of the British Empire is reading 
 the story of the Horrors of the Wittenberg Camp, and the 
 horror of it will never die. It will remain for ever on the 
 roll of the abominations of the world. Typhus broke out 
 in the Wittenberg Camp in the beginning of 1915. All the 
 German medical authorities abandoned the camp at once ; 
 food, drink, medical dressing, drugs, were all either stinted 
 to starvation point or refused altogether with curses on 
 the English swine who asked for them. The uninfected 
 were compelled to mingle with the infected. The healthy 
 were compelled to sleep on the mattresses which had been 
 used by the sick. The only stretchers available were the 
 tables on which the men had their food . . . Other horrors 
 are scarcely to be told. 
 
 " The other day we rescued the crew of a drowning Zep- 
 pelin. We treated these murderers kindly. Two English 
 officers turned out of bed to make room for the captain 
 
 ^ The Horrors of Wittenberg : Oflacial Report of the British 
 Government. 
 
 226 
 
THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS 227 
 
 murderer and his lieutenant. The Zeppelin-men expected 
 to be shot, knowing that they deserved to be shot, and they 
 told the neutral journalists who saw them that they were 
 very well treated. And the Wittenberg people jeered at 
 the coffins of our English dead as they were brought out 
 for burial from the prison camp." ^ 
 
 As to Gardelegen, Major Davy says in his evidence : 
 " The overcrowding was such as I have never before seen 
 or imagined any-where. The hut contained, in the breadth, 
 four rows of straw or shaving palliasses, so arranged that 
 laterally they were touching and terminally only left the 
 narrowest passage-way between. Here men of all nation- 
 alities were crowded together. In these huts, devoid of 
 tables and stools, the men lived, slept, and fed. They sat 
 on their bags of shavings to eat their meals ; they walked 
 over each other in passing in and out ; they lay there sick, 
 and later on, in many cases, died there cheek by jowl with 
 their fellow-prisoners. The atmosphere by day, and still 
 more by night, was indescribably foetid, and this was 
 their sole alternative to going outside in their meagre 
 garments for fresh air." 
 
 Captain Scott- Williams shows how this specially affected 
 the British prisoners : " It was like one large palliasse all 
 round the room. If one man was lying on his back, his 
 neighbour must be on his side." 
 
 " I have no hesitation," says Major Davy, " in saying 
 that the diet the prisoners received was not sufficient to 
 keep an adult in a normal state of nutrition. I wish to 
 be clearly understood : I mean that every man who sub- 
 sisted on what was issued to him was gradually getting 
 emaciated and anaemic, and was constantly a prey to the 
 pangs of hunger." 
 
 " It was no unusual sight," according to the testimony 
 of Captain Brown, to see a crowd of Russians on their hands 
 and knees in the pit in which potato peelings were thrown, 
 struggling to find a stray potato or a piece of rind with a 
 little more potato than usual. This occurred day after 
 day." . . . 
 
 1 Evening News, 10th April, 1916. 
 
228 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 "At the daily roll-call parades," says Major Davy, 
 ' men were driven out of their barrack-rooms with kicks 
 and blows. The German under-officers were the chief 
 offenders. The German officers, of whom one was in com- 
 mand of each company, were mostly elderly men, who 
 seemed quite in the hands of their under-officers. I never 
 once saw one check an under-officer for the most flagrant 
 bullying ! . . ." 
 
 No. 7 Company was the first to be visited by Captain 
 Brown. This is his description of the experience — 
 
 " Snow had fallen, and was still falling heavily, and the 
 cold was intense. On entering the barrack-room the shock 
 I received was too awful for words. The atmosphere was 
 almost too foul. All windows were shut as the only means 
 of warmth. There were about 150 of the most miserable 
 human objects I ever beheld — British, French, and Bel- 
 gians occupied this room, the number of British here being 
 about twenty-six. The men were emaciated, ill-clad, and 
 dirty beyond description, and in most cases were engaged 
 in killing as many lice as possible in their clothes : ' to 
 keep the numbers down as much as possible,' as one man 
 put it. The senior non-commissioned officer in the room 
 was a company sergeant-major of the Royal Scots. Being 
 so appalled with the dirty state of all the men, himself 
 included, I remonstrated with him and asked him why 
 they were so positively filthy, and if they had lost all their 
 interest in life, for so it seemed. His reply was that 
 they had no opportunity of a bath since their arrival. 
 ' How long have you been here ? ' I asked and the reply 
 came ' Ten weeks.' " 
 
 Thus were sown the seeds of the epidemic which soon 
 supervened.^ 
 
 ^ The Typhus Epidemic at Gardelegen. Report by the 
 Government Committee on the Treatment by the Enemy of 
 British Prisoners of War during the Spring and Summer of 
 1915. The reports of the American Minister in Germany show 
 that the treatment of prisoners is much the same in other towns 
 than Wittenberg and Gardelegen, and the tortures to which they 
 are subjected during their conveyance from one place to another 
 have been described by many eyewitnesses. — See Belgian Reports. 
 
THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS 229 
 
 Contrast these stories with the letters which German 
 prisoners write to their friends, such as the following — 
 
 ..." You need have no anxiety about me. I am 
 exceptionally well. I have never been better in my life. 
 Germany might find something better to do than to spread 
 such lies. England treats her prisoners most humanely. 
 I was not nearly so well off when I was a soldier. ... I 
 am working at present, but quite voluntarily. England 
 does not compel her prisoners to work as Germany does. 
 Food is also plentiful, just like at home; all I need is 
 cigarettes. You may send me a few." 
 
 . . ." They do everj^thing possible for us. I have been 
 given so many cigarettes ? We may have as much to eat as 
 we want. Also the medical treatment could not be better." 
 
 . . . ." We should never have dreamed of being received 
 so well. Everything that had been taken away from us 
 before has been given back to us. We were immediately 
 given fried eggs." . . . 
 
 " I am lying in hospital since May 16, suffering from 
 typhus, but I am much better now. The medical treatment 
 and nursing are very good. I hope the wounded and sick 
 over there are as well cared for." ^ , . . 
 
 Reports of visits of inspection made by officials of the 
 United States Embassy (German Division) to internment 
 camps in the United Kingdom all testify to the comfort, and 
 even luxury, which the German prisoners enjoy in this 
 country, including facilities for football, tennis, billiards, 
 theatrical performances, and rooms where they listen to 
 lectures and study foreign languages. The sanitary con- 
 ditions are reported to be perfect, the food excellent. 
 Gardens are allotted to the prisoners where they grow 
 flowers and vegetables. 
 
 ^ We are not authorised to give the names of the writers of 
 these letters, but the reader may rest assured that they are 
 authentic. 
 
280 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 " There is a special winter garden with plants and palm 
 trees and an outdoor compound for the convalescents, and 
 there is also a special library in the hospital for the use of 
 the patients. Everything was inspected and found in 
 excellent condition. . . . 
 
 " There are libraries containing about 2500 books, which 
 are in constant circulation. A new reading-room has 
 lately been opened. . . . 
 
 " The men are now very busy making arrangements for 
 Shakespearean performances to celebrate the Tercentenary 
 of Shakespeare's death, and these are to take place before 
 long. . . . 
 
 " I was informed that the interned men now have 
 freedom to wander about the park and compounds at will 
 during the day." 
 
 (Report covering a visit to the prisoners of 
 war internment camp at Alexandra Palace on 
 the 24th May, 1916.) 
 
 " Besides the usual ' Lowry ' and ' Markel ' committees, 
 there is an Austro-Hungarian committee, which devotes its 
 particular attention to interned Austrians and Hungarians ; 
 a kitchen committee, which arranges everything to do 
 with the mess ; a sports committee, a theatrical committee, 
 a Y.M.C.A. committee, and a camp committee which deals 
 with the internal arrangement and affairs of the camp. 
 All these conunittees are chosen and run by the prisoners 
 themselves." 
 
 (Report covering a visit of inspection to the 
 prisoners of war internment camp at Lofthouse 
 Park, Wakefield, on the 8th June, 1916.) 
 
 " The committees are all controlled by the prisoners 
 themselves. There is a mess and canteen committee, a 
 sports committee, a location committee which arranges 
 in which rooms the officers are quartered, and an amusement 
 committee. ... 
 
 " Two new lawn-tennis courts have been laid out, which 
 give the interned men three courts in all. A new skittle- 
 
THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS 231 
 
 alley has been made, which the servants are allowed to use 
 for two hours each afternoon. The opportunities for 
 exercise, mentioned in the last report, are in constant use. 
 On the exercise ground, hockey and football are played on 
 alternate days. The system of taking walks in the sur- 
 rounding country has been inaugurated, and on every fine 
 day about twenty-five officers go for a walk, lasting from 
 one to two hours, accbmpanied by an officer and an orderly 
 of the guard. On the day of our visit one of us went out 
 with the walking party, and enjoyed a pleasant walk 
 through beautiful country." 
 
 (Report covering a visit of inspection to the 
 prisoners of war internment camp at Doning- 
 ton Hall, Derbyshire, on the 9th June, 1916.) 
 
 " All the rooms were fresh and spotlessly clean. The 
 men had made them bright with flowers, and some of them 
 had singing birds in cages hanging in the windows. On the 
 walls there were pictures and portraits of the German 
 Emperor, German Generals, the King of Saxony, and many 
 photographs. 
 
 " Ships' captains and ships' officers have separate rooms 
 and a separate mess." 
 
 (Report covering a visit of inspection to the 
 prisoners' of war internment camp at Old- 
 castle, county Meath, Ireland, on the 10th 
 June, 1916.) 
 
XIII 
 
 METHODS OF PERSUASION 
 
 By the perpetration of these abominable atrocities, the 
 Germans not only hope to wreak their vengeance on those 
 who have dared to oppose their invading armies, but to 
 give the neutral States to understand that the same fate 
 is reserved for them, should they throw in their lot with 
 the enemies of the Central Powers. At the same time, 
 they are employing all dishonourable means in order to 
 bring these neutral States over to their own cause. 
 
 Since the beginning of the war, and indeed for some 
 time previously to its outbreak, their agents have been at 
 work in every quarter of the globe, disseminating among the 
 inhabitants stories to the discredit of their enemies. No 
 means, however despicable, have been neglected in the 
 pursuit of this object. Pamphlets are distributed among 
 the Mussulmans, alleging that England and her Allies have 
 declared war against Turkey with the sole intention of 
 suppressing the Moslem faith. One of a series of sheets 
 distributed in Persia states that Lord Kitchener, Sir 
 Edward Grey and other Ministers, French, Russian and 
 English, have made it clear in their " diabolical " speeches 
 that they have declared war against Turkey for the express 
 purpose of destroying the Holy Places of Islam, whereas 
 it is well-known to every Moslem who has had any experience 
 of English rule that it is one of its most sacred princi- 
 ples to respect the traditions of Islam, as indeed those of 
 all religions. Moreover, Mr. Asquith most emphatically 
 stated, on behalf of the English people, that, although 
 England is at war with Turkey, she is not and never will 
 be at war with Moslems as such, but will, on the contrary, 
 
 232 
 
METHODS OF PERSUASION 283 
 
 protect their Holy Places against all aggressors. The 
 Germans know that this is so, but, in accordance with their 
 monstrous doctrine that everything is permissible which 
 conduces to the success of their object, they do not hesitate 
 to promulgate such calumnies. Such a thing as chivalry 
 or fair play is unknown to their nature. 
 
 No opportunity of carrying out this campaign has been 
 neglected. The writer has a copy in his possession of an 
 exercise in German given at the beginning of the war to the 
 pupils of a German school in one of the Turkish towns, in 
 which the following words occur — 
 
 " Every German soldier is a man of honour and any 
 one who is incapable of becoming a soldier on account 
 even of some physical defect is despised by the rest of his 
 compatriots. 
 
 " No man of honour enlists in the English army. Every 
 English soldier is a criminal ; either a murderer or a robber, 
 or a pickpocket or a man of low passions." ^ 
 
 Huge simis of money are spent in bribing the proprietors 
 of newspapers and persons of influence to publish telegrams 
 and leading articles, misrepresenting the facts of the war. 
 In one of the Balkan States alone twenty million francs 
 were spent in this way. 
 
 It has been stated that ten million pounds were paid by 
 the German Government for Press propaganda in foreign 
 countries during the first two years of the war, according 
 to an interpellation addressed to the Imperial Chancellor 
 in the Reichstag by the dissenting Socialists. For the 
 same object two million pounds were spent in the United 
 States, one million in Greece, five hundred thousand in 
 Turkey, and five hundred thousand in Bulgaria. It was 
 also found necessary to sacrifice six hundred thousand 
 pounds to Austrian and seven hundred thousand to Hun- 
 garian newspapers. The leading papers of Vienna and 
 Budapest are almost without exception on the pay-list 
 of the German Foreign Office. Approximately two 
 
 ^ Instruction in the details of Germany's might, such as the 
 dimensions of her ships of war, was already imparted before the 
 war, through the medium of dictations and reading exercises. 
 
284 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 hundred thousand pounds have been paid to newspapers 
 in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland. 
 
 According to the estimate of Mr. George Haven Putnam, 
 the head of the American Rights Committee, $27,000,000 
 (£5,400,000) have been spent in America, since the war 
 began, under German authority for propaganda work, 
 destruction of American property, furtherance of strikes, 
 and the piirchase of American papers. This statement was 
 made by Mr. Putnam in answer to a letter from Dr. O, 
 Mezger, the German Consul-General at Cincinnati, who 
 protested against the charges of German brutality in 
 Belgimn, and asserted that " Americans are misled by their 
 newspapers, which have been hired by English money." 
 Mr. Putnam stated further that he had received a great 
 mass of German propaganda material, and added — 
 
 " I have not received a single document from the British, 
 French, or Italian representatives. They are content to 
 permit the justice of their cause to stand for itself. The 
 statements presenting the cause of England and France 
 have come to me from individual correspondents on the 
 other side of the Atlantic." 
 
 In one of their pamphlets, distributed in the East, it is 
 stated that only the scum of the Indian population has 
 responded to England's appeal, whereas, in fact, every 
 ruling Indian chief, within the first fortnight of the war, 
 placed his entire military and financial resources at the 
 disposal of the British Government. 
 
 They have circulated pamphlets throughout the whole 
 extent of China announcing that England, France and 
 Russia have accepted a humiliating peace and have 
 practically acknowledged Germany's suzerainty over their 
 dominions. 
 
 The following, according to the Gaulois,^ is the text 
 of a letter addressed to the Sheikh of the Senoussi in 
 Arabic, and found, together with a hundred thousand marks 
 in gold, on board a sailing-boat seized outside Tripoli by 
 a French torpedo-boat : " The Emperor William, son of 
 Charlemagne, the Envoy of Allah, Protector of Islam, to 
 ^ August, 1915. 
 
METHODS OF PERSUASION 285 
 
 the most illustrious Chief of the Senoussi. We pray God 
 to lead your armies to victory. Our will is, that your 
 valiant warriors expel the infidels from the territory which 
 belongs to the believers and to their Cormnander, We 
 send you for this purpose, arms, money and some experi- 
 enced leaders. Our common enemies (whom may Allah 
 exterminate to the last man) will fly in confusion from 
 before you. So be it." 
 
 The French Press affirms that German agents have 
 attempted to demoralise French officers and soldiers at 
 the front by sending them anonymous letters accusing 
 their wives and sisters of infidelity, and their partners in 
 business of embezzlement.^ 
 
 " The Germans employ their aeroplanes for carrying on 
 their propaganda as well as for throwing bombs," observes 
 M. Charles Ghenu in the Gaulois. He describes some of 
 the pamphlets and newspapers which have been dropped 
 over the French lines. One of the former in his possession 
 contains the following words : " French Soldiers ! The 
 Germans are making war on the French Government only, 
 which is sacrificing you and your country to the egotism 
 of the English. You have to pull the chestnuts out of the 
 fire for the English." Foremost among their propaganda 
 newspapers is the Gazette des Ardennes, which is printed in 
 bad French at Charleville, and circulated as widely as 
 possible in the districts occupied by the German troops. 
 Its contents are a model of hypocrisy and deceit. The 
 writers affect great sympathy for the French and their 
 sufferings, as well as admiration for their bravery. Lists 
 of French prisoners are given therein — " adversaries who 
 have done their duty," and are treated as such in Germany. 
 Pages of the names of the seriously wounded — ^the blind, 
 the paralysed, and the permanently maimed — are pub- 
 lished out of consideration for their families, who, as it is 
 stated, " are not informed of their fate by the French 
 Republic, because it does not wish them to return to their 
 people and inform them of the kind treatment that they 
 receive at the hands of the Germans, and so counteract its 
 ^ See the Matin, September 25, 1915. 
 
286 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 sinister object, which is to nourish a blind hatred against 
 the German nation." ^ . . . 
 
 The following is the text of an appedil by the Austrian mili- 
 tary authorities to Italian troops to surrender, numerous 
 copies of which were distributed by means of aeroplanes — 
 
 " Soldiers of Italy, you are being wickedly drawn into 
 a war of conquest and rapine. To fire treacherously upon 
 your allies of yesterday is an immoral and a cowardly act, 
 unprecedented in history, an act which calls for vengeance. 
 Divine Providence will punish all those who commit such 
 infamy. Every one of you, in the presence of God and of 
 death, should condemn this monstrous crime which it is 
 desired to perpetrate at the cost of your blood. Think of 
 the terrible fatigue, and the constant danger to which a 
 blinded Government is about to expose you ! Think what 
 irreparable misery will be brought upon your unhappy 
 families by the loss of their support ! Why expose your- 
 selves to such a calamity, when there is a possibility of 
 avoiding it? Take advantage of every opportunity to 
 surrender whenever there is a favourable moment. Refuse 
 obedience, and follow in a body the example of so many 
 of your comrades, who have come to us of their own accord, 
 and will never have cause to complain. You will receive 
 a reward for all arms and other war material which you 
 hand over to us — ^for every rifle complete 10 crowns, for 
 every mitrailleuse complete 500 crowns, for every cannon 
 complete 2000 crowns, for every aeroplane 2000 crowns, 
 for every horse 150 crowns. In Austria the prisoners of 
 war are very well treated. They are kept in groups in 
 villages; they enjoy full liberty, receive substantial 
 repasts as well as a money allowance, and are secure 
 against all danger. Do not hesitate then. Come in a 
 body. You will be welcome. Give this note as much 
 publicity as possible. Encourage your friends." 
 
 It is impossible in a short space to give the reader any 
 conception of the energy, cunning and unscrupulousness 
 with which the pro-German campaign is carried on in 
 neutral countries. Men and women of all ranks and 
 conditions from diplomatic representatives to domestic 
 
 ^ Gaulois, December 28, 191S. 
 
METHODS OF PERSUASION 237 
 
 servants and persons of infamous character, play their 
 part in it. It has required whole volumes of hundreds 
 of pages to describe the details of its organisation in the 
 United States of America alone.^ 
 
 The system of pro-German propagandism established 
 there by Coimt Dernburg and others was already very 
 complete before the war began, but new agents appeared 
 directly it broke out. " Each arriving Dutch, Scandi- 
 navian and Italian steamer," writes Mr. Wile, " brought 
 new ones, women as well as men. They were mostly of 
 the intellectual type and came armed with entreating 
 letters of introduction from German savants to their 
 American colleagues, upon whose affections Germany and 
 the Kaiser had so long been working. To a couple of 
 American exchange professors William II sent autograph 
 letters of gratitude for zeal in his cause. By Christmas 
 time it was estimated that not less than one hundred 
 German speakers were ' spell-binding ' (speechifying) in 
 the United States. . . . Meanwhile the United States 
 mails were freighted with tons of German literature, such 
 as that with which the country is familiar during presi- 
 dential elections. Experienced Americans — ^men who 
 know the dollars and cents of such crusades — estimated 
 that the campaign was costing Germany £50,000 a week." 
 
 But the mission of the German agents has not been 
 limited to speechifying or even to intimidation. Not a 
 few have been arrested on the charge of attempting to 
 place explosive bombs on board American ships carrying 
 munitions to England, and to blow up munition facto- 
 ries in America,* without the remotest concern for the 
 
 1 The reader is referred to such works as V Action Allemande 
 aucc ttais XJnis, by Gabriel Alphaud (Paris, 1915); German 
 Conspiracies in America, by William H. Skaggs (1915); The 
 German-American Plot, by Frederick William Wile (1915). 
 
 * Explosions and fires in munition factories, which caused 
 heavy loss of life among American subjects, have taken place 
 " at Wilmington (September 1, 1915); in the Bethlehem, 
 Baldwin, and Roebling Works (November, 1915) ; in the Dupont 
 Works (December 1) when thirty-one men were killed; while 
 Hopewell, where lived the men employed in one of the Dupon 
 Powder Works, was set on fire and destroyed on December 9." 
 — The National Review, January, 1917. 
 
238 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 wholesale slaughter of innocent citizens which would ensue. 
 The documents recently seized on Captain von Papen, 
 the German Military Attache at Washington, and published 
 in facsimile in a White Book (Miscellaneous, No. 6, 1916), 
 show that this person was employing paid agents to com- 
 mit such crimes as these. 
 
 These documents contain evidence, also, that the 
 German and Austrian Embassies in America paid for 
 attacks on Canadian territory ; thus, the cheque paid for 
 the destruction of an important bridge on the Canadian 
 Pacific Railway by a German agent named Horn, on 
 February 2, 1915, was seized with Captain von Papen's 
 luggage by the British Government.^ 
 
 Such, in brief, are the methods our enemies employ in 
 order to attain their object, and these methods, however 
 immoral, are permissible — ^the State being in German eyes, 
 as we have seen, " above morality." Incapable, in spite 
 of the colossal preparations they have made for years past 
 with a view to Germanising the world, of fighting all the 
 nations at once, they are anxious at the present moment 
 not to multiply their enemies ; but, on the contrary, to win 
 over, by all means and at all costs, as many of them as 
 they can to their cause. We know that they wanted 
 England to stand by and wait until France and Russia 
 were crushed, and that they are more embittered against 
 us than any of their other adversaries because we were 
 too wise to adopt this course. Nothing is clearer than that 
 Germany, if she succeeds in humbling her present adver- 
 saries, will speedily establish her dominion over the remain- 
 ing nations of the globe, including her own allies. If 
 any one fails to see this, it is because he wilfully closes his 
 eyes. German politicians, professors, military experts, 
 theologians and editors of newspapers have, as we have 
 seen, been crying " Deutschland iiber AUes " from the 
 house-tops every day for years past. 
 
 ^ Von Papen has also subsidised attempts to start revolutions 
 in India, according to the confession of a Hindu student, to 
 whom the sum of £8000 to £10,000 was supplied for that purpose. 
 
XIV 
 
 THE WORLD UNDER GERMAN RULE; THE FATE 
 OF ISLAM 
 
 And when they have conquered the world, how will they 
 use their victory? What will happen is too appalling 
 to contemplate. Having stopped at nothing during the 
 war, will they stop at anything when it is over? All 
 nations are to be moulded after themselves — Deutschtum, 
 German thought, German methods and German manners 
 pervading everywhere. And in Germany, as Fernau, him- 
 self a German, says : " Individual opinions no longer exist, 
 but only opinions that have found official sanction. Journ- 
 alists and newspapers standing to attention ! Field-grey 
 sentiments and field-grey science ! Iron words and iron 
 money ! The whole nation one mass of bronze, in which 
 no golden streak of individual character is allowed to 
 glimmer." ^ We may expect no more liberty than that 
 which the eminent theologian Professor Lezius suggested 
 should be accorded to the races already subject to Germany. 
 " The Polish Press," he wrote, "should be simply annihil- 
 ated. All Polish societies should be suppressed, without 
 the slightest apology being made for such a measure. 
 This summary procedure should be likewise applied to 
 the French and Danish Press, as well as to the societies 
 of Alsace-Lorraine and Schleswig-Holstein. Especially 
 should no consideration whatever be shown to any- 
 thing relating to the Poles. The Constitution should be 
 altered with regard to the latter. The Poles should be 
 looked upon as helots. They should be allowed but three 
 
 ^ Gerade weil ich Deutscher bin (English Translation, Because 
 I am a German), p. 25. 
 
 239 
 
240 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 privileges : to pay taxes, serve in the army, and shut 
 their jaws." ^ 
 
 There will be but one law, that of the Kaiser of Germany,^ 
 who has said : " Only one is master of this country. That 
 is I. Who opposes me I shall crush to pieces." Blind 
 obedience will be owed to a State which is " above morality," 
 which subordinates right to might, which will control the 
 education of our children and instruct them one and all 
 in the abominable gospel of dirt which, in Lord Rosebery's 
 words, has " already caused this nation to stink in the nos- 
 trils of mankind." 
 
 The world, in fact, will be absorbed in the German State. 
 " After the war victorious Germany will compel the States 
 defeated in the war to enter its confederation; the same 
 will be done to the others, the neutrals, and if they do not 
 consent, Germany will be ahle to Jorce them. Germany 
 alone will remain armed; the other armies will no longer 
 have a reason for resistance. Germany will suffice for 
 the protection of Deutschtum; she will be the centre of 
 gravity of the world from the military point of view, and 
 also from the point of view of scientific and intellectual 
 culture." ^ 
 
 Personal liberty will be a thing of the past. "The 
 word liberty," writes the Kolnische Zeitung, " dominates the 
 political life of the western countries, whilst their society 
 is animated by a spirit of unscrupulous individualism.* 
 
 ^ Quoted from the Vorwdrts by Emil Reich {Germany's 
 Swelled Head), p. 43. 
 
 * " Germany has over all other States," writes Professor 
 Ostwald, . " the superiority of being an organising State ; the 
 secret of her power is her organising genius, and the war ought 
 to enable her, through the reduction of Europe to obedience, to 
 organise it into a vast confederation at whose head would stand 
 the Emperor of (Germany." — Quoted in The War and the 
 German Propaganda, p. 7. 
 
 3 Ibid. 
 
 * " According to Treitschke the individual exists only to 
 promote the welfare of the State ; in return the latter protects 
 him in warfare." — Professor F. A. Smith, Ph.D., in The Soul of 
 Germany, p. 169. 
 
 " Individuahsm, so far as it represents the protection of 
 
THE WORLD UNDER GERMAN RULE 241 
 
 Neither for the one nor for the other is there any room in 
 the Germany which has been built up by the Hohenzollerns ; 
 that is the reason why Western Europe instinctively fears 
 the imposition of German influence on Europe. It is true 
 that the German has not got the same standards of political 
 liberty as prevails in those countries. Historical experi- 
 ences have caused him to doubt, and he asks himself 
 whether liberty is really desirable for him and whether it 
 is possible." ^ 
 
 Civilians will be of no account. Militarism will be ram- 
 pant in its worst form. " The lack of good faith on the 
 part of our neighbours, and our open frontiers, will for ever 
 compel us to remain a great military State. Neither 
 Belgium, nor England, nor democratic France is a military 
 State : hence the gulf which separates our ideals and our 
 culture from theirs, and that gulf truly appears unbridgeable. 
 We cannot afford the luxury of the catchword liberty." ^ 
 
 There will be no place for the weak.' Democracy will be 
 at an end. 
 
 " Germany, the last and perfect example of organised 
 militarism and brute force — ^the foundation stone of whose 
 system is the monstrous electoral law which enables the 
 military caste and minority to rule Prussia, and Prussia 
 to dominate all Germany and make it one vast aggressive 
 machine to be used at the will and word of the autocratic 
 power ! Germany, whose Parliament is regarded con- 
 temptuously as a useful screen behind which the Power 
 works its will. Germany, whose whole record does not 
 include one example of a prosperous, contented, or self- 
 governing province or colony. Germany, whose people 
 
 personal rights against any infringement of them by the group, 
 is, in the eyes of the Germans, nothing less than anarchy and 
 insanity. It is only as members of a group formed of many 
 individuals that the weak can hope to obtain justice for them- 
 selves." — UAllemagne el le Droit des Gens, p. 45. 
 
 1 Kolnische Zeitumg, September 1, 1914; quoted in The War 
 and the German Propaganda, p. 8. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
 * " The weak and defective shall go to the wall." — Nietzsche. 
 This is an almost universal dictum of the great " Intellectuals." 
 
242 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 have been born and reared in the creed that, without one 
 word of warning as to the origin, justice, or object of a 
 quarrel, they may be hurled into murderous war to stake 
 and lose all at the nod of an autocrat's head! Surely, 
 one huge engine of Aggression ! " ^ 
 
 " Read Tannenberg's book and then ask yourself," as 
 M. Millioud says in the preface to his translation of Gross- 
 Deutschland, " whether the fate of civilisation, that is to 
 say, of liberty, right, democracy and the sovereignty of 
 the people, is or is not at stake at the present moment." 
 
 " In particular this is a war for the people. They have 
 seen it. They perceive that the very existence of demo- 
 cracy as it has flourished in this little country is threatened 
 with a death-wound. If we could imagine the war-lords 
 flushed with so stupendous a triumph as a prostrate Europe 
 at their feet, no one could fail to see the essential elements 
 of honourable, happy, self-respecting life would be at an 
 end." 2 
 
 Machiavelli will be reinstated and practised in every 
 function of our lives ' ; sympathy, pity * and all the gentler 
 traits of hmnan nature discouraged and perhaps stamped 
 out to make room for hatred, envy, selfishness and brutal- 
 ity ; eternal war ^ in place of " peace and goodwill towards 
 all men." Truthfulness and loyalty — ^to anything but 
 the State-machine — will be looked upon as vices, distrust 
 and cunning as virtues. For if a State may break its 
 treaties or a statesman tamper with a public document,* 
 
 ^ Sir Percy Fitzpatrick in Germany's Designs on South Africa, 
 pp. 121-2. 
 
 ^ Sir William Robertson NicoU, in an appeal to Nonconform- 
 ists, The Great War Book (Hodder & Stoughton), p. 66. 
 
 * " It will always be to the glory of Machiavelli . . . that 
 he has freed the State and its morality from the precepts 
 inculcated by the Church." — Treitschke, Politik. 
 
 * " Pity is opposed to the invigorating passions which en- 
 hance the energy and feeling of life. Its action is depressing. 
 . . . Pity thwarts the law of development." — Ibid. 
 
 * " We must accept war, which will last as long as develop- 
 ment and existence; we must accept eternal war." — Klaus 
 Wagner, Krieg, p. 257. 
 
 ^ Bismarck related with pride in the Neue Freie Presse, 1892, 
 
THE WORLD UNDER GERMAN RULE 248 
 
 why may not an individual break his contract or forge 
 a cheque? A system of espionage will be established 
 throughout the world like that which already exists in 
 Germany : and if every individual must merge his person- 
 ality in the German State, if not only our acts but our 
 thoughts are to be guided by principles laid down by that 
 State, will not religious freedom become a thing of the 
 past ? Will our children be merely flogged, as in German 
 Poland, if they refuse to say their prayers in German, or 
 will they be forbidden to say them at all except in con- 
 formity with some creed to be determined by the State ? 
 Christianity finds no place in the teaching of Treitschke 
 and his followers; and has not the philosopher Haeckel 
 declared, with great wit no doubt in his own estimation, 
 that the country, having no further use for God, has now 
 conducted Him across the frontier ? It is true that under 
 the Kaiser's auspices, as it appears, a kind of tribal god or 
 God of Atrocities, of the nature of the deity who presided 
 at the covmcils of the Thugs of India, has been set up since 
 the war began under the name of the good old German god ; 
 but he certainly possesses none of the attributes of the God 
 who is worshipped by any of the great nations of the earth. 
 " In a word the Kaiser's religion is a German religion, his 
 God is a German god; his Church is a German church. 
 His Deity is a Lord of Hosts and a God of Battles — a con- 
 ception taken almost literally out of the pages of the Old 
 Testament, more or less amalgamated with the idealism of 
 the Norse mythology. In the Emperor's mind the Israel- 
 itish idea of Javeh is quite indistinguishable from the 
 Scandinavian idea of Thor " ^ — Thor, the son of Odin or 
 Wotan, the God of Thunder, the Hammer-God, the incarna- 
 tion of violence and champion of might as opposed to right. 
 The Germans, as worthy representatives of his race, must 
 hack their way through to the conquest of the world. 
 
 how he had falsified the famous Ems telegram and so rendered 
 war with France in 1870 inevitable. " Blessed be the hand 
 which forged the Ems telegram," wrote Professor Hans Del- 
 brtick. — Paroles Allemandes, p. 56. 
 ' Germany's War Mania, p. 95. 
 
244 THE GiREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 The following legend is adopted by Tannenberg as an 
 introduction to his Gross-Deutschland : — 
 
 " Thor stood at the northern end of the world. He 
 threw the battle-axe — ^the heavy battle-axe : ' As far as, 
 whistling through the air, the hammer falls, both land and 
 seas are mine.' And the hammer flew from his hand, 
 flew over the whole of the earth and fell down at the most 
 distant edge of the south, so that all was his. Since when 
 it is the joyous privilege of the German to conquer land 
 with the hammer. We are of the race of the Hammer-God 
 and we will possess his world-empire." ^ The favourite 
 myths of German paganism are stories of violence. 
 
 " One of the books encouraging the aspirations of young 
 Germans for world dominion is the Jugendgeleitbtich, 
 Gedenke doss du ein Deutscher bist. On the cover is an 
 illustration of Walhalla, the abode of the Norse deities of 
 old, of whom the chief was Thor, the war-god. The book 
 is advertised as ' The Song of Songs of the German civilising 
 power, a fitting gift to send to young men and to girls, a 
 guide for officers, professors and educators of the people, 
 indispensable to all those who live abroad.' " ^ 
 
 As far as Germany is concerned, it cannot be said that 
 Christianity has ever completely disenthroned the gods of 
 Walhalla.* Traces of their worship have existed even in 
 
 ^ " Thor stand am Mitternachtsende der Welt> 
 
 Die Streitaxt warf er, die schwere : 
 
 ' Soweit der sausende Hammer fallt, 
 
 Sind mein das Land und die Meere I ' 
 
 Und es flog der Hammer aus seiner Hand, 
 
 Flog iiber die ganze Erde, 
 
 Fiel nieder am fernsten siideos Rand, 
 
 Dass alles sein eigen werde. 
 
 Seitdem ist es freudig Germanenrecht 
 
 Mit dem Hammer Land zu erwerben. 
 
 Wir sind des Hammergottes Geschlecht, 
 
 Und woUen sein Weltreich erobern." 
 (The author of these lines is the poet Felix Dahn). 
 
 * L'Allemagne et le Droit des Gens, p. 84. 
 
 * " Odinism " existed in Germany before it appeared in 
 Scandinavia. 
 
THE WORLD UNDER GERMAN RULE 245 
 
 modem times, and where they are no longer worshipped 
 by name their attributes are still the guiding principles of 
 the nation. Quite recently attempts were made in various 
 parts of Germany to reinstate the gods themselves in all 
 their glory. A mystic society was formed at Munich under 
 the name of the Odin Verein, the object of which was to 
 restore not only the Pagan methods of reasoning, but the 
 actual worship of the gods of Walhalla. The most popular 
 form of its propaganda consisted in a portrait of the 
 Kaiser with the attributes of Thor.^ A poem entitled 
 " The German God," which has become extremely popular 
 in Germany, is believed to have been issued by this society. 
 " The enemies of Germany," it runs, " ask disdainfully : 
 ' You, Germans, you call upon God and beseech Him to 
 aid you in the fight. You have then a god of your own, 
 whom we know not, who is on your side ? ' ' Yes,' cries 
 Germany with one voice, ' and if you do not know him we 
 will name him to you. The god who speaks through our 
 cannons, the god who throws down your fortresses . . . the 
 god of our swords who fills you with terror, he is the same 
 all-powerful spirit who, for centuries has hovered over 
 Germany . . . Wotan, the old wanderer among the clouds, 
 the Wotan of our fathers, it is he and no other. . . . The 
 god to whom we pray to-day, who feeds us with celestial 
 fire, the holy spirit of Germany, it is he whom we must 
 acknowledge.' "... 
 
 On the occasion of the christening of the German iron- 
 clad, the Heimdall, in 1892, the Emperor addressed the 
 ship as follows : " O Ship, I christen thee Heimdall. Thou 
 
 ^ The same Kaiser is represented over the porch of the 
 Cathedral at Metz as the prophet Daniel, on the Mount of Olives 
 as Godfrey de Bouillon, and is said to have received at Constanti- 
 nople the appellation of Hadji Mohammed Gily6m, as having 
 embraced the Mussulman religion. When the German army 
 entered the Polish town of Czenstochowa the picture of the 
 Virgin and Child was replaced in the Church by a portrait of 
 the Kaiser. " Lights were placed before it, and the wretched 
 people were daily driven in by the brutal German soldiers to 
 kneel before the man whom they regard as the Devil incarnate." 
 — The Slavs of the War Zone, by the Right Hon. W. F. Bailey, 
 pp. 40-1. 
 
246 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 shalt take thy name from the prehistoric times of our 
 ancestors in the north. Thou shalt bear the name of a 
 God whose mission it was to defend the golden gates of 
 Walhalla. In the same way as that hero, in the hour of 
 danger, blew his golden horn in the Twilight of the Gods, 
 so, as I hope, O Ship ! who wilt bear the great name of 
 Heimdall, the sound of thy passing on the sea will sow 
 trouble and dismay in the ranks of thy enemies." ^ 
 
 The Temps ^ publishes the " confessions " of a German 
 deserter, an officer in the Reserve, the son of a German 
 engineer and a Polish lady, from which we quote the fol- 
 lowing : — 
 
 " I had to make my studies in Bavaria. , . . The people 
 there are still primitive. Two thousand years have passed 
 without changing them in any way beneath the surface. 
 Catholicism which they profess is idolatry pure and simple. 
 . . . My comrades prided themselves on materialism of 
 the grossest kind, they publicly avowed their absolute 
 contempt for the Catholic doctrine and recognised no reli- 
 gion except that of the German fatherland and the old 
 German gods. . . . For the country-people, to-day as 
 ever, the forces of nature remain personified in half a 
 dozen fantastic beings whose names they have forgotten, but 
 of whom they give an exact description, and who are no 
 other than the gods of Walhalla. . . . There is no reason, 
 therefore, to be astonished that on grornid so well prepared, 
 after a century during which a multitude of historians have 
 devoted themselves, with extraordinary zeal, to bringing 
 about a revival of the traditions, the habits and the laws of 
 primitive Germany, the old beliefs should have been re- 
 established. ... I did not then look upon these things as 
 I see them to-day. With the simplicity of the Slav idealist 
 — ^for I consider myself in reality more Slav than German — 
 I looked upon this exhibition of German faith as an eccen- 
 tricity of young men, a peculiar form of snobbishness, and 
 I was only undeceived on the day when I entered Belgium 
 
 ^ See Le Vieux Dieu Allemand, pp. 68, 69, 70. 
 a July 18, 1915. 
 
THE WORLD UNDER GERMAN RULE 247 
 
 with our German troops and heard my chiefs extol as Ger- 
 man virtues the most revolting brutality and shameful 
 cruelty." ^ 
 
 The following story ^ was told by a lieutenant of the 
 German Reserve forces, formerly a professor in one of the 
 towns of Thiiringia, now a prisoner in France : — 
 
 " During the summer months, which immediately pre- 
 ceded the hostilities, men were seen to emerge from the 
 woods, who assumed the appearance of prophets. On 
 clear moonhght nights they preached, in the glades, a 
 curious form of religion. The old pagan myths were 
 intermingled with precepts of the Bible. The prophet 
 foretold evil times, a severe trial for Germany and terrible 
 calamities. The German people could only save themselves 
 by reverting to the most ancient rites, by accepting every 
 sacrifice, and even offering up human victims to the gods. 
 We must not fear to devote ourselves to the gods of the 
 lower regions. We must offer blood, as did om* ancestors 
 to the unappeased divinities; the blood of women and 
 children has ever been acceptable to them since the days 
 of remote antiquity." 
 
 The officer in question added that these addresses were 
 renewed frequently and that the German masses went into 
 the war intoxicated by such teaching. The atrocities 
 which he had witnessed in Belgium had, in his opinion, no 
 other origin. 
 
 "The bloodthirsty gods of Walhalla," says M. Brenier, 
 "whose tombstone it had seemed that the rude hand of 
 Charlemagne had closed for ever, have, after ten cen- 
 turies, risen again in all their vitality and their old lust 
 for carnage. It is in their honour that so much innocent 
 blood has been shed, that children's hands have been 
 severed from their arms, that so many towns have been re- 
 duced to a quarter of their population by fire and massacre. 
 
 1 Le Vieux Dieu Allemand, pp. 71, 72. 
 
 * The story was published in the Echo de Paris, June 8, 1915, 
 and is quoted by M. Brenier. 
 
248 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 Thor has assuaged his hate for the Gothic Cathedrals,^ 
 Odin has gorged himself with human sacrifices. . . . 
 
 " It appeared to us to be of primary interest to throw on 
 this important question as complete a light as is possible 
 in the present state of our knowledge. There are several 
 advantages in so doing : First, there is the interest of 
 historical science; secondly, there is the proof that our 
 soldiers are defending at the present moment, though uncon- 
 sciously, the cause of Christianity itself, now threatened by 
 the most appalling danger to which it has been exposed for 
 centuries; lastly, the more complete knowledge of the 
 German spirit with which no peace will ever be more than 
 a truce until the civilising work of Charlemagne has been 
 revived along the Rhine by means powerful enough to 
 triumph over all resistance. . . . 
 
 " It was a duty to define the true character of German 
 Kultur and point out the obligation under which Christi- 
 anity and France are placed to annihilate it if they would 
 themselves subsist." ^ 
 
 As to the fate of Islam under German rule, let the fol- 
 lowers of that religion study the official document lately 
 seized by the Boer Commander, General Smuts, at the 
 town of Moshee in East Africa after he had captured it from 
 the Germans, and compare it with the Kaiser's assertion that 
 
 ^ It is interesting, in this connection, to recall the prophetic 
 words of Heine written seventy-eight years ago : — 
 
 " Christianity — and this is its highest merit — has, in some 
 degree, softened, but it could not destroy, that brutal German 
 joy of battle. When once the taming talisman, the Cross, breaks 
 in two, the savagery of the old fighters, the senseless Berserker 
 fury, of which the Northern poets sing and say so much, will 
 gush up anew. That talisman is decayed, and the day will 
 come when it will piteously collapse. Then the old stone gods 
 will rise from the silent ruins, and rub the dust of a thousand 
 years from their eyes. Thor, with his giant's hammer, will at 
 last spring up, and shatter to bits the Gothic cathedrals ! " — 
 Quoted in A Textbook of the War for Americans, p. 316. 
 
 ^ Le Vieux Dieu Allemand, pp. 75, 76. 
 
THE WORLD UNDER GERMAN RULE 249 
 
 he is the protector of all the Mussulmans. It is as follows — 
 
 " Daressaldm, October 13, 1918. 
 
 " Official Circular 
 
 to all the District and Military Stations and to the 
 Residency of Urundi, 
 
 " I have the honour to request the Administrative 
 Authorities to report to me, within three months, as to the 
 means by which it appears to them to be possible to check 
 effectively the Islamic propaganda carried on by Government 
 officials, and in particular by the teachers in the Government 
 schools. Does it appear to be practicable to issue an Order 
 altogether forbidding the above-mentioned persons to carry 
 on any Islamic propaganda ? It might be possible also to 
 consider the question of passing a regulation forbidding 
 the teachers to exceed their official functions by performing 
 circumcision or the duties of reciter of prayers in the mosque. 
 Further we may examine the question whether such an 
 Order may not be issued with respect to the other coloured 
 Government officials. As a practical means of preventing 
 the extension of Islam, experts further recommend that 
 the natives should be encouraged to occupy themselves 
 with the breeding of swine. 
 
 " I beg that you will also take this proposal into con- 
 sideration. 
 
 " The Imperial Governor, 
 (Signed) " Schnee. 
 
 " A true copy, 
 
 " The Central Bureau." ^ 
 
 1 " RUNDERLASS 
 
 an alle Bezirksamter und Militarstationen sowie die Residentur 
 
 Urundi. 
 
 " Die Dienststellen ersuche ich ergebenst um Bericht inner- 
 halb 8 Monaten, welche Mittel dort moglich erscheinen, um der 
 islamitischen Propaganda durch Regierungsangestellte und 
 insbesondere Lehrer der Regierungschulen wirksam entgegen 
 zu wirken. Erscheint eine Bestimmung durchfuhrbar, durch die 
 den genannten Personen die islamitische Propaganda ganz unter- 
 sagt wird? Eventuell kame auch eine Vorschrift in Betracht, 
 
250 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 Let them also compare the wording of this document 
 with Mr. Asquith's speech referred to below,^ and let them 
 say candidly if the statements there made are not in har- 
 mony with what they have always experienced ; and whether 
 they have had cause to complain, or heard any of their 
 co-religionists complain, that England has ever placed any 
 impediment in the way of the free exercise of the Mussulman 
 creed or of the creed of any people living within her domin- 
 ions. At the beginning of the war a Mussulman native of 
 India, residing in Turkey, told the writer that he was asked 
 by a Turk how it was that 80,000 Albanians were able to 
 revolt against their Turkish rulers, while 80,000,000 Mussul- 
 mans in India were content to remain under British rule, 
 and that he had replied that the Mussulmans in India had 
 no desire to throw off their allegiance to a Power which 
 showed such great respect as England does for the Mussul- 
 man creed. He told him, amongst other things, that more 
 care is taken in India than in Turkey itself to ensure that 
 no noise outside the mosques shall disturb the devotions of 
 those within. 
 
 Neither the untiring efforts of German agents to create 
 disturbance in India nor even the adhesion of the Turkish 
 rulers to the German cause has made any impression on the 
 inhabitants of that country. " As a true Mohammedan," 
 wrote the Nizam of Hyderabad to the Viceroy, " who 
 has the welfare of his community at heart, and who takes 
 a just pride in the glorious traditions of the Mohammedan 
 
 durch die es den Lehrern verboten wird, nebenamtlich die Be- 
 schneidung, das Amt des Vorbeters in der Moschee u.s.w. aus- 
 zuiiben. Es wird auch zu priifen sein, ob ein seiches Verbot 
 fiir sonstige farbige Regierungsangestellte durchfiihrbar sein 
 wurde. Als wirksames Mittel gegen die Verbreitung des Islam 
 wird von Sachkennern ferner die Forderung der Schweinezucht 
 durch die Eingeborenen empfohlen. 
 
 " Auch zu diesem Vorschlag bitte ich Stellung zu nehmen. 
 " Der Kaiserliche Gouverneur, 
 
 (gez) " SCHNEE. 
 
 " Fur rechtige Abschrift, 
 " Zentral Bureau." 
 1 p. 232. 
 
THE WORLD UNDER GERMAN RULE 251 
 
 people, I view with profound grief the unwise, short- 
 sighted, and futile course adopted by Turkey in joining 
 Germany as an ally. The British Government has spared 
 no efforts to avoid war with Turkey." 
 
 In a speech delivered on October 1, 1914, Agha Khan, 
 the spiritual head of an important community of Mohamme- 
 dans and President of the All-India Moslem League, said 
 he had always been convinced that Germany was the most 
 dangerous enemy of Turkey and other Moslem countries, 
 for she was the Power most anxious to enter by " peaceful 
 penetration " Asia Minor and Southern Persia. But she 
 had been posing for years past as a sort of Protector of 
 Islam — ^though heaven forbid that they should ever have 
 such an immoral protector. " We wish for peace under the 
 King," writes the Emir of Bornu to the English Governor of 
 the province, " and not under the Germans. . . . We are 
 Mussulmans and not pagans, for we are free to worship in 
 our own way and our religion is not interfered with. And 
 so we pray God to prosper the King and to give him long 
 life." The Emir of Kontagora writes : " We are con- 
 tinually praying God that He will give you the victory, 
 and that He will destroy the Germans because we know well 
 that they are an evil people of evil customs. Therefore 
 may God not help them at all, because theirs is the custom 
 to spoil the land." 
 
 The Grand Shereef of Mecca published, in November of 
 last year, a second manifesto in vindication of his action 
 against the Unionist ^ Government of Turkey, from a literal 
 translation of which, published in The Near East,^ the 
 following are extracts : — 
 
 .... " It is well known that all wise Moslems and intelli- 
 gent persons in the Ottoman Empire, and indeed, in the 
 rest of the world, do not approve of the entry of the Otto- 
 man Government in the present war, and this for essential 
 reasons, of which the chief is that the Ottoman Govern- 
 ment had only just come out of the Italian and Balkan 
 
 ^ I.e. the Government formed by the so-called " Union and 
 Progress " or " Young Turkey " party. 
 ^ In its issue of November 17, 1916. 
 
252 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 wars. . . . But there are also other reasons of an external 
 order which have reference to the group of belligerents 
 with which it sided. The Ottoman Empire is a Moslem 
 Empire of vast limits and an extensive coastline, and the 
 traditional policy which the Sultans of the great house of 
 Othman pursued has therefore always been based on the 
 maintenance and improvement of friendly relations with 
 those Powers in whose colonial empires the largest portion 
 of the Moslems of the world live, and who hold the supre- 
 macy of the seas. When, therefore, the Unionist Govern- 
 ment entered this war against these Powers, siding with 
 the other group, whose inordinate ambitions of expansion 
 are determined by over-population in their own countries, 
 all far-seeing Moslems could easily realise the evil conse- 
 quences that were bound to follow. I was one of those, 
 when I was asked by telegram about my opinion on this 
 war, and I replied, giving the advice that I could only in 
 all conscience give. This, indeed, is one of the proofs of 
 my sincere and loyal friendship to the Ottoman Govern- 
 ment, and of my solicitude for its welfare and for the 
 protection of the stronghold of Islam. . . . Whoever con- 
 templates this state of things and watches the progress of 
 this war cannot but see clearly the final result. We had 
 either to give ourselves up to this threatening danger until 
 we disappeared from the map of the world, or seek some 
 means of escape. We leave it to the world at large to 
 examine this question and reply thereto, and we have not 
 the least doubt but that they will justify our rising, which 
 came just in time, before ruin overtook by surprise the 
 remnant of this empire. Ay, we have no misgiving what- 
 ever about the legitimacy of our movement, which, indeed, 
 was incumbent on us as a duty. Did we at all believe that 
 our continued attachment to this Government — ^which 
 has become a toy in the hands of a few dictators — ^would 
 be of any use to it and save its possessions, we should have 
 refrained from the steps we have taken and would have 
 possessed our souls in patience and borne our share of the 
 sacrifice. But how was this possible when it became evi- 
 dent that, if we were to allow ourselves to be led in the 
 
THE WORLD UNDER GERMAN RULE 253 
 
 path they were treading, we should have both been hurled 
 into the abyss of destruction, as was the ease with the other 
 vilayets ? 
 
 " To illustrate the character of the Unionist leaders, and 
 judge the measure of their loyalty and good faith, it suffices 
 to mention that soon after the payment of the loan with 
 which France helped them at the moment of their dire need 
 they went over to the side of her enemies and declared war 
 on her. But this is not the only test of their moral worth ; 
 the fact has been cited because of its being so notorious and 
 of recent date. One has but to recall the acts of cruelty 
 and injustice to which the people, Christians and Moslems 
 alike, are subjected, and especially the inhuman treatment 
 which those holding the power have meted out during 
 this war to the Greeks and Armenians, contrary to the 
 dictates of our holy Sheriat. They were, indeed, not long 
 in following the same barbarous course against the Arabs 
 of Syria and Irak, and even of Arabia, such as the people of 
 Al Awali (one of the subm-bs of Medina), whose women they 
 have kidnapped and led to the barracks — an act which not 
 only the Sheriat, but also Arab honour, reproves. 
 
 " Ay, we have risen, and we do not cease proclaiming that 
 our declaration of hostility and hatred is directed against 
 Enver, Jemal and Talaat, and their followers. All right- 
 minded Moslems, even members of the house of Othman, 
 are at one with us in this. As a proof of this noble house 
 sharing with us this attitude there is the assassination by 
 these dictators of its pillar, the blessed martyr, the Heir 
 Apparent of the Sultanate, the late Prince Yusuf Izz-ed 
 Din, of blessed memory. We not only dissociate our- 
 selves from them, but openly declare our hostility to, and 
 hatred of, them and their ways ; and every pious and right- 
 minded Moslem in the Ottoman Empire, as well as in all 
 Moslem lands, cannot but associate himself with us in 
 this, in view of the actual ruin that they have brought upon 
 the land and the incalculable harm that they have caused 
 to the great power of Islam, which has fallen a victim to 
 their selfish aims and ambitions. 
 
 " We disavow these men before Allah, and know that 
 
254 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 this is the word of truth — on which we Hve and die. How 
 can we act otherwise, when we have before us instances 
 and examples, which we cite for our Moslem brethren to 
 ponder over? Thus, Jemal Pasha, the autocrat of Sjoia, 
 ordered the inhabitants of that Moslem country to form 
 amongst their womenfolk a women's society; then inti- 
 mated that this society should get up a fete in his honour 
 in their club. This was actually done, and he and some 
 of the military and civil officials, together with others of 
 his clique, whom he invited, attended the fete. The 
 Moslem women, members of this society, actually received 
 and honoured these guests ; and at the end some of them 
 made speeches, declaimed poems, and sang songs before 
 this crowd of men, as was reported at the time by the 
 different newspapers of Sjrria with expressions of pride and 
 admiration, to win the favour of the autocrat. 
 
 " It will thus be clearly seen what are the designs of these 
 usurpers on the Moslem law and Moslem customs; and 
 this should serve as a warning to our Moslem brethren in 
 Turkey, as well as in other parts of the world, so that they 
 may not lend in any way encouragement to these auto- 
 crats in their impious infringement of the laws of Allah 
 and their insolent disregard of His commands, either for 
 worldly fame or for material benefit, because it is idle for a 
 creature to disobey his Creator. And he who is granted a 
 power to put a stop to these sinful acts, either by his hand 
 or tongue or his heart, it is his duty to use this power to 
 that end. And whoever thinks that he can defend the 
 audacity of these usurpers, let him come forward with 
 his argument." 
 
 " It must have been with feelings of profound satisfac- 
 tion," writes Cassamally Jairazbhoy, Vice-President of the 
 Bombay Branch of the Moslem League,^ " that all Moham- 
 medans read the British announcement in regard to the 
 Holy Places of Arabia, including the Holy Shrines of 
 Mesopotamia and the Forts at Jedda. 
 
 ^ The Suicide of Turkey, November, 1914. 
 
THE WORLD UNDER GERMAN RULE 255 
 
 tC ( I 
 
 These Holy Places and Jedda,' it said, 'will be 
 immune from attack or molestation by the British Naval 
 and Military forces so long as there is no interference with 
 pilgrims from India to the Holy Places and Shrines in 
 question. At the request of His Majesty's Government, 
 the Governments of France and Russia have given them 
 similar assurances.' 
 
 " For that assurance every true Mohammedan should 
 praise God and bless the British Government, for now we 
 know that, so long as England is able to fight, our Holy 
 Places are safe from the sacrilegious hands of those bar- 
 barian Germans, who have made the venerable Cathedrals 
 of Belgium and France the particular object of their 
 hatred and violence. What liberty of religion could 
 Islam expect if Germany were to defeat the Allies ? The 
 ruins of Louvain and Rheims give the answer — ^None. It 
 is Germany's creed that everjrthing must be crushed to 
 make way for German ' Civilisation.' Turkey is to-day 
 a mere tool used to serve Germany's ends. Were those 
 ends to be attained, to-morrow would witness the scornful 
 crushing of Turkey by the Power whose ruler — Kaiser 
 William— boasts that to him an oath is not sacred, and a 
 treaty no more than a scrap of paper to be thrown away 
 or torn up as may be convenient. 
 
 ' ' It will be seen from the foregoing how Germany reckoned 
 on stirring up a great Pan-Islamic movement that would 
 prove a source of embarrassment to the British and the 
 French. The result of all their intrigues has been a failure 
 as complete as it is inglorious. In India, above all, Germany 
 hoped to rouse Mohammedans against the Government. 
 But no people have been more sincere than the Mohamme- 
 dans of this country in their devotion to the British Raj 
 and in their offers of service against the enemy. The 
 message to the Moslem world sent by His Highness the 
 Aga Khan — a great descendant of the great Beni-Fati- 
 mite Rulers of Egypt, who himself asked that he might 
 serve in the ranks — still rings in our ears as a clarion call to 
 duty, and as the expression of feelings which we enthusias- 
 tically share. . . . 
 
256 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 "His Highness said — 
 
 " ' With deep sorrow I find that the Turkish Government, 
 having joined hands with Germany, acting under German 
 orders, is madly attempting to wage a most unprovoked 
 war against such mighty sovereigns as the King-Emperor 
 and the Tsar of Russia. This is not the true and free will 
 of the Sultan, but of the German oflficers and other non- 
 Moslems, who have forced him to do their bidding. Ger- 
 many and Austria have been no disinterested friejids of 
 Islam ; and, while one took Bosnia, the other has long been 
 plotting to become suzerain of Asia Minor and Mesopotamia, 
 including Kerbala, Nejef and Baghdad. If Germany 
 succeeds, which Heaven forbid, Turkey will become only a 
 vassal of Germany, and the Kaiser's resident will be the 
 real ruler of Turkey and will control the Holy Cities. . .' 
 
 " Turkey was the trustee of Islam, and the whole world 
 was content to let her hold our Holy Cities in her keeping. 
 Now that Turkey has so disastrously shown herself a tool 
 in the German hands, she has not only ruined herself but 
 has lost her position of trustee of Islam and evil will over- 
 take her." 
 
XV 
 
 THE GERMANS AS THEY SEE THEMSELVES AND AS 
 OTHERS HAVE SEEN THEM 
 
 It is hoped and believed that, as the war goes on, it 
 is becoming more and more clearly understood throughout 
 the neutral world that the question at stake in the present 
 struggle — ^incredible as it may seem — ^is whether the better 
 or the baser instincts of man's nature shall prevail, whether 
 humanity shall continue to proceed on its course towards 
 a higher and yet higher ideal, or shall revert to its condition 
 of many thousands of years ago, when its motives were 
 actuated by nothing but the lower animal passions. By 
 their own acts our adversaries are revealing that this is 
 the true meaning of the struggle. 
 
 " No, not Germany's enemies," said the American Pro- 
 fessor Royce in a great speech on America's duty, " but 
 Germany herself, her ministers, her submarine commanders, 
 have given us our principal picture of what the militant 
 Germany of the moment is, and of what Germany means 
 for the future of international morality, . , . While the 
 war lasts, and Belgium bleeds and mankind mourns, let 
 us aid the allied enemies of Germany with sjonpathy, since 
 the cause of the allied enemies of Germany is indeed the 
 cause of mankind. . . . Let us do what we can to bring 
 about at least a rupture of all diplomatic relations between 
 our own Republic and these foes of mankind. ... If 
 only the neutral nations had awakened at the beginning to 
 the danger which threatened the universe, and had done 
 their duty by assisting to avert it — ^but the very horror of 
 it made them hold aloof." 
 
 It has been argued, and is still argued by some, that the 
 German nation is stricken only with a temporary madness, 
 S 257 
 
258 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 but when peace is concluded their minds will become 
 normal, and that if they win, they will, in spite of their 
 present blusterings, make a temperate use of their victories ; 
 that they do not seriously contemplate world-dominion. 
 Bernhardi himself has lately thought it wise to lull the 
 fears of the neutrals by encouraging this view in his last 
 work. But let us not be deceived a second time. Was it 
 not generally believed, in this country, as indeed every- 
 where else, that the doctrines set forth in the volumes from 
 which we have quoted were merely the ravings of pedants 
 or irresponsible atheists until we saw them put into practice 
 in all their ghastliness and saw the " monstrous enter into 
 the reality of life " ? It may be that the military party is 
 responsible for the carrying out of these principles, but the 
 military party is now the nation itself. The Emperor has 
 said with pride that the German people is no longer a 
 nation but an army.^ 
 
 If any among them are " born to honour " let them show 
 it. How many of them have dared to refuse to murder the 
 wounded or to hurl bombs on innocent women and children 
 at the bidding of their officers ? One instance only have 
 I seen recorded, that of a patient in one of the French 
 hospitals who stated that he had been shot in the back by 
 his officer, an Oberlieutenant, for having refused to kill a 
 wounded French Major.^ 
 
 We know that there are Germans like the socialist 
 Liebknecht and the authors of J' Accuse, and Gerade well 
 ich Deutscher bin, who have boldly raised their voices 
 — ^the first -named in the Reichstag itself — in condemnation 
 of the guilt of their compatriots in the matter of this 
 war, and there may be others who are only deterred by 
 fear from doing so lest they meet with the fate of the 
 
 ^ " The nation of poets and philosophers transformed into 
 a nation in arms may rely upon the firm resolution to subdue 
 all the enemies of Kultui and of German mentality. God is 
 with us and with our just cause." — (Telegram to the Prussian 
 Diet, February, 1915.) 
 
 2 The story is told by M. Paul Lordon in the Petit Journal, 
 November, 1915. The man gave the name of the German 
 officer and added that the brutality of his officers so disgusted 
 him that " he hated them with all his soul." 
 
GERMANS AS THEY SEE THEMSELVES 259 
 
 Pastor Franck, who was tried for high treason at Stettin 
 for saying that the German sabres are stained with the 
 blood of women and children ; or with that of the Luxem- 
 burg statesman, M. Emile Priin (Burgomaster of Chevraux 
 and a former Deputy), who was condemned by a German 
 military tribunal to be imprisoned for three years in a cell 
 of one and a half metres by two and a half, for having 
 published and introduced into Germany a book entitled 
 The Widowhood oj Truth. 
 
 Liebknecht refused to vote for the War Credits. His 
 protest was not allowed by the President to be read in the 
 House ; it was communicated to the German newspapers, 
 but none of them dared to publish it. In it he said : 
 " This war is not a defensive war for Germany. Its 
 historical character and the succession of events forbid us 
 to trust in a capitalist Government when it declares it is 
 asking for credits for the defence of the Fatherland. . . . 
 I protest against this war, against those who are responsible 
 for it and those who are conducting it. . . .1 protest 
 against the schemes of annexation, against the violation 
 of the neutrality of Belgiimi and Luxemburg, against the 
 military dictatorship, against the complete disregard of 
 social and political duties of which the Government and 
 the dominant classes are again to-day guilty." — (Berlin, 
 December 2, 1914.) 
 
 The following appeal was addressed by the German 
 Humanity League to foreign Socialists, and published in 
 the Press : — 
 
 " Dear Comrades, 
 
 " On the eve of a New Year which opens on scenes of 
 foul and ruthless crimes, unparalleled even in the massacre 
 rolls of our nation's infamous accomplices at Constanti- 
 nople, we appeal to our brethren on the Continent of Europe 
 and in the United States of America, not to hide themselves 
 behind the screen of neutrality. 
 
 " We are face to face with the enemies of mankind. The 
 German nation, driven into a wicked war by the Kaiser 
 and his military entourage, cajoled by perjured statesmen 
 in the Reichstag and by false records circulated in every 
 
260 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 State in order to deceive our compatriots, has recklessly 
 hurled itself blindfolded against forces which, sustained 
 by indisputable moral considerations, show no signs of 
 weakening in their determination to expel from Belgium 
 the troops which have covered her habitations with blood 
 and irreparably injured an innocent nation our rulers had 
 sworn to protect. 
 
 " We ask you to remember that the territory of no 
 German State has been menaced by the Allies, who are 
 lawfully and honourably defending the plain rights of the 
 cruelly outraged Belgians. 
 
 " Fellow-workers, can you longer remain idle and silent 
 spectators of these stupendous crimes ? Are you for ever to 
 be dumb in view of the awful scenes of carnage in Flanders, 
 in Brabant, in Alsace, and in Lorraine ? Do you not see, 
 amid the maiming and slaughter of innocent, unarmed old 
 men, women, children and infants at the breast, that the 
 Kaiser has covered our nation with imperishable infamy, 
 and that the toll of war means the sacrifice of the precious 
 lives of toilers and wage-earners in a devilish campaign, 
 barbarous in its methods upon sea as upon land ? 
 
 " Already in five months our homes, our trade, our 
 enterprises have been maimed for at least fifty years ; loss 
 of life and economic devastation will scourge the Father- 
 land for a century. We know from authentic intelligence 
 which reaches us that a restless, indignant and deceived 
 democracy now undergoing privations and nursing its 
 griefs, cannot be restrained by force from active protest ; 
 and we most earnestly appeal to every comrade, who cares 
 for the maintenance of international obligations, to strive 
 his utmost to crush and sweep away for ever the domina- 
 tion of Prussian militarism within Germany, which, by its 
 conspiracy against humanity, has disgraced and humiliated 
 our nation in the eyes of the civilised world. 
 
 " Kakl Bernstein, Jacob Mamdisdorf, 
 
 Emil Gott, Conead Schwabe, 
 
 GusTAVE OcHS, Ernst Schuster, 
 
 Franz Gausen, Albrecht Zettel."^ 
 
 1 The Morning Post, December 30, 1914. 
 
GERMANS AS THEY SEE THEMSELVES 261 
 
 But in spite of these considerations and admissions, we 
 cannot but concur with Professor Morgan when he says that 
 " to regard Germany as the misguided pupil of a military 
 caste which alone stands in the way of her reformation seems 
 to him to ignore the volume of evidence as to the complicity 
 of ofl&cers and men in these orgies of outrage. . . . For is it 
 reasonable to suppose that the kind of teaching which has 
 made Clausewitz, Treitschke and Bemhardi the gospel of the 
 German people, and has found authoritative expression in 
 the (German War Book, could have commanded the prestige 
 which it does command in Germany if it had not found a 
 people apt and eager by temperament to receive it ?"i 
 Elsewhere Professor Morgan writes : " It is the fondest 
 of delusions to imagine that all this blood-guiltiness is 
 confined to the German Government and the General Staff. 
 The whole people is stained with it. The innumerable 
 diaries of common soldiers in the ranks which I have read 
 betray a common sentiment of hate, rapine and ferocious 
 cruelty. Again and again English soldiers have told me 
 how their German captors delighted to offer them food 
 in their famished state and then to snatch it away again. 
 The progress of French, British and Russian prisoners, 
 civil as well as military, through Germany has been a 
 veritable Calvary. The helplessness which in others 
 would excite forbearance if not pity has in the German 
 populace provoked only derision and insult. The ' old 
 gentleman with a grey beard and gold spectacles,' who 
 broke his umbrella over the back of a Russian lady (the 
 wife of a diplomatist) ; the loafers who boarded a train and 
 under the eyes of the indulgent sentries poked their fingers 
 in the blind eye of a wounded Irishman who had had half 
 his face shot away ; the men and women who spat upon 
 helpless prisoners and threatened them with death; the 
 guards who prodded them with bayonets, worried them with 
 dogs, and despatched those who could not keep up — ^these 
 were not a Prussian caste, but the German people. What 
 is to be thought of a people, one of whose leading journals 
 publishes with approval the letter of a German officer 
 describing ' the brilliant idea {ein guter Gedanke) which 
 ^ German Atrocities, p. 88. 
 
262 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 inspired him to place civilians on chairs in the middle of 
 the street of a town attacked by the French and use them 
 as a screen for his men in spite of their 'prayers of 
 anguish.' " ^ 
 
 Some of their own most distinguished writers have 
 spoken of their compatriots in far from complimentary 
 terms. " A comparison of the German people with other 
 peoples," says Goethe, " awakens painful feelings from 
 which I have tried to escape by every possible means." ^ 
 Heine is more severe : " As to Prussians, Nature has made 
 them stupid and Science has rendered them malicious." * 
 Hirschel declares that : " There is no absurdity which a 
 German has not advanced as a theory " * ; while Schopen- 
 hauer, in his Memorabilien, delivers himself as follows : 
 " In anticipation of my death I make this confession, 
 that I despise the German nation on account of its infinite 
 stupidity, and I blush to belong to it." ^ 
 
 And the methods of war employed by the German 
 people in the earlier periods of their history, and the prin- 
 ciples which guided their conduct, do not seem to have 
 greatly differed from those which have staggered the world 
 to-day. 
 
 " Since they were first heard of in history," says Bern- 
 hardi,* " they have proved themselves to be a nation 
 practising the highest form of civilisation, indeed they 
 are the people civilised par excellence — das Kulturvolk tta^ 
 
 The Roman and Greek writers do not seem to bear 
 this out. " What," asks Nazarius, " shall I say of the 
 Bructeri, the Chamevi, the Cherusci, the Vangiones, the 
 Alamanni and the Tubantes [German tribes] ? . . . The 
 very pronunciation of their names fills us with a sense 
 
 1 German Atrocities, pp. 24-25. 
 
 * " Conversations with Eckermann," quoted in Paroles Alle- 
 mandes, p. 55. 
 
 * Quoted ibid., p. 83. « Ibid., p. 32. » jjj-^_^ p. 146. 
 « Unsere Zukunft, " Ein Mahnwort an das deutsche Volk," 
 
 1912, p. 11. 
 
GERMANS AS THEY SEE THEMSELVES 263 
 
 of horror at the immensity of their barbarism." ^ Tacitus 
 tells us that all the tribes of their ancestors were wont to 
 meet together in a sacred forest, and " after publicly 
 offering up a human life, they celebrate the grim initiation 
 of their barbarian rites" 2; and Procopius, speaking of 
 them at a later period, says that " these barbarians, 
 though they have become Christians, retain most of their 
 ancient creed, immolating human beings and performing 
 other unholy sacrifices by which they predict the future."* 
 Ammianus Marcellinus describes them in battle as " rush- 
 ing forward roaring like wild beasts, their long shaggy 
 hair, while they raged in this inhuman fashion, being lifted 
 in the wind, and their eyes blazing with fury."* Pomponius 
 Mela speaks of the " innate savagery " of the Germans 
 of his day, and their lust for war and plunder. " With 
 them," he says, " might is right, so much so that they are 
 not even ashamed to rob and murder." He adds that 
 they are " kind to their guests ^ and gentle with sup- 
 pliants " — ^but these latter qualities they do not exer- 
 cise to-day, if we may judge by the fate of those who 
 have fallen into their hands during this war* — and 
 
 ^ Paneg. viii. 18. ^ Germania, xxxix. 
 
 3 The Gothic Wars, n. 25. * xii. 36. 
 
 ^ Many of the ancient writers testify to this. " The Franks 
 are liars, but they are hospitable," writes Salvianus {De 
 gubematione Dd, vii. 64). llie Franks were a confederation 
 of German tribes. 
 
 * The following incident is recorded in Germany's Great Lie, 
 pp. 160-1. It concerns the treatment of a British Consul, 
 " who comes of a family famous in our Diplomatic Service, 
 at one of the chief sea-ports of Germany. He and his wife and 
 his daughter were invited by one of the chief officials to a 
 friendly dinner. While they were at dinner a man came in 
 with a letter. The official smiled and tossed oft a glass of 
 champagne; then he smiled again and tossed off another 
 glass of champagne; then he smUed again and tossed off a 
 third glass. By that time he was thoroughly excited and cried 
 out : ' Yes, the best of news ! War is declared.' Then he 
 timied to the Consul and his wife and daughter and called them 
 dogs and pigs and reptiles, and rang the bell and sent for 
 soldiers, who dragged them away and spat all over the Consul's 
 wife. They took them into a filthy room with thieves and 
 
264 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 that "they are coarse and uncultured in their way of 
 living." ^ 
 
 " But this people," wrote Velleius Paterculus, " are 
 savage to a degree almost inconceivable to any one who 
 has not had actual experience of them ^ and are, withal, 
 a race born to deceit {natum mendacio genus)." ^ The Goths, 
 Procopius tells us, fearing an attack by the Roman General 
 Belisarius, " thought of obtaining assistance from some of 
 the other barbarians, but they were careful not to call 
 in the Germans, having already had experience of the 
 craft and treachery of that race." * 
 
 Elsewhere the same writer speaks of the Franks as "of 
 all men the most prone to break faith," and quotes a letter 
 written by Belisarius to Theudibert, reminding him that to 
 break an oath which was embodied in writing — as he had 
 done — ^was " disgraceful even in the most dishonourable 
 of men." ^ " If a Frank perjure himself," says Salvianus, 
 
 criminals. They left them there for two days without any food 
 or water or sanitary arrangements. Then they dragged them 
 out again and pushed them into a train, still without any food 
 or drink. The train went on and on, until they were bundled 
 out at a station to change trains. The daughter was by this 
 time so exhausted that she was nearly dying. Looking for 
 some one to save her life, she saw a Red Cross nurse attending 
 to some one and implored her to give her a drink of water. The 
 German nurse tinned round and called them ' Dogs of English ' 
 and said that she would rather die than do it." 
 
 1 De Situ Orbis, III. 3. 
 
 The original passage runs as follows : " Qui habitant im- 
 manes sunt animis atque corporibus, et ad insitam feritatem 
 vaste utraque exercent, beUando animos, corpore adsuetudine 
 labore maxime frigoris. . . . Bella cum finitimis gerunt, causas 
 eorum ex libidine arcessimt, neque imperitandi prolatandique 
 quae possident, nam ne ilia quidem enixe colunt, sed ut circa 
 ipsos quae jacent vasta sint. lus in viribus habent, adeo ut ne 
 latrocinii quidem pudeat, tantum hospitibus boni, mitesque 
 suppUcibus. Victu ita asperi incultique." 
 
 * Or as The Evening Standard (December 27, 1915) remarked 
 of its own initiative : " It is only those who really know the 
 German who properly appreciate his craftiness." 
 
 3 Hist. Bom. II. 118. 
 
 * The Gothic Wars, ii. 22. 
 5 Ibid., ii. 25. 
 
GERMANS AS THEY SEE THEMSELVES 265 
 
 " it is nothing new to him, seeing that he only looks upon 
 perjury as another form of speech and in no way a crime." ^ 
 Floras tells of the treachery by which Arminius (Her- 
 mann) won his victory over Varus and the atrocities sub- 
 sequently conunitted by the German troops : " Never was 
 slaughter more bloody than that which was made of the 
 Romans among the marshes and woods. ... Of some they 
 gouged out the eyes; of others they cut off the hands; 
 of one the mouth was sewed up after his tongue had been 
 cut out, which, one of the savages, holding in his hand, 
 cried out : ' At last, viper, cease to hiss ! ' " 2 And Tacitus 
 thus describes the visit of Germanicus to the same spot 
 six years later : " Fragments of weapons and limbs of 
 horses were Ijring about; and there were human heads 
 fixed to the trunks of trees. In groves close by were the 
 barbarian altars on which the Tribunes and Centurions 
 of the first rank had been immolated. And survivors of 
 the disaster . . . told how many gibbets had been set 
 up, and how many pits were dug for the captives. . . . 
 And so, six years after this terrible event, the Roman 
 army standing on the spot, proceeded with mixed feelings 
 of sorrow and anger and with ever-growing indignation 
 against the enemy, to bury the bones of the three legions." * 
 
 ^ Ds gvhematione Dei, iv. 65. 
 
 2 iv. 12. 
 
 * Annals, 1. 61-2. According to the Roman historians, Ar- 
 minius was invested by the Senate with the title " Amicus " on 
 account of the friendship he professed for the Roman people. 
 But he had long been secretly stirring up some of the German 
 tribes to rebellion. When the Roman General, Varus, decided 
 to march against these tribes, Arminius promised to meet him 
 at Teutoburger Forest and support the attack. But no sooner 
 did Varus arrive than Arminius led a furious assault against 
 the Roman legions and cut them to pieces. Some time later 
 a letter was received by the Roman Senate from one of his 
 followers, Adgandestrius, offering to procure his death if poison 
 were sent for the purpose of the murder, but a reply was given 
 to him to the effect that the Roman people took vengeance on 
 their enemies not by treachery or by any other secret measure, 
 but openly by force of arms. He (Arminius) afterwards be- 
 trayed and ravished the daughter of his fellow-countrjonan 
 Segestes, and himself fell a victim to the treachery of his kinsmen, 
 
266 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 " Who would not be indignant," said a Roman General 
 to some of his troops, who wished to enrich themselves 
 with plunder, " if it were said that while we have the name 
 of Romans, we do the deeds of Germans." ^ 
 
 Gallic, Batavian and German Generals fighting against 
 the Romans are said by Tacitus to have encouraged their 
 respective troops by using the incentives most in keeping 
 with their several characters. The Gauls were urged to 
 fight for freedom, the Batavians for immortal glory, and 
 the Germans for loot.^ 
 
 It was thanks to their greed for plunder, as is related by 
 Tacitus, that the army of the Roman General, Germanicus, 
 was saved from destruction.^ 
 
 " It is the greatest glory," says Caesar, " to the several 
 [German] States to have as wide deserts as possible around 
 them, their frontiers having been laid waste. They con- 
 sider it to be a distinctive mark of their prowess that their 
 neighbours should be driven out of their lands." * 
 
 " Robberies," he adds, " which are committed beyond 
 the bounds of the State, are considered no infamy. Indeed, 
 they pretend that such acts are committed for the purpose 
 of disciplining their youth and preventing sloth." ^ 
 
 The lust for war of the ancient Germans has been men- 
 tioned by many writers. " Their whole life is spent in 
 hunting and in the pursuit of the military art," says 
 Caesar^; and Tacitus states that they carried their arms 
 wherever they went— ever ready, no doubt, to pick a 
 quarrel or fight a duel. The carousals at which they drank 
 their beer often led to brawls. " You will not so readily 
 persuade them to till the land and to wait for the year's 
 
 but the Roman historian pays a tribute to his patriotism. — 
 Annals, i. 58 and ii. 88. He is Germany's great hero to this day, 
 and a colossal statue has been raised to him on the spot where 
 his treachery against the Roman legions was consummated. 
 
 ^ Dion Cassius, Roman History, xii. 30-81. 
 
 2 Hist. iv. 78. * Annals, i. 65. 
 
 * De Bella Gallico, vi. 23. Compare the final words of the 
 " Hymn of Hate," quoted above, p. 138, " Transform the 
 neighbouring countries into deserts." 
 
 5 Ibid. 6 Ibid., i. 21. 
 
GERMANS AS THEY SEE THEMSELVES 267 
 
 harvests as to challenge an enemy and earn themselves 
 wounds. It seems to them to show a want of energy to 
 get with the sweating of your brow what you can obtain 
 by the shedding of your blood." ^ 
 
 Another writer speaks of the " eternal hatred, the inexpi- 
 able fury of this race " {illius gentis odia perpetua et 
 inexpiabiles irce). ^ 
 
 Their expedients in preparing for war were no less similar 
 to those of the present day than were their methods of 
 conducting it. " The German carefully prepared all the 
 details of his aggression. Ariovistus, before going to war 
 with Csesar, had solicited and obtained at Rome the title 
 of The Ally of the Roman People. Arminius, the conqueror 
 of Varus at Teutoburg, resided for a long time at Rome 
 and made friends there whilst he was studying the tactics 
 and organisation of his future adversaries, and had been 
 invested with the dignity of a Roman knight. A treaty, 
 made by Marcus Aurelius with the Quadi, provides that 
 they must close the frontier of the Empire against the 
 Marcomanni, a German confederation north of the Danube, 
 because, as the treaty says, ' the Germans who enter upon 
 Roman territory on the pretext of trading there come 
 solely for the purpose of spying.' " ^ . . . 
 
 " In view of our pillaged and devastated dwellings," 
 writes M. Flavier Brenier,* "of our civil population carried 
 away into captivity, our towns bombarded and burnt when 
 
 ^ Germania, xiv. See also Annals, xiii. 57. They carried 
 their arms with them to their graves and continued their 
 battles in Walhalla. 
 
 German is by some believed to be equivalent to warman or 
 "warrior (of. French guerre). The French expression " une 
 querelle d'allemand " is used idiomatically of a groundless 
 quarrel. 
 
 Masks, representing the warlike features of the Germans, 
 were made by the Romans of pottery and used for frightening 
 children. Their huge stature made them "terrible to look at " 
 {Annals, ii. 14). Their great prototype, King Teutoboch, 
 was accustomed to bestride four and even six horses at a time 
 (Florus, iii. 4). 
 
 * Quoted by Zeller, Origines de VAllemagne, 1872, p. 221. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 194. * Le Vieux Dieu Allemand, p. 36. 
 
268 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 the enemy is compelled to evacuate them, it is worth 
 re-reading this passage of an old Latin author : ' The 
 barbarians who forced their way across the Rhine loaded 
 their carts with plate, with clothing and stolen carpets 
 and carried the population into slavery that they might 
 use them for their own purposes, and they burnt all the 
 houses that they could not inhabit.' " ^ 
 
 The Roman view of the German character is summed 
 up by Zeller as follows : " There is no such thing as a 
 lasting treaty with these barbarians. They dethrone 
 the kings which are given them and set up others in their 
 places; they receive money or lands from their enemies 
 or even their own allies as the price of peace, and immedi- 
 ately afterwards break that peace; Marcus Aurelius had 
 not the time to have a medal struck announcing to the 
 world the conclusion of a permanent peace with the 
 Germans before it was violated by them. 
 
 " The Germans never take service in the Roman armies 
 except for the purpose of learning how to fight them; 
 they never go to carry on trade in the Roman provinces 
 except for the purpose of spying; they never swear an 
 oath to the Romans without the intention of breaking it ; 
 they never sign a peace except with the object of preparing 
 for war; they make no use of money paid them except 
 to procure arms with it; they accept a footing in the 
 Empire only that they may be in a better position to lay 
 it waste. For them there is no promise given to the enemy 
 outside the frontier that binds, no engagement, no moral 
 or international law such as was respected by the nations 
 of classical antiqiiity even in time of war. Against his 
 
 ^ Origines de VAllemagne, p. 270. " The authentic accounts 
 of excesses committed during the war of 1870 alone would 
 fiU a library. ' For many Germans,' wrote Nietzsche, ' this 
 was a voyage into a more elegant hemisphere.' The armies 
 were ' followed by wagons heaped full of our furniture, our 
 pictures, the treasures of our homes, which became articles 
 of commerce. This war had the character of the invasions of 
 antiquity.' " — General Ambert (Ricits militaires, vol. ii. p. 
 56), quoted by Charles Andler in Frightfulness in Theory and 
 Practice, Enghsh translation (Fisher Unwin), p. 37. 
 
GERMANS AS THEY SEE THEMSELVES 269 
 
 neighbour, who is also his enemy, the German considers 
 everything to be lawful. He can commit no crime {nullam 
 injamiam). Might with him is right." ^ 
 
 " A German historian," writes Mr. J. M. Robertson, " of 
 the downfall of the Mediterranean civilisation has made 
 a collection of Greek and Roman testimonies ^ which 
 leaves nothing to be desired in point of completeness. 
 ' German faithlessness became almost proverbial with the 
 Romans.' ^ ' The habit of the Franks was with smiling 
 mouth to break their pledged faith ' * ; they were ' that 
 shifty and treacherous barbarian people.' To break the 
 peace and break the pact : to break a treaty as soon as 
 it was made — ^these are the practices of the Germanic 
 peoples in their dealings with the Romans. For Procopius 
 the Franks were ' the most faithless people in the world ' ; 
 and for Velleius Paterculus they were ' a race of born liars.' 
 And even among the Germans themselves there was no valid 
 pledge without an oath — ohne Eid keine Verpfiichtung.^ 
 
 " Following the minute account of Felix Dahn,* an able 
 Austrian critic of the race-gospel has shown that in every 
 section of the Teutonic invaders of the South after the 
 fall of the Roman Empire the standard of honour of the 
 leaders and kings was on a par with that of Dahomey, 
 and their familiar crimes an anticipation of those of the 
 mediaeval Turks. Fratricide and parricide and filicide, 
 murders of women as of men, are the constant notes of the 
 regal history'; and the upper class life of Franks and 
 
 ^ Originet de VAllemagne, p. 194. The principal references 
 are to Nazarius, Paneg. Vit.; Eumenius; Eutropius; Julius 
 Capitolinus ; Amm. Marcellinus. 
 
 * O. Seeck, Geschichte des Unter gangs der antiken Welt, 
 1895. 
 
 3 IHd., i. 189. 
 
 * " Quibus familiare est ridendo fidem frangere " (Flavins 
 Vopiscus in Proculo). 
 
 * Lamprecht, Deutsche Geschichte, i. 181-2. 
 
 * Urgeschichte der germanischen und romanischen Volker, 
 4 Bde. 1881-1889. 
 
 ' The reader need only cast a glance at Gregory of 
 Tours' Historia Francorum to satisfy himself that there is no 
 exaggeration in this statement. 
 
270 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 Langobards, Goths and Vandals, is on the same level of 
 treachery, debauchery and savagery," * 
 
 As to the German soldier of the Middle Ages, we have the 
 testimony of Froissart, in the following account of the 
 coming to Paris of the Constable of France, who had just 
 defeated the English. " He came," says Froissart, " accom- 
 panied by the Lord de CUsson and bringing with them the 
 greater part of the prisoners, to whom they behaved very 
 handsomely, allowing them to go at large on their parole 
 for their ransom. They neither shut them up in prison 
 nor put on shackles and fetters, as the Germans do in 
 order to obtain a heavier ransom. Curses on them for it. 
 These people are without pity or honour, and they ought 
 never to receive quarters. The French entertained their 
 prisoners well, and ransomed them courteously without 
 being too hard with them." * This was in 1370. 
 
 Botta, in his history of the American War of Independ- 
 ence, speaking of the brutality of the German mercenary 
 troops in the British army, says — 
 
 " The Hessians, as if they believed themselves released 
 from all respect for humanity and justice, knew no other 
 mode of making war but that of carrying devastation into 
 the midst of all the property, public and private, of their 
 adversaries. It was affirmed that this rapacious soldiery 
 had so burdened themselves with booty as to become 
 almost incapable of service. ... It was a terrible and 
 lamentable spectacle to behold these fertile fields covered 
 with ashes and with ruins. Friends and foes. Republicans 
 and Loyalists, all shared a common fate; wives and 
 daughters suffered violence in their homes and even before 
 the eyes of their husbands and fathers; many fled into 
 the forests, but could find no refuge even there from the 
 brutal rage of these barbarians who pursued them. The 
 houses were either burnt or demolished ; the cattle either 
 driven off or killed ; nothing escaped their thirst of devasta- 
 tion. The Hessian General Heister, far from endeavouring 
 
 1 The Germans, by the Right Hon. J. M. Robertson, M.P., 
 1916, pp. 98-9. 
 
 2 Froissart's Chronicles, chapter ccxcii. Translation by 
 Thomas Johnes, 1812. 
 
GERMANS AS THEY SEE THEMSELVES 271 
 
 to repress this licentious soldiery, seemed to have given 
 them a free rein. The English General wished, but had 
 not the power, to curb them." ^ 
 
 With reference to the wars of 1814-1815 Andler writes — 
 
 " Let us recall the fifteen Frenchmen who at Bautzen 
 (on a day of bloody victory), being surprised within a 
 house, demanded quarter on their knees. The infuriated 
 Prussians flung them living from the windows, and when the 
 survivors cried out in their agony, their skulls were broken 
 by blows from the butt-end of rifles. At Leipzig, in the 
 houses, a host of Frenchmen who had thrown down their 
 arms were massacred. After Waterloo the Prussians of 
 Gneisenau's command slaughtered disarmed Frenchmen 
 by whole battalions. . . ." ^ 
 
 The philosopher, Steffens, officer of the Landwehr in 
 1814, saw them at work during a whole winter. He saw 
 " incendiarism almost everywhere, magnificent villages 
 pillaged. . . ." ^ Similar stories are told of their conduct 
 during the Franco-Prussian War, but it is unnecessary to 
 multiply them. They may be read in Andler * and in 
 other writers, and their habitual contempt for treaties 
 may be studied throughout their history. 
 
 An instance of Kultur at home is given by Hans 
 Pommer — 
 
 " I have myself assisted, and more than once, at scenes 
 of Vandalism which would defy all description. During a 
 farewell dinner offered by the officers of the camp at 
 Elserhorn to a division of cavalry I was the eyewitness of 
 a mad frenzy which resulted not only in the destruction 
 of all the plate, but the statues, tables and chairs of the 
 hall where the banquet was held, and a prince of the blood 
 was amongst them. We must confess that the varnish of 
 civilisation has only very thinly covered the high ranks of 
 our society. The least excess in the consumption of 
 alcoholic drinks is sufficient to transform into veritable 
 
 1 Storia de la Guerra Americana, Botta. Translation by 
 G. A. Otis, 1826. 
 
 2 Frightfulness, English translation, p. 82. 
 
 » Was Ich Erlebte, 1843, vol. viii. pp. 35, 37, 41, 43 and 
 passim. * Frightfulness, chap. iii. 
 
272 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 barbarians the representatives of one of the human races 
 most proud in the consciousness of their superiority, 
 and barbarians who, far from feehng any regret for the 
 disgraceful exploits that follow on the consumption, are 
 proud of them. Try to imagine the terrible impression 
 that must be produced by the spectacle of this horde giving 
 themselves up without any kind of restraint to this ' furor 
 Teutonicus ' ; and the eyewitnesses of such a scene will 
 undoubtedly recount it to their comrades, so that such a 
 drama as this, where the actors are civilised men turned 
 into savages, will not remain hidden within the four walls 
 surrounding a meeting of officers. Surely it is fully time 
 that among German officers an end should be put to the 
 passion for drinking, and in particular that the ardour of 
 such a passion should cease to be honoured as the noblest 
 of manly virtues. " ^ 
 
 The reader will find a detailed arraignment of the inner 
 life of the Germans in a volume of 260 pages by Henry de 
 Halsalle.^ We will content ourselves with extracting from it 
 the following comparative statistics of the worst forms of 
 crime committed in Germany and England during a period 
 of ten years. 
 
 Murder 
 
 Incest 
 
 Rapes 
 
 Unnatural Crimes .... 
 Malicious and Felonious Wounding 
 Malicious Damage to Property . 
 Arson 
 
 1 Zwanzig Jahre als Infanterieoffizier in den Beichslanden, 
 Frankfort, 1914 (L'Allemagne et le Droit des Gens, p. 145). 
 
 References to the intemperate habits of the Germans are 
 to be found in ancient Greek and Latin writers, as well as in 
 later historians. Tacitus remarks, in Germania (XXII.) 'that 
 to continue drinking day and night is a reproach to none of 
 them ("Diem noctemque continuare potando nulli probrum "). 
 
 * Degenerate Germany. 
 
 Germany 
 
 England 
 
 1897-1907 
 
 1900-10 
 
 350 
 
 97 
 
 573 
 
 56 
 
 9,381 
 
 216 
 
 841 
 
 290 
 
 172,153 
 
 1,262 
 
 25,759 
 
 858 
 
 610 
 
 278 
 
 209,667 
 
 2,557 
 
GERMANS AS THEY SEE THEMSELVES 273 
 
 In a leaflet published in the United States, Mr. George 
 L. Fox, Principal of the University's School, Newhaven, 
 Connecticut, makes the following comparison of crime in 
 the same countries : — 
 
 " The population of (Germany is to that of Elngland as 
 5 to 3. As to crime, the propori;ion of bigamy is 1 to 2 
 nearly ; in incest about 13 to 1 ; in procuring it is 264 to 1 ; 
 in procuring abortions it is 29 to 1 ; in unnatural offences 
 it is 7 to 1 ; in rape and other sexual crimes it is about 
 9 to 1 ; in murder, manslaughter and other death-causing 
 crimes it is 5 to 1 ; in arson it is about 4 to 1. With regard 
 to divorces it is 22 to 1. As to illegitimate births it is 
 5 to 1. The number of suicides is four times as great as 
 in England." 
 
 Such are thejacts about German KuUur. It may interest 
 the reader to compare them with other pretensions of 
 German writers similar to that of Bemhardi quoted above. 
 
 " We have entered into the war with joyful and pure 
 hearts permeated with the aspirations of our national 
 future. That future we wOl fill with the blossoms of our 
 culture ; it is assured to us by the desire that inspires and 
 haunts all Germans to raise the world to full nobleness and 
 perfection." ^ 
 
 " In the hour of (Germany's victory aD people will 
 realise that the (Jerman KuUur is the highest and most 
 indispensable part of universal culture." ^ 
 
 " G^ermany must, and desires, to remain alone. The 
 G^ermans are the elect people of the earth. They will 
 accomplish their destiny, which is to rule the world and to 
 guide the other nations for the happiness of humanity." ^ 
 
 " We would see every monument, every picture, utterly 
 destroyed rather than that the glorious work given to the 
 Gierman race should be hindered by so much as one hour's 
 avoidable delay. The world can be revitalised, society 
 
 ^ Lamprecht. 
 
 * O. Gierke, quoted in the Bevue de Paris, March 15, 1915, 
 p. 286. 
 
 ' Professor von Seyden in the Frankfurter Zeitung. 
 
 T 
 
274 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 ennobled and refined only through the German spirit. 
 The world must, for its own salvation, be Germanised." ^ 
 
 " We, in Germany, have the firm conviction that it is 
 not for our own independence alone that we are fighting 
 in this war, but for the preservation of the culture and 
 freedom of all peoples." ^ 
 
 " A European plot of lies and calumnies has been woven 
 around us ; for our part we are true ; our characteristics 
 are humanity, gentleness, conscientiousness, the Christian 
 virtues. In a world of wickedness we represent love, and 
 God is with us." ^ 
 
 "The Southern peoples are children of the moment; 
 the Teutonic live in the things which lie beyond the world, 
 in the infinite and the ineffable." * (One wishes they could 
 remain there !) 
 
 " Our German people will be the granite-block on which 
 the good God may complete His work of civilising the 
 world. Then will be realised the word of the poet who 
 said : ' The world will one day be cured by the German 
 character.' " ^ 
 
 The hordes which overran Europe in earlier days at least 
 made no such pretences as these. They were guided by 
 their instincts, and in some cases they were endowed 
 with qualities destined to bring light out of the very 
 
 1 From the Kreuzzeitimg ; quoted in A Textiooh of the 
 War for Americans. We constantly read in the German 
 press such expressions as " The Kingdom of Heaven is centred 
 in the German soul" {Berliner Post). 
 
 ^ Professor Delbnick in Germany's Answer. " This is more 
 than the world asks at the Kaiser's hand," remarks the American 
 essayist, Miss Agnes Repplier. " Most nations prefer to look 
 after their own culture and freedom in the fashion which suits 
 them best. And if the present condition of Belgium, starved, 
 outraged, broken on the wheel, is a sample of the culture and 
 freedom which are Germany's gifts, we Americans pray heaven 
 to preserve us in ignorance and slavery." — A Textbook of the 
 War for Americans, p. 263. 
 
 * Professor Lasson. Letter published in the Amsterdammer, 
 a Dutch weekly review, October 11, 1914. 
 
 * Professor Mlinsterburg, in his Textbook of Psychology. 
 ^ The Kaiser in a speech at Miinster, August 31, 1907. 
 
GERMANS AS THEY SEE THEMSELVES 275 
 
 darkness in which they temporarily enveloped the areas 
 they invaded; but these people openly and consciously 
 present us with a gospel of dirt which they say it is their 
 mission to spread over the universe. 
 
 There is one virtue which no one will deny the German 
 people. They are eminently thorough in everything they 
 do. A remarkable instance of this is noted by the American 
 Professor Weeks, with reference to their preparations for 
 the present war. " The German military authorities," 
 he remarks, " even foresaw the need of denying atrocities, 
 as is evinced by a manual called The Military Interpreter, 
 2nd edition, Beriin, 1906; publisher, A. Bath. The 
 author is Captain von Scharfenort, an official of the 
 Military Department. The manual, among many useful 
 formulae, offers a model letter of protest against an accusa- 
 tion of atrocities. This suggestive document is entitled. 
 Letter to the Commander-in-Chief of the Hostile Army, and 
 commences thus : — 
 
 " ' In a circular letter of the Minister of Foreign Affairs 
 you have reproached the German troops with numerous 
 violations of international custom. 
 
 " ' According to you, German troops have been guilty 
 of acts of hostility against ambulances; they are said to 
 have made prisoner, M. A., in the midst of an ambulance 
 corps organised by him ; they are accused of having made 
 use of explosive bullets, of having compelled peasants in 
 the vicinity of S. to dig trenches under fire; they are 
 accused of having attempted to transport provision and 
 munition trains and caissons by protecting them with the 
 conventional sign of Geneva ; finally, a physician who was 
 caring for a woiuided Prussian soldier is said to have been 
 killed by him. . . . 
 
 " ' Out of regard for the Powers which adhered to the 
 Convention of Geneva and the declaration of St. Peters- 
 burg of November 29 (11th December), 1868, I add here 
 and I affirm that the said-mentioned Convention has been 
 observed by the German troops in the most scrupulous 
 manner,' etc." 
 
 " Yes/' Professor Weeks adds, " the German military 
 
276 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 authorities foresaw everything — except that some of their 
 soldiers' diaries would be captured." ^ 
 
 It is barely conceivable that any one should wish to 
 belong to a nation which must well-nigh hold the record 
 for crime, and whose political system avowedly inculcates 
 blind obedience to a State which recognises no moral law. 
 On the contrary, it is not surprising that large numbers of 
 German citizens quit their Fatherland to become the 
 subjects of foreign Powers. In the year 1913, 412 Germans 
 obtained certificates of naturalisation in Great Britain 
 alone, apart from the colonies, as against 30 Frenchmen 
 and 13 Italians. That the Germans in London are content 
 under the Government of their adopted country is proved 
 by the following address which was presented to Her 
 Majesty, Queen Victoria, on the occasion of the Diamond 
 Jubilee in 1897, by representatives of German churches, 
 institutions and societies domiciled in London — 
 
 " We are deeply grateful that, during the sixty years 
 which have elapsed since Your Majesty's accession to the 
 Throne, Germans residing in Great Britain have been able 
 to follow their occupations in absolute freedom and in 
 friendly intercourse with all classes, under the care of 
 Your Majesty's Government and protected by the laws 
 of the land." 
 
 " One of the most curious things to be noted," writes 
 an American, " in a general survey of the world, is that 
 among all the millions of Germans who have left the 
 Fatherland since 1848 for this country so very few of them 
 ever go back to Germany. . . . The Germans in America 
 are among the best, sanest and most valuable of our 
 citizens, but the Germans are of all people the least 
 tenacious of their nationality. In this country, the 
 English, Scotch, and even the Irish speak of ' home ' for 
 generations. The Scandinavians charter ships to go 
 ' home ' to spend their Christmas ; numbers of them who 
 prosper go back to pass their old age. The Slavs go back 
 by thousands, and have carried the English language 
 
 1 Professor Raymond Weeks of Columbia University; 
 quoted in A Textbook of the War for Americans, p. 104. 
 
GERMANS AS THEY SEE THEMSELVES 277 
 
 with them, so much so that in one case an election for the 
 Reichsrath in Austria was conducted in that language. 
 The Italians go back by tens of thousands, and you can 
 hardly find a town in Italy in which some one is not living 
 in a little vineyard, or villino, who made his money in 
 America. But, as I have said, the Germans practically 
 never go back. They become Americans, just as they 
 become Australians in Australia, where they are now 
 supporting their new country against the old; or they 
 become Brazilians, Chilians, Central Americans, even 
 Haitians, and their chocolate-coloured children are outside 
 the German culture entirely." ^ 
 
 With reference to the present crisis another American 
 writes : "If the German- Americans are consumed with 
 love for their Fatherland, and for their Fatherland alone, 
 why, we wonder, did they not stay upon that sacred soil ? 
 This pleasure and privilege might have been theirs without 
 the asking, and they resigned it as alacritously as though 
 paternal rule and military service found ho favour in their 
 eyes. Why, when they came to the United States, did 
 they not remain German citizens, and liable to be summoned 
 to their country's aid, instead of hastening to swear all 
 allegiance to a Constitution which they regard only as a 
 convenience and a protection and inferior to their own? 
 Why, when the declaration of war found them in Munich 
 or Frankfort or Berlin did they scuttle home as fast as 
 ships could carry them, clamorously declaring themselves 
 
 ^ Frederick W. Whitridge, One American's Opinion of the 
 European War, pp. 16, 17. 
 
 The same writer remarks : " In a large acquaintance, I 
 have heard of only one instance where a Gterman, who had 
 prospered, returned to pass his old age at home. That was 
 the case of a brewer who had made a few hundred thousand 
 dollars and then built for himself a house in the German district 
 whence he had emigrated, such as his boyhood's fancy had 
 pictured he would have in his old age, and into that house he 
 moved to end his days. At the end of two months he locked 
 the front door, and said, ' By God 1 I can't stand it another 
 minute,' and came back to his place in the Middle West. He 
 did not like what he thought was the continual interference and 
 meddling in his private affairs." 
 
278 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 American citizens in Germany, and singing the Wacht 
 am Bhein with ever-increasing fervour as they neared 
 the friendly shores of New York? Why, instead of 
 forming pohtical parties to ' support all endeavours in the 
 interests of Germanism ' — ^which is a denial of neutral- 
 ity and citizenship — do they not go bravely back and 
 strike one honest blow in open battle for their imperilled 
 Fatherland ? 
 
 " The trenches of Flanders and the snowfields of Poland 
 await these loyal sons of Germany, and, while many dry 
 eyes will witness their departure, we owe and give un- 
 faltering respect to men gallant enough to lay down their 
 lives for their country." ^ 
 
 When, some years ago, the writer complimented a 
 gentleman whom he believed to be a German residing in 
 Austria on his fluency in English, he quickly replied : 
 " But I am an Englishman. I and my son gave up our 
 German nationality that we might become free men. 
 We have found freedom and justice in England." It is 
 the Englishman's love of freedom and of justice, no less 
 than his sense of duty and of honour that brought him in 
 1914, as they have often brought him before, to the assist- 
 ance of a people wantonly attacked by a stronger nation. 
 His bearing with regard to this war has been so well 
 described by a French writer in the Revue de Paris, ^ that 
 we cannot refrain from translating him at length. 
 
 " The Germans," he says, " had no conception that a 
 nation could be unwilling to arm itself for war, and yet 
 decide to do so from duty. They supposed that this nation 
 would contemplate without moving the invasion of 
 Flanders, the defeat of France and Russia, and the enslave- 
 ment of the small neutral States — after which, when its 
 turn came, it would be too late to offer resistance. But 
 by the irony of events, and to the stupefaction of the 
 Germans, England's moral sense brought her, still ignorant 
 
 ^ Miss Repplier, quoted in A Teodbook of the War for 
 Americans, pp. 248-9. 
 2 November 1, 1915. 
 
GERMANS AS THEY SEE THEMSELVES 279 
 
 of the hate and jealousy with which she was regarded, 
 into the struggle, wherein her only blame was that she was 
 not prepared for it. She is now appealing to millions of 
 her young men, from whom she will raise an army of 
 volunteers of a continental order, thereby uniting the 
 country in a determination, which is ever becoming 
 stronger, to resist and conquer the enemy, and to repair 
 as speedily as possible the errors of the past. 
 
 " England was innocent of the war, and she went into 
 it in innocence of its character. She had never fought 
 against Germany, and had no idea of German methods of 
 war. War for her was a noble pastime, dangerous but 
 seductive, in which that nation must win whose men are 
 the best, not the most intellectual or the most educated, 
 nor even the best armed, but the finest, the healthiest, 
 the hardiest, the most capable, behind their good humour, 
 of patient energy, of loyalty to their duty, and perseverance 
 in their efforts. 
 
 " English education had never ceased to produce these 
 men— men whom Kipling describes — in all grades of 
 society ; the nation regarded them as models of the human 
 race peculiar to England. They constituted her peculiar 
 virtue which had always ended by saving her from the 
 most desperate crises. In these men lived the old idea of 
 chivalry of Christian and Western origin, which the 
 national literature of the nineteenth century revived, 
 which a Carlyle, a Ruskin, a Kingsley and a Tennyson 
 have taught and sung, adapting it to the wants of a modern 
 industrial century — ^the noble English and French spirit, 
 at which the Germans have scoffed. . . . The cavalier in 
 the England of to-day has another name, the moral sense 
 and prestige of which are very strong — ^the gentleman — 
 and the essentially Christian character of the term survives. 
 In its modern form it is the recognised model, the ideal 
 type after which the nation, as such, loves to practise the 
 virtues — strength accompanied by a sense of proportion, 
 modesty in action as in expression, a silent subordination 
 of selfish instincts and greedy ambition to a desire for 
 truth and justice. At the side of France, in whom there 
 
280 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 lives a very similar ideal, derived from the same source, 
 but devoid of the peculiar character with which the 
 Protestant faith imbues it, and tainted with rationalism, 
 and in opposition to Germany, whom she knew to be 
 aggressive, but whom she did not yet know to be the 
 apostle of might and instinct, and the champion of the 
 demoniacal creed of Nietzsche and the relics of Teuton 
 paganism, England appeared as the nation of Christians 
 and gentlemen who could only carry on the war as such. 
 Even now they pray in all their churches for the enemy. 
 She is also the nation of sportsmen in the almost wholly 
 moral sense in which this word has been used for the last 
 fifteen or twenty years — sportsmen determined to play 
 the game, that is, to play it fairly, without any blind 
 hatred, and without allowing the desire to win to interfere 
 with the respect for the rules, or even the respect for the 
 adversary, whom they considered worthy of them, and 
 whose hand they would be ready to shake when the 
 struggle was over, whether he won or lost. In spite of the 
 feverish excitement which prevailed at the time of the war 
 in the Transvaal. . . . permission was given, two years 
 after the submission of the Boers, for the erection of a 
 statue to President Kruger at Pretoria ; and it is in keeping 
 with the same spirit that a new Dreadnought was christened 
 with the name of Botha — ^while the Germans were con- 
 fident of the success of the revolt they had fomented, as 
 though the Transvaal were a Prussian Poland or an Alsace- 
 Lorraine. 
 
 " Such were the illusions and such the feelings of Eng- 
 land, when she entered the lists. An English volunteer 
 said to me : ' We thought we were starting a rough game 
 of football,' an expression which seems curious to us, but 
 perfectly natural the other side of the Channel. . . . To- 
 day, England recognises that a war with Germany is not 
 a game of football. She has now learnt the meaning of the 
 word ' enemy,' and that the present enemy in particular 
 is not only an adversary, but an adversary who hates and 
 intends to destroy, with little regard for the means. She 
 is astonished at her own simplicity of the earlier days, 
 
GERMANS AS THEY SEE THEMSELVES 281 
 
 which, like other points of weakness, was only a mark of 
 her failure to adapt herself to circumstances, proving once 
 more the slowness of this country to change its habits and 
 its tendencies in such a way as to meet the changes outside. 
 
 " At the beginning she fought against a people who tore 
 up treaties and burned and massacred in cold blood, as 
 she fought at the battle of Fontenoy. . . . Moved by 
 scruples and a feeling of generosity, she delayed for several 
 months to declare certain things contraband of war, 
 thereby allowing her enemy to accumulate fresh resources, 
 which may enable her to carry on the hostilities indefinitely. 
 She allowed thousands of Germans to move about at 
 their pleasure in the country, without even placing them 
 under supervision. She restored his sword with com- 
 pliments to the Commander of the Emden, who had com- 
 mitted tinquestionable acts of piracy. Almost a national 
 funeral was given to the officers of the Blucher who died in 
 captivity. At Oxford the zeal was carried still further. 
 In the sanctuary of Christ Church, commemorative tablets 
 were set up in honour of former Cecil Rhodes Foundation 
 Scholars of German nationality who died fighting against 
 England, and whose names, thus recorded in the heart 
 of the ancient University, will be perpetuated side by side 
 with those of distinguished Englishmen. Care was even 
 taken to mention on the marble the numbers of their 
 Prussian or Bavarian regiments. The country seat of 
 Donington Hall was set aside for the enemy's officers, who 
 had been taken prisoners, the preparation of which required 
 a special credit of 500,000 francs ; and there these gentle- 
 men, clad in new suits of flannel or tweed, played at 
 tennis, took their tea on beautiful lawns and had a servant 
 for every three of them. . . . 
 
 " But extraordinary news began to arrive from Belgium 
 and then from France — stories of plunder and systematic 
 massacres. Horrifying details of them were published in 
 the newspapers. But a public taught by its education 
 to respect good sense and the principles of law; readers 
 accustomed to order, moderation, and to the traditional 
 wisdom of Great Britain; — ^in a word, the moral, refined 
 
282 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 Englishman, loath to credit anything of which he has not 
 actual experience, was scarcely able to conceive the idea 
 of the monstrous entering into the reality of life. In this 
 old country, thoroughly imbued with the principles of 
 civilisation, so complete a subversion of these principles 
 was unthinkable. . . . The newspaper correspondents, 
 it was argued, must be exaggerating. The Germans were 
 known in England; that these peaceable consumers of 
 lager-beer, these level-headed clerks and traders, devoid 
 of humour and glued to their desks, could one day at a 
 distance of fifty leagues from London, conduct themselves 
 like Kipling's Dacoits, appeared improbable. . . . The 
 monstrous unimaginable truth only began to force itself 
 upon the masses after the arrival of the first letters from 
 English officers — English gentlemen who knew ' what is 
 evidence,' and of the truth of whose statements there could 
 thus be no doubt, and the return of the first wounded with 
 their stories to England, and the publication one by one 
 of the reports of the Belgian Commission of Inquiry. . . . 
 Little by little a full sense of the German crime against 
 humanity penetrated the public mind, and with it the 
 feeling of horror which may to-day be regarded as the 
 principal and indestructible factor in the English deter- 
 mination to conquer." 
 
 The writer proceeds to enumerate the various forms of 
 frightfulness, by the exhibition of which the German 
 " gorilla " only succeeded in producing amusement in the 
 English mind, or adding a stimulus to recruiting, and con- 
 cludes in the following words : " For the great mass of 
 the people, who are unable even to imagine the appearance 
 of the German on English soil, it is not a question of saving 
 the country, nor even of struggling for a democratic ideal 
 of justice and liberty as against the usurping principles of 
 autocracy, but of fighting against evil, against the powers 
 of sin and crime, against Satan, the enemy of God and 
 man, the dragon with whom the knights of old went forth 
 to do battle. . . . This idea, which German presumption 
 and hate have done so much to arouse, is accompanied 
 not by corresponding feelings of hate, but by one of 
 
GERMANS AS THEY SEE THEMSELVES 283 
 
 abomination, an idea and a feeling, which, being of a 
 religious order, are endowed with an infinite vitality. 
 This is the reason why to-day every Englishman, whether 
 he speaks it aloud or not, understands that the present 
 struggle is a fight to a finish. In vain, Germany, having 
 failed in her object, makes periodical attempts to discuss 
 terms of peace. The moral Powers, which she has herself 
 brought into being, will not be appeased. Experience has 
 taught the world that she does not consider herself bound 
 by a treaty — and in the history of the war nothing has 
 more shocked the English conscience; that, therefore, 
 there is no possibility of treating or living with her, and 
 that only two things remain, either to crush her power for 
 ever, or perish. In England this belief, once conceived 
 and difhised throughout the country, will endure in- 
 definitely. The war will one day come to an end, but 
 England will never forget." 
 
XVI 
 
 THE DANGERS OF A PREMATURE PEACE 
 
 And is it right that we should forget ? The proprietors 
 of the French journal Le Matin presented a bronze statue of 
 Miss Cavell to the " Ville de Paris," to be placed in some 
 public spot, in order, as they said, " que la perpetuite du 
 souvenir de ce meurtre infame soit I'eternel chatiment de 
 ses auteurs," and it will be well if monuments are raised in 
 this country also to the Martyrs of German barbarism, lest 
 posterity forget. But to have taken means to keep thus 
 vividly before the eyes of future generations the cataclysm 
 with which Europe was threatened at the beginning of 
 this century, will not acquit us of the duty we owe them. 
 We must make it as impossible as in us lies that they shall 
 not be exposed to a similar — or a greater — danger. We 
 shall be guilty of an unpardonable crime if we allow nothing 
 better to issue from the appalling sacrifices, which this 
 generation is making, than a halting peace. The peace 
 which Germany wants is an armistice to enable her to re- 
 cruit her forces and perfect her new methods of warfare and 
 return to the attack on humanity with perhaps better 
 chances of success. Peace to-day means another war to- 
 morrow. Her generals, professors and publicists avow it. 
 
 " If the victory is only half won, they [Germany's 
 enemies] would have to expect continuous renewals of 
 the contest, which would be contrary to their interests," ^ 
 
 " When peace shall be restored no German who respects 
 himself will ever be able to live under the same roof with 
 an Englishman. There can be no compromise as to this 
 matter. We must swear a national vendetta against the 
 
 1 Bernhardi, Germany and the Next War, p. 153. 
 284 
 
THE DANGERS OF A PREMATURE PEACE 285 
 
 English, and never rest, never cease our preparations for 
 another war, and neglect no effort until we shall have 
 destroyed to all eternity the last traces of English power.^ 
 
 " Even if the war does not end as we hope it will ... we 
 shall be hated by the whole of Europe. . . . We shall not, 
 in future, be able to allow any period of youth to pass with- 
 out military instruction. Education in war must begin 
 from the tenderest age." * 
 
 " We of the educated classes are perhaps not so con- 
 fident. . . . Naturally we do not count any longer on 
 crushing the enemy. . . . But I am strongly of opinion 
 that with a little more courage, and with the help of that 
 diplomatic skill which has occasionally failed us, we may 
 hope to obtain that honourable peace — cette paix blanche — 
 which will assure to Germany the glory of having kept the 
 whole world in check, consolidate her prestige in Europe, 
 and enable her in the next twenty years, after she has 
 repaired the breaches, to establish her sway (Herrschafi)." * 
 
 Count Ernst zu Reventlow declares in the Deutsche 
 Tageszeitung * that " unless Germany keeps the Belgian 
 coast and turns Zeebrugge into another Wilhelmshaven, 
 pointed at Great Britain's heart," no peace terms will 
 please him. 
 
 One and all we desire nothing more than to see the end of 
 this nightmare, but any one who, in this or the Allied Coun- 
 tries, raises his voice to support the conclusion of peace on 
 conditions other than such as would make it impossible 
 for the Central Powers to renew their attempts to subjugate 
 the world, to Germanise it and trample it under the heel of 
 a military despotism — ^in other words, any one who advo- 
 cates a " peace without victory," is either wholly incapable 
 
 ^ Professor von Seyden in the Frankfurter Zeitung. — Paroles 
 Allemandes, p. 73. 
 
 * Die Kreuzzeitung, quoted by a writer in the Figaro (23rd 
 June, 1915) who adds : " Such is the ideal which (Germany pic- 
 tures to herself. Nothing but militarism, pure and simple; 
 un weaned infants in helmets." 
 
 * From a letter found on a German officer, quoted by the 
 Figaro. * December 1, 1916. 
 
286 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 of realising the issues at stake or he is the enemy's accom- 
 plice. Unconsciously or consciously he is working for his 
 own damnation, and what is worse, for the damnation of 
 those who come after. You, who are ready to make a truce 
 with Germany, while her power for evil is still unbroken, 
 and who would give her time and opportunity to forge new 
 weapons by which she may invade this island, what will 
 be your feelings when your homes are laid in ruins, when 
 your wives and daughters — ^yes, British women and girls — 
 are thrown, like those of France and Belgium, to the 
 Kaiser's soldiers as "their reward"^; when at last you 
 realise the appalling character of the atrocities and besti- 
 alities which the troops of this " cultured nation " have 
 perpetrated on the Continent? The men who torpedo 
 hospital ships and fire on Red Cross ambulances will not 
 deal tenderly with us. The bitter hatred which they 
 nourish towards our nation, because we intervened in 
 time to frustrate their plans, is expressed daily in terms 
 of grossest abuse. 
 
 " Hatred causes blindness," writes Dr. von Campe- 
 Hildesheim, of the Reichstag, in the Hamburger Nachrichten, 
 " so does powerful light, and the more powerful and purer 
 it is the more it blinds. Justice, too, is blind. That is to 
 say, she regards not the person but the cause. So it is 
 with our hatred of England. 
 
 " It is blind and therefore pure and holy. . . . Then let 
 us not be ashamed of this hatred, but glory in it, imbue our 
 families, our sons and daughters with it, for it is holy and 
 pure, and will in the end burn up in its incandescent inten- 
 sity every particle of that vile concoction of depravity, 
 selfishness, greed, malice and mendacity which constitutes 
 the armour of Albion. 
 
 " Therefore hatred must be our present cult, and it 
 shall yet forge for us weapons unheard-of to smite and crush 
 the foe against whom it is directed." ^ 
 
 The following letter was received by an English pro- 
 fessional man from a German now in Hamburg, who lived 
 
 1 See below, p. 307. 
 
 2 Quoted in the Daily Express, August 21, 1916. 
 
THE DANGERS OF A PREMATURE PEACE 287 
 
 for some years in England on terms of close friendship 
 with him: — 
 
 . . . . " The history of the last half-century absolutely 
 proves that all hope for the future of Europe lies in the 
 hands of my country. Russia is Asiatic and barbarous. 
 France and the other Latin countries are decadent. Eng- 
 land is mean-souled and trivial. Only Germany realises 
 the possibilities of to-morrow, and only Germany is capable 
 of protecting civilisation from the future inevitable on- 
 slaughts from the east. Germany's amazing progress has 
 awakened the enmity of her neighbours, and it was that 
 envy and enmity that made this war inevitable. 
 
 " There was no reason for Great Britain's interference. 
 Your statesmen professed lip-friendship to us. Up to the 
 last moment Sir Edward Grey led us to believe that Great 
 Britain would remain neutral. Then when we were em- 
 broiled with both Russia and France you sided with our 
 enemies. 
 
 " Never in the history of the world has a nation made 
 war for a meaner cause, and the hatred that we have for 
 Great Britain is the hatred that a nation of idealists natur- 
 ally feels for unscrupulous pettifogging hucksters. The 
 crime deserves an adequate punishment. Germany is 
 fighting for her life, and it is idle to suppose that she will 
 fight in kid gloves. She is more than justified in using all 
 the means devised by the ingenuity of her sons to compass 
 the ruin of her foes. Your denunciation of our ' barbarities' 
 leaves us entirely unaffected. We rejoice at the killing 
 of every single Englishman and at the loss of every British 
 ship. We remain cold if a few women and children are 
 killed by our air attacks on your cities. This is a war to 
 the knife, nation against nation, and it can only end in the 
 destruction of the race that has for centuries been the pirate 
 of the world. 
 
 " If you and I were to meet, friends as we were once, I 
 would not raise my little fiaiger to save your life, and indeed 
 I would do my utmost to cause you to lose it, because, as 
 I have said, you are an Englishman. . . . 
 
 " May you all perish in misery. — C. von S " ^ 
 
 ^ This letter was published in the Daily Express. 
 
288 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 These are no idle threats. I verily believe that if Ger- 
 many ever set foot in England, horrors would be enacted 
 there that would sicken a Nero.^ How will you fare, how 
 will those who come after you fare, when there is no law 
 but the Kaiser's law, the law of blood and iron through- 
 out our land? " It is unthinkable," you say. But it is not 
 unthinkable. Already our insular position does not give 
 us the same security as of old. Who knows against what 
 combination of circumstances, what new engines of war, 
 we may not have to contend another time? We have 
 allowed ourselves to be taken in once, and this time, as we 
 may hope, an indulgent Providence — and, nothing shows 
 more clearly that there is a Providence — is willing to save 
 us from destruction if we will but take heed. Should we 
 defy that Providence, and let ourselves be fooled again, we 
 shall deserve the fate that will assuredly overtake us, though 
 it be a worse fate than that of Belgium or Serbia. A bully, 
 merely rebuked and temporarily foiled, is ever nourishing 
 thoughts of revenge and watching his opportunity. You 
 are prepared to make another treaty with Germany and 
 trust her to abide by it ! How can we make any more 
 treaties with her without some sure means of enforcing 
 their execution, when all her great " Intellectuals " have 
 declared that treaties may be torn up at the convenience 
 of the State, that they should be broken on principle, and 
 her chief statesmen have called them " scraps of paper " 
 — when in fact they have been so torn up scores of times ? 
 A treaty is no more holy in their eyes than a cathedral or 
 a woman's honour. We n^iight as well sign a convention 
 with the leaders of a band of Thugs and trust them never 
 to make war on mankind again. Peace to-day would 
 
 ^ Since writing the above words I see that Mr. Gustave C. 
 Roeder, a member of the staff of the New York World, reports 
 that he heard the following statement made in Germany : " You 
 talk about the atrocities in Belgium committed by German 
 soldiers; whatever was committed in Belgium cannot be 
 called Barbarism on the part of the German army ; but once 
 let us get into England, and there will be no way of holding back 
 our soldiers ; and no doubt the world will hear of atrocities being 
 committed such as are unknown to-day." — Sir Theodore A. Cook, 
 The Mark of the Beast, 1917, pp. 300-1. 
 
THE DANGERS OF A PREMATURE PEACE 289 
 
 necessitate continued preparations for another war. It 
 would mean a renewal of rivalry in armaments, increased 
 war budgets, fresh intrigues in India and Egypt. The Ger- 
 man credit of fifty millions brought about the three years' 
 service law in France. Our thoughts would be for ever 
 fixed on war, nor would a treaty signed with Germany to-day 
 prevent her from making preparations to land a million 
 men on our shores, when she could take us unawares in the 
 midst of the peace we had given her, without any declara- 
 tion of hostility. Therefore, we can only make peace with 
 her when we are able, at the same time, to render it impossi- 
 ble for her to break that peace. There is no alternative to 
 this, and the only means by which we can effect it is to bring 
 about a situation which will crush the spirit of militarism 
 on which she has thriven. This fact is, at present, far 
 from being brought home to her. There is no sign of 
 repentance or remorse in the tone in which she is asking for 
 peace to-day.^ On the contrary, she is still glorying in the 
 wicked things she has done and vaimting her power to 
 perpetrate others still more hideous. " To these events 
 on land," said Bethmann-HoUweg, in allusion to the ex- 
 ploits achieved by the German armies on the Continent, 
 " heroic deeds of equal importance were added by our 
 submarines " ! His speech in the Reichstag concerning the 
 peace proposals is the apotheosis of German violence and 
 brutality, and in this spirit the recent Note to the Allies 
 was presented. It is the same spirit in which, three 
 years previously,^ he said : " I assert, gentlemen, that the 
 passionate aspiration of every Prussian is to protect against 
 all attacks the Prussian army and its leadership by the 
 Prussian King. We must prevent that army ever becoming 
 after the English model, ' the army of Parliament,' or under 
 any other than the control of the King of Prussia. The 
 strength of this national army, and its position under kingly 
 
 ^ The Austrian Press recently declared that, if the Allies would 
 not enter into peace negotiations, the Central Powers would carry 
 on the war with a conscience as clear as that with which they 
 began it! 
 
 a January 10, 1914. 
 u 
 
290 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 leadership must be maintained against all assaults. We 
 cannot take upon ourselves the responsibility of diminish- 
 ing one iota of the Prusso-German military system, which 
 has been, and is, and will be, the corner-stone of the 
 strength both of the Kingdom of Prussia and the German 
 Empire." i 
 
 It is the spirit in which their writers have argued: — 
 " Germany has exercised her right of necessity, and has 
 fulfilled a sacred duty towards herself and towards civilisa- 
 tion. Belgium is herself responsible for her fate. Every 
 sin has its punishment on this earth ; the crimes committed 
 by States are avenged in this world. A heavy responsi- 
 bility lies upon the Belgian statesmen. Only one excuse 
 can be urged in their favour, namely, that they did not 
 understand the great, noble and incomparable Germany " ; ^ 
 and in which the Lokalanzeiger has claimed that : 
 " Belgium comes to us like a bit of game that we have 
 brought down. It must be annexed to Germany. This is 
 not for the pleasure of granting to that riff-raff the honour 
 of belonging to the German Empire ! But we must use 
 Belgium as a closed fist under the nose of perfidious Albion " ; 
 and General von Dithfurt has written in Der Tag : " We do 
 not have to render an account to the world of our respon- 
 sibilities. We have nothing to justify, nothing to defend, 
 nothing to excuse. All that our troops do in order to over- 
 come the enemy, to bring victory to their banners, all is justi- 
 fiable. We have not the slightest need to trouble about the 
 judgment of foreigners, whether neutral or not, and if all 
 the monuments which separate our armies from the enemy 
 were reduced to dust ... we should have time to deplore 
 it when peace has been signed " ; and a Catholic priest, a 
 
 1 "It is not true that the combat against our so-called 
 militarism is not a combat against our civilisation . . . were 
 it not for German militarism German civilisation would long 
 since have been extirpated." (An address "To the Civilised 
 World," by ninety-three representatives of German science 
 and art.) 
 
 ^ Not kennt kein Gebot (" Necessity knows no Law "), by 
 Josef Kohler, Professor of Law at the University of Berlin; 
 quoted by the Figaro, September, 1915. 
 
THE DANGERS OF A PREMATURE PEACE 291 
 
 member of the Reichstag, has declared in the Vossische 
 Zeitung: "It is true that our soldiers have shot down, in 
 France and in Belgium, all the brigands — ^men, women, 
 children — and that they have destroyed their dwellings. 
 But whoever sees in that a contradiction of Christian 
 teaching, proves that he has not the slightest comprehen- 
 sion of the true Spirit of Christ." 
 
 It was in the same spirit that their ancestors asked for 
 peace of Caesar nearly two thousand years ago. The story 
 is so similar in all its details to the situation of to-day and 
 so instructive that it is worth recounting. Ambassadors 
 from two Gallic tribes, the ^Edui and the Sequani, pre- 
 sented themselves to Caesar to complain of the treatment 
 they had received at the hands of Ariovistus (i.e. Heerfiirst 
 or War-Lord) and the armies with which he had invaded their 
 country : — 
 
 " The same chiefs of the States who had previously 
 come to Caesar returned and asked if they might negotiate 
 with him in secret concerning their own welfare and that 
 of all the other States. The request being granted, they 
 threw themselves, in tears, at Caesar's feet, saying that 
 they no less begged and beseeched that what they shoiild 
 say might not be made known than that they might 
 obtain the object of their desires, because they foresaw 
 that if their aims were known they would be exposed to 
 the severest torture. Divitiacus, the ^duan, then became 
 their spokesman. . . . He said that about 15,000 of them 
 [the Germans] had at the beginning crossed the Rhine, and 
 that after these wild barbarians had destroyed their lands 
 and their cultivation and subdued the forces of the Gauls 
 more of them had been brought over; that there were 
 now in Gaul about 120,000 of them . . . but a greater 
 disaster had befallen the victorious Sequani than the 
 vanquished ^dui, for Ariovistus, the king of the Germans, 
 had settled within their boundaries and had occupied a 
 third part of their territory, which was the best in the whole 
 of Gaul, and was now ordering them to remove themselves 
 from the remaining third part. . . . The result would be 
 that, in a few years' time, they would all be driven from 
 
292 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 the land of Gaul, and the whole of the Germans would 
 cross the Rhine ; for the land of Gaul is not to be compared 
 with that of Germany, nor must the manner of living of 
 the latter be put on the same level with that of the former. 
 As soon as Ariovistus had defeated the Gauls in battle, 
 he began to rule over them in a haughty, cruel manner, 
 demanding from them as hostages the noblest children 
 of each State, and subjecting them to all sorts of tortures 
 if everything was not done at his nod and pleasure ; that 
 the man was a savage and passionate barbarian, and it 
 was impossible to endure his tyranny any longer. . . . 
 Ariovistus [being questioned by Caesar] replied; that 
 no one had ever entered the lists with him without bring- 
 ing about his own perdition; that Caesar might engage 
 in battle with him whenever he chose; he would then 
 realise what deeds invincible Germans, who were better 
 trained than all others in arms, and who had not been 
 under a roof for fifteen years, could perform by their 
 valour. . . . He [Ariovistus] expatiated largely on his 
 own virtues . . . [and said that] if Caesar would retire and 
 leave to him free possession of Gaul he would remunerate 
 him handsomely. When it became known among the 
 ranks with what arrogance Ariovistus had spoken at the 
 conference, that he had ordered the Romans to leave the 
 whole of Gaul, and that his cavalry had made an assault 
 upon our men, and that this circumstance had interrupted 
 the parley, the Roman army became imbued with greater 
 alacrity and eagerness for battle. . . . Ambassadors 
 came from them [the Germans] speaking as follows : 
 ' The Germans,' they said, ' were not the first to make war 
 upon the Roman people. ... If the Romans wished for 
 their friendship, they might be useful allies to them; let 
 them either assign lands to them or permit them to keep 
 those which they had won by their arms; they acknow- 
 ledged the superiority of no one but the Suevi, to whom the 
 immortal gods could not pretend to be equal; that there 
 was no one else on earth whom they could not conquer. 
 To these remarks Caesar replied in such words as he thought 
 fit, but the gist of his speech was that there could be no 
 friendship possible between him and them as long as they 
 
THE DANGERS OF A PREMATURE PEACE 293 
 
 remained in Gaul. But the enemy, as soon as they 
 had descried our cavalry, the number of which was 
 5000 , . . while our men entertained no apprehensions, 
 seeing that their ambassadors had quitted Caesar's presence 
 only a short time before, and that day had been granted 
 to them, at their request, as a period of truce, made a 
 sudden attack and threw our men into disorder. . . . 
 After this engagement Caesar was convinced that am- 
 bassadors should no longer be received in audience or 
 conditions accepted from men who, after having sued 
 for peace, by way of stratagem and treachery, renewed 
 hostilities without provocation; and to wait until the 
 enemy's forces had been augmented, would, he con- 
 sidered, be sheer madness." ^ And it would be sheer 
 madness to-day. 
 
 We may take warning also from Strabo's denunciation 
 of their treachery. " The hostilities were begun by the 
 Sugambri, who live on the banks of the Rhine. . . . One 
 after another of the tribes obtained the upper hand over 
 the Romans, and were in turn subdued only to rise again 
 without regard to the hostages they had delivered or the 
 faith they had pledged. By far the best course is to hold 
 them in distrust, as those who have been trusted by 
 the Romans have done the greatest mischief, as witness 
 the Cherusci and those who are subject to their rule. 
 It^was they who ambushed and destroyed three Roman 
 legions with their general. Varus Quintilius, in defiance 
 of treaties." * What they did in the days of Csesar and of 
 Strabo they have done, as we have seen, in the Middle 
 Ages and more recent times, and they will do it again in 
 the future. 
 
 But in all cases there is danger in the conclusion of 
 peace when the aggressor is only half-conquered. In 1802 
 we made a premature peace with Napoleon, to satisfy the 
 pacifists of that day — ^the Peace of Amiens — ^his armies 
 being then on the verge of exhaustion. Only three and a 
 half years later we were battling anew for the freedom of 
 Europe against those same armies. 
 
 1 Csesar, De Bella Gallico, i. 31, 36, 44, 46; iv. 7, 8, 12, 18. 
 
 2 Strabo, Geography, vii. 1. 
 
294 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 Germany will make no halting peace with us if ever she can 
 dictate the terms. She will see to it that the British Empire 
 shall never rise again. 
 
 " There are people," writes the Matin,^ " who imagine 
 that it will be wiser to accept as early a peace as possible, 
 and allow the German nation to recover from its ' passing 
 folly.' There cannot be a more dangerous illusion than 
 this. It is not true that the German people are suffering 
 from a ' passing folly.' They are literally subdued and 
 hypnotised by the race of the Hohenzollems, who have 
 persuaded them that they owe everything to them — ^their 
 wealth, their organisation, and their existence as a nation. 
 ... If Germany remains intact after the war, she will 
 immediately begin, all over again, the economic struggle 
 which she had so carefully organised ; while, from a military 
 point of view, the danger will be greater than ever. The 
 effects of over-population will be felt more acutely ten years 
 hence than they are now, and we may be sure that war 
 material will be collected and stored up in proportion to 
 the increase of the population. . . . Germany only half 
 conquered will be bent on revenge. If nothing better is 
 achieved than a halting or patched-up peace, Europe will 
 be exposed for the next fifty years at least to a new series 
 of wars ; and heaven knows what, in this case, will be the 
 end of our civilisation." 
 
 The North American has the same conviction : " Peace 
 now would be a mockery. The sovereignty of force would 
 be exalted. Militarism would emerge triumphant, and 
 bring under its iron sway the peoples of all nations. The 
 sacrifice of a million lives would have been vain, and this 
 war would be but the overture to a future struggle more 
 bloody, more destructive, and more cruel. 
 
 " Until the brazen idol of militarism is overthrown and 
 broken in pieces there will be no rest for the races of men. 
 And that can be accomplished only by compulsion achieved 
 through a decisive result." ^ 
 
 1 July 7, 1915. 
 
 2 February 5, 1915; quoted in A Textbook of the War for 
 Americans, p. 494. 
 
THE DANGERS OF A PREMATURE PEACE 295 
 
 Already, for more than a year, the Germans have been 
 employing all manner of devices to bring the neutrals to 
 their aid. Their efforts in this direction have become more 
 and more strenuous, and their devices more cunning i^ 
 proportion as their embarrassments have increased. 
 
 " Foreseeing the failure of their plot," wrote the Matin, 
 " our enemies are seeking again to persuade the neutrals that 
 the Allies, and England in particular, are alone opposed to 
 peace and responsible for the prolongation of the horrors 
 of war. But let us not be deceived by diplomatic intrigues 
 and cunning propaganda. For a year now this same Ger- 
 many . . . regardless of honour and of the dictates of 
 humanity, and in defiance of the engagements into which 
 she entered . . . has bombarded cathedrals, poisoned our 
 soldiers with gases, plundered private houses, and broken 
 into safes ! She has laid everjrthing waste, pillaged, 
 massacred, burnt and outraged. For a year this miserable 
 Kaiser and his savage people have let loose their loathsome 
 hordes on Belgium and France. And now that the plot, 
 laid bare before the eyes of the world, has miscarried; 
 now that, thanks to the patriotism of the Belgians and the 
 heroism of those who fought on the Marne, the tide has 
 turned ; now that the indefatigable tenacity of the Russians 
 has blocked the road to victory, and the daily increasing 
 determination of England is bringing unexpected armies 
 to the help of France, already victorious, the Royal Bandit 
 begins to reflect and repent." ^ . . . 
 
 In order to impress the neutrals, our enemies are now 
 raising the cry that they are fighting for the liberty of 
 the nations and in defence of democracy at home — ^but a 
 democracy under a Kaiser who has said : "It was in this 
 spot that my grandfather, in his own right placed the Royal 
 Crown of Prussia upon his head, insisting once again that 
 it was bestowed upon him by the grace of God alone, and 
 not by parliaments and meetings and decisions of the people. 
 He thus regarded himself as the chosen instrument of 
 Heaven, and as such carried out his duties as a ruler and 
 lord. I consider myself such an instrument of Heaven, 
 1 August, 1915, in an article entitled Trap tot. 
 
296 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 and shall go on my way without regard to the views and 
 opinions of the day" ^; while his brother declared that 
 he was actuated by one single motive : "A desire to pro- 
 claim to the nations the gospel of Your Majesty's sacred 
 person, and to preach that gospel alike to those who wDl 
 listen and those who will not." 
 
 Let them establish a true democracy, and give the pro- 
 mised freedom to the people they oppress. We may then 
 consider terms of peace. Meanwhile, we may remind 
 ourselves of the warning words which a Roman General 
 addressed to the Gauls of old : " The same motives that 
 first induced the Germans to cross the Rhine will ever sub- 
 sist; ambition, avarice, and the love of new settlements 
 will be perpetual incentives to them. . . . On your own 
 soil they wish to lord it over you. They come to ravage 
 your lands, and liberty is the pretence." ^ 
 
 " We shall have lost this war," as Mr. Bonar Law has 
 said, " unless we make it certain that never again shall it 
 be in the power of one man, or group of men, to turn the 
 world into the charnel-house which exists to-day." * 
 
 Our Allies are at one with us in this. Their statesmen 
 have made it clear to the world. Signor Bissolati, Vice- 
 President of the Boselli Cabinet, who was known for years 
 as an uncompromising socialist and pacifist, has spoken as 
 follows : " The peace to which the whole world aspires 
 after so many horrors and sacrifices must be a real and last- 
 ing peace and not a mere truce. Civilisation must be 
 safeguarded against attempts similar to the one against 
 which it is now reacting. ... I therefore think that any 
 State or States of the Entente which to-day harboured 
 thoughts of peace would be guilty of an act of treason." * 
 
 When M. Deschanel said, in the French Senate, " that 
 the blood of our martyrs would cry out against us if we 
 did not complete their work," the whole audience rose to 
 
 ^ Konigsberg, 1910; quoted in A Textbook of the War for 
 Americans, p. 141. 
 2 Tacitus, Hist. iv. 73. 
 » October 12, 1916. 
 * Quoted by The New Europe, October, 1916. 
 
THE DANGERS OF A PREMATURE PEACE 297 
 
 its feet, shouting " Vive la France ! Vive la Rdpublique ! " 
 The scene was repeated when he spoke of the faithfulness 
 of the Allies of France, and declared that France, relying 
 on them, would never yield either to the insolent threats 
 or the treacherous proposals of the enemy. "As if the 
 Allies," said General Joffre, in an address to his troops, 
 " who have sworn to continue the struggle to the death, 
 would think of violating the oath at the moment when the 
 hour of Germany's retribution is about to strike." Our 
 own men at the Front tell us that the glorious troops of 
 France are fighting as men fight in a Holy War. 
 
 How can any thinking men fail to be at heart in 
 sympathy with our cause when they realise the issues 
 at stake : " absolutism and militarism on the one hand, 
 liberty and representative government on the other " ; 
 when they see " Live and let live " inscribed on our banner 
 and " Deutschland uber Alles " and — ^what is worse — 
 " Deutschtimi iiber Alles" on that of our enemy; when 
 they see what nations are ranged with Germany against us 
 — ^Austria, trampling on the nationalities subject to her 
 sway, and torn by internal dissensions, and Turkey ! 
 What can humanity hope for from their ascendancy? 
 " The great philosophical anarchists of Paris and Petro- 
 grad stretch out their hands across the battle-field to the 
 religious believers in Delhi and Tibet.^ The opposite ends 
 of the earth are agreed in one thing at least — ^that they 
 will not suffer a State-machine to over-ride the human 
 spirit, or a bastard ' efficiency ' to strangle the beauty and 
 variety of human life." ^ 
 
 The Holland Section of the " League of Neutral States " 
 has appealed to the people of America, with special refer- 
 ence to the deportation and enslavement of Germany's 
 
 1 At the outbreak of the war the Grand Lama of Tibet offered 
 to place a force of 1000 men at the disposal of the Indian Gtovem- 
 ment and declared that he was praying for the success of British 
 arms. 
 
 * John Cowper Powys, The War and Culture, p. 78. 
 
 The savages of East Africa and New Guinea are imploring 
 us not to let them be again subjected to the horrors of the 
 German yoke. 
 
298 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 new victims, to join with the other neutrals in arresting 
 " the hellish scourge which at this moment lacerates the 
 whole of the North of France and Western Russia." In 
 another appeal, signed by a himdred and fifty well known 
 men in Holland, the writers call upon the neutrals, who are 
 in the full enjoyment of their liberty, to put themselves in 
 the place of Belgium. " Think," they say, " what it means 
 to be subjugated by a foreign master . . . and to know 
 that, if you resist him, you will lose your independence for 
 ever. . . . 
 
 " The Entente Powers declared, on the 14th of February, 
 1916, that they will accept no peace by which the political 
 and economic independence of Belgium is not wholly 
 restored. That is their reply to the German demands. 
 The neutrals also must reply. . . . 
 
 " It seems to us necessary that this principle should be 
 affirmed without delay by a formal demand of all the neutral 
 nations, since those who meditate an attack against a 
 weak neighbour, will hesitate to carry out their intentions 
 if they know that such an aggression will not remain un- 
 punished. . . . The world has at its disposal the means of 
 coercion, if not military, at least moral and economic ; and 
 the opinion of the world can, at the present moment, be 
 manifested only by action on the part of the neutrals. 
 They have the right, and it is their duty and within their 
 power to insist that they shall decide where the highest 
 interests of humanity are at stake." 
 
 " This terrible war," said Mr. Castberg, President of the 
 Norwegian Lower House, " with its broken treaties, its 
 violation of international law, its atrocities and its devas- 
 tations on land and sea, has rendered the peace movement 
 hopeless in the eyes of many. War threatens to create 
 a hatred that will be of greater intensity after this war 
 than after any other. A persistent and protracted econo- 
 mic and intellectual struggle will ensue between the nations, 
 which will demolish the remains of the basis of the peace 
 movement. 
 
 " And yet not only did England and Russia before the 
 war call for arbitration to prevent the war, but this war is 
 
THE DANGERS OF A PREMATURE PEACE 299 
 
 in itself, a more powerful protest of nations against war 
 than any other previous war has been. It will never be 
 forgotten that it was a flagrant breach of a treaty, an out- 
 rageous violation of a small nation's neutrality, that, in a 
 moment, roused public opinion in the British Empire to 
 such a degree that nothing could restrain it. It will never 
 be forgotten that, with this in view, Great Britain inscribed 
 on her baimer the inviolability of treaties and the right of 
 the small nations to liberty and independence after the war. 
 Over and over again this has been repeated by England's 
 leading statesmen. We have before us now the fact, 
 hitherto unknown in history, that the democracy (and first 
 and foremost the working men) of a country that is the 
 cradle of liberty in Europe, has voluntarily raised an army 
 of millions fighting on the plains of France and Flanders, 
 and millions of women working to release the men for 
 fighting. But all this has only been feasible because 
 democracy in that powerftd Empire is filled with the 
 belief that this is a struggle which, in the end, will crush the 
 policy of might, of war, and of militarism. The free people 
 of France and England, who formerly saved the liberty 
 of the world, feel in the very depths of theiu souls that it 
 is they who are at the head of a crusade for justice, liberty, 
 and peace. And therefore they are willing to pay such 
 heavy sacrifices and to endure." ^ 
 
 As to American opinion : " The world cannot, will not, 
 let Germany win this war," wrote the New York Times. ^ 
 " With her dominating all Europe, peace and security 
 would vanish from the earth. A few months ago the world 
 only dimly comprehended Germany; now it knows her 
 thoroughly. . . . For their own peace and safety, the na- 
 tions must demolish that towering structure of militarism 
 in the centre of Europe that has become the world's danger- 
 spot, its greatest menace." 
 
 And recently the New York Tribune has expressed itself 
 more at length in similar terms : — 
 
 1 Speech at the Scandinavian Parliamentary Conference at 
 Stockholm, quoted in Dagbladet, September 2, 1916. 
 
 2 December 15, 1914. 
 
300 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 " We have no interest in the question of frontiers : we 
 have no stake or concern in the matter of the possession of 
 Constantinople or the partition of Asia Minor. We are as 
 little concerned with some of the incidental issues of the 
 Great War as was Europe with some phases of the CivU 
 War. But we are interested in the preservation of hu- 
 manity, of civilisation, and of law from the assault which 
 the Germans have made upon them and the menace 
 which the survival of the German idea would have for 
 them. . . . 
 
 " The German method and the German ideal are old. 
 Frederick the Great did in Silesia what William II is doing 
 in Belgium. At the end of the war he kept Silesia, and 
 thus encouraged his successors to new acts of equal im- 
 morality. For nearly two centuries the German idea, 
 first Prussian, has marched from one idea to another to 
 accomplish the purpose of all Germans — ^the domination of 
 Europe and the mastery of the world. 
 
 "When the German people have resumed the control 
 of their own government, when the German people have 
 renounced the policies and the purposes of their rulers, 
 then peace may come without the despoliation of Germany 
 as peace came to France in Napoleon's time and left the 
 France of the Ancien Regime undisturbed. But if 
 Germany can remain as she is, if the German rulers can 
 bring back from this last terrible war of conquest a new 
 Silesia, a new Alsace-Lorraine, a new Schleswig, then we 
 shall have new wars until the time when at last the 
 German idea is crushed in the blood and slime of a final 
 defeat. 
 
 " All that civilisation means remains at stake. Nothing 
 has as yet been decided as to the momentous question 
 raised by Germany in the first week of August, 1914, when 
 she sent the vanguard of hosts into Belgium, to burn, to 
 slay, to ruin a nation, because it stood between Germany 
 and a purpose and dared to defend its honour and its 
 independence. Those who fired Louvain and sank the 
 Lusitania rule Germany ; they remain faithful to the spirit 
 of these crimes, and while this condition endures, peace is 
 
THE DANGERS OF A PREMATURE PEACE 301 
 
 impossible for long and peace now would be a crime against 
 posterity. . . . 
 
 " This war was born of German determination to crush all 
 that came between Germany and world domination. It 
 was provoked after long preparation, it was prosecuted with 
 fiendish brutality, which endures to the present moment, 
 and with each succeeding month gives new proof of German 
 spirit and German methods. It can only end when this Ger- 
 man spirit is exorcised, whether it ends at the Rhine or the 
 Spree, whether in 1917 or 1927. It can end only in one way, 
 because to believe that it could end save in German defeat 
 would be to believe that we were witnessing the end of all 
 that makes for sweetness and light, for human happiness 
 and human aspiration in this world." 
 
 Dr. Charles Eliot, President Emeritus of Harvard, has 
 spoken as follows : " With Germany might made right. 
 She made a violent attack on the weaker, because it was 
 the shortest, the easiest way. What a blow this was to 
 our idea of mercy, to our conception of the progress of 
 man from a barbarian to a civilised, fair, merciful being ! 
 We had hoped that the methods of war were capable of 
 amelioration, but this war has blown all those hopes to 
 the winds. 
 
 " All our hopes were shattered by Germany's action. 
 All our American ideas of the right to life, liberty, property, 
 happiness, were nullified by this nation, which is led by a 
 ruler who has an archaic idea of his powers and of his 
 relation to the world. Germany has shown us that in the 
 most advanced nation, as far as science is concerned, there 
 is no place for mercy, no place for goodwill and that hatred 
 takes the place of good motives. 
 
 " We must bear in mind the deep obligations which this 
 nation is under to England and France, so deep that it is 
 vain to expect us to be in our hearts neutral. Can we 
 think of giving no aid to France if she comes to the end of 
 her resources ; to England if she should be reduced to like 
 straits ? 
 
 " But let us not confuse our minds by failing to see 
 whither the German policy tends. Let us not dream of 
 
302 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 abandoning our faith that human relations shall be 
 determined by considerations of justice, mercy, love and 
 goodwill. We must help the AUies if our assistance is 
 requested." ^ 
 
 " The side," says Mr. William White, " which regards 
 war as a ' biological necessity,' which glorifies Might as 
 superior to Right, which first flouts and disregards treaties 
 and conventions, and then tries falsely to explain them 
 away ; the side which, in spite of — or largely because of — 
 the tragic befoolment of millions of plain, worthy, simple- 
 minded people, represents essentially a mediaeval, warlike 
 aristocracy — that side can never hope to have the sympathy, 
 support, or co-operation of the American people. A peace 
 that would establish as the practical ruler of the world a 
 Power whose avowed intent is to be such a ruler, and to 
 force upon its fellow-nations its own perverted standards 
 of Kultur, of civilisation, of national and international 
 morals, ought to be — and, I believe, would be — ^intolerable 
 to this country. 
 
 " Therefore the only sort of peace which would seem 
 desirable to America is a peace which shall ensure the 
 dominance and continuous spread of the ideals for which 
 the Allies are fighting." ^ 
 
 The American " Committee of Rights " passed a reso- 
 lution in March, 1916, to the effect that : " The safety and 
 honour of the American people and their duty to defend 
 and maintain the rights of humanity require us to approve 
 the cause for which the Entente Allies are fighting, and to 
 extend to these Allies by any means in our power, not only 
 sympathy but direct co-operation at the proper time, to 
 the end that government of the people, by the people, for 
 the people shall not perish from the earth." . . . 
 
 In an Address to the People of the AUied Nations, signed 
 by five himdred of America's men of letters, the writers say : 
 " The time has come — ^if indeed it has not long since passed 
 — when Americans owe it to themselves to express more 
 
 1 Address on " America's Duty in Relation to the European 
 War," quoted in A Textbook of the War for Americans, p. 343. 
 
 2 A Textbook of the War for Americans, pp. 483-4. 
 
THE DANGERS OF A PREMATURE PEACE 303 
 
 publicly and more formally their sympathies and their 
 judgment. Even as we have always held ourselves, as a 
 nation, free to express openly our sympathies for peoples 
 struggling for their liberties, so now we have the duty of 
 at least making clear our solidarity of sentiment with 
 those who are struggling to preserve the liberties of the 
 world and the highest ideals of civilisation. 
 
 " The main facts in the controversy have long been 
 before us. The case of the Teutonic allies, especially, 
 has not lacked fullness of statement. The ablest German 
 publicists and professors have presented the Austro- 
 German contentions with great eloquence. Numerous 
 German documents have been widely circulated, and an 
 active, and sometimes insidious, German propaganda has 
 been extensively carried on in the United States. 
 
 " The American judgment has been deliberately formed, 
 and it is based very largely on a study of German documents 
 and of German statements as to the points at issue. 
 
 " The signers of this document are not unmindful of the 
 great contributions which Germany has in the past made 
 to the common treasure of modern civilisation; all of us 
 acknowledge our debt to Germany; many of us have 
 the advantage of German education; some of us are of 
 German blood. But the welfare of that civilisation for 
 which Germany has done so much, the highest interests 
 of Germany herself, demand that in this conflict Germany 
 and Austria shall be defeated. We confidently and hope- 
 fully look forward to that result. . . . 
 
 "It is because we believe that the success of Great 
 Britain, France, Italy and Russia will mean the restoration 
 of Belgium and of Servia, and the suppression of militarism, 
 that we ardently hope for that consummation. In that 
 hope we believe the future of civilisation to be involved." 
 
 " Solemn treaties," says Professor Hale, " made ' be- 
 tween the United States and other Powers,' including 
 Germany, have been broken by her. The breaking of a 
 treaty is always a sufficient reason for a declaration of war 
 if the offended party desires. We had a sufficient reason 
 on the day on which the text of the German ultimatum to 
 
304. THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 Belgium was published even if we were doubtful about 
 the ridiculous reason given. Germany's announcement 
 that, if Belgimn resisted the violation of her territory, 
 Germany would regard her resistance as a hostile act, and 
 treat the relations of the two countries hereafter according 
 to the arbitrament of war, was enough. When precious 
 historical monuments, which are in a very true sense the 
 property of all mankind, began to be destroyed or to be 
 gravely injured there was again enough. When an unfor- 
 tified and undefended town was three times bombarded 
 there was again enough. When the peaceful vessels of 
 neutrals, as well as vessels of war, began to be blown up by 
 floating mines there was once more enough. And even 
 if we did not make war, it was our duty at the very least to 
 address a temperate protest to Germany. We did not pro- 
 test. The love of fair play is inherent in the Anglo-Saxon 
 race, as well as in most others. Even a crowd at a prize- 
 fight or a game will not tolerate repeated and deliberate 
 foul play and wait to the end in the hope of adjudication. 
 It will promptly drag the offending party out of the ring. 
 But we do nothing." ^ 
 
 ^ Prof. William Gardner Hale, of Chicago, in the New York 
 Tribune of November 10, 1914; quoted in A Textbook of the 
 War for Americans, p. 347. 
 
 With reference to the indifference of the neutrals, the 
 Temps, in its issue of 23rd September, 1915, writes : " The 
 conventions of the Hague and the decisions of numerous con- 
 ferences are outrageously violated by the brutal German 
 invaders, while Governments, which proclaimed with us the 
 sanctity of international obligations, remain unmoved. The 
 Central Empires have rendered of no effect the signatures of 
 their co-contractors ; their cruelties have surpassed the limits of 
 the horrors of war, and their tmdisguised lust for copquest and 
 domination threatens the nations. Their allies, the Turks, 
 are massacring the Greeks and exterminating the Armenians, 
 dividing their women amongst them and selling their children 
 into slavery : and we are still waiting for the neutrals to protest 
 against their monstrous crimes ! 
 
 " Serbia, Belgium, France, England and Russia have been 
 struggling for fourteen months against the aggressors, and Italy 
 has voluntarily joined them. It is to these Powers alone that 
 the world leaves the task of protecting it against the most 
 serious peril which has ever menaced it." 
 
THE DANGERS OF A PREMATURE PEACE 305 
 
 Nothing, that is, as a nation. But there are many from 
 neutral countries, and amongst them, Americans, fighting 
 in our ranks. What can give better testimony to the 
 purity of our cause than that letter, written by a young 
 American, to his " folks at home," a few days before he 
 was struck down by a German bullet ? ^ 
 
 " I am now no longer untried," he said. " Two weeks' 
 action in a great battle is to my credit, and if my faith in 
 the wisdom of my course or my enthusiasm for the cause 
 had been due to fail, it would have done so during that 
 time. But it has only become stronger; I find myself a 
 soldier among millions of others in the great Allied armies, 
 fighting for all I believe right and civilised and humane 
 against a power which is evil and which threatens the 
 existence of all the right we prize and the freedom we 
 enjoy. 
 
 " It may seem to you that for me this is all quite uncalled 
 for, that it can only mean either the supreme sacrifice for 
 nothing, or at best some of the best years of my life wasted ; 
 but I tell you that not only am I willing to give my life to 
 this enterprise (for that is comparatively easy, except 
 when I think of you), but that I firmly believe — if I live 
 through it to spend a useful lifetime with you — ^that never 
 will I have an opportunity to gain so much honourable 
 advancement for my own soul, or to do so much for the 
 cause of the world's progress, as I have here daily defend- 
 ing the liberty that mankind has so far gained against 
 the attack of an enemy who would deprive us of it and 
 set the world back some centuries if he could have his 
 way. 
 
 " I think less of myself than I did, less of the heights of 
 personal success I aspired to climb, and more of the service 
 that each of us must render in pajnnent for the right to 
 live and by virtue of which only we can progress. 
 
 " Yes, my dearest folks, we are indeed doing the world's 
 work over here, and I am in it to the finish." ^ 
 
 ^ Lieut. Harry Butters, a citizen of California. 
 * Quoted in the Press of September 9, 1916. 
 
 X 
 
306 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 And when he fell his captain wrote of him : — 
 
 " He was with his guns, and no one could have died in 
 a nobler way. . . . He was one of the brightest, cheeriest 
 boys I have ever known, and always the life and soul of the 
 mess. . . . We all realised his nobility in coming to the help 
 of another country entirely of his own free will, and under- 
 stood what a big heart he had. He was loved by all." 
 
 And there is the tribute of the Dominions and of India 
 who, Germany thought, would throw off their allegiance 
 at the beginning of the war. As M. Pierre Hamp ^ ob- 
 serves : . . . " The active solidarity of the British colonies, 
 the loyalty to the Empire of millions of men scattered 
 over the whole circimaference of the earth, furnish a rare 
 instance of an ardent patriotism even in countries whose 
 frontiers are not exposed to invasion from without. This 
 bond, established without the employment of any force, 
 between diverse races, is England's great moral victory 
 in this war, an achievement whereby she gives evidence 
 to the world of the noble manner ia which she directs the 
 destinies of men. Without constraint she leads them by 
 millions to the sacrifice." . . . 
 
 " There are in India," writes Mr. F. W. Whitridge,^ " two 
 hundred and seventy million people governed by less than 
 eight hundred white men with an insignificant army. 
 Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and the islands all 
 over the globe are bound to Great Britain by little more than 
 a flag and a language, and yet they have begun to pour forth 
 money and men to fight against the extension of German 
 Kultur, and promise as much and as many more as are 
 necessary to prevent a final German victory." 
 
 We shall have behaved with infamous treachery towards 
 these men if, after accepting their sacrifices, we conclude 
 a peace which will make it possible that those sacrifices 
 shall have been made in vain. 
 
 " There must be reparation for the past," said Mr. Bonar 
 Law, "and security for the future." Reparation in the 
 full sense there can never be, but there can be punishment 
 
 1 In the Figaro, November 28, 1915. 
 
 ^ One American's Opinion of the European War, p. 14. 
 
THE DANGERS OF A PREMATURE PEACE 307 
 
 for the crime committed. " Is he going to make good the 
 desolated homes, the losses of the widows and the fatherless, 
 the sack, rapine and ruin that the brutal bully has brought 
 upon an inoffensive people in order that he may trample 
 his way to world power? How will he make good the 
 unbridled hcence of the German soldier, including the 
 outrage of women, which General von Boehn, according to 
 his American interviewer, Mr. Powell, of the New York 
 World, cynically endorsed as ' the soldier's reward ' ? " i 
 
 No one demands that the aggressor shall be brought to 
 trial in more strenuous words than the German Hermann 
 Femau in his book, Gerade weil ich Deutscher bin ^ : — 
 
 " Only after the resolute prosecution of this trial," 
 he says, " shall we have a Europe capable of organising 
 such a condition of public peace as accords with human 
 reason. Any one who strives to establish such a condition 
 without having first demanded the punishment of the 
 criminal — any one who is capable of appealing for assistance 
 in the reorganisation of Europe to those who have hitherto 
 declined to share the responsibility for war with their 
 people — ^is setting a wolf to mind the sheep and constituting 
 himself the protector of the war-fury. 
 
 " In the name of the millions who have already fallen in 
 this gigantic war, in the name of the millions perchance 
 yet to fall, in the name of the public peace and security 
 of Europe, in the name of the culture and civilisation of 
 our earth, in the name of the inviolable, unwritten and 
 eternal right of the nations, I demand this trial and this 
 punishment, and I demand them 
 
 " JUST BECAUSE I AM A GERMAN." 
 
 In an interview which he gave to the correspondent of 
 the Matin at Bale in April, 1916, the same writer spoke as 
 follows : — 
 
 " For the present the Government has been able by 
 means of various devices, and with the help of a servile 
 Press, to deceive the people, and make them believe 
 
 ^ Germany's Designs on South Africa, p. 84. 
 
 2 English translation. Because I am a German, pp. 153-4. 
 
 X2 
 
308 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 that Germany, peace-loving Germany, was treacherously 
 attacked by her enemies, who were jealous of her ; but 
 there are persons in the country whose minds have lately 
 begun to be enlightened. 
 
 " The Government which has only been able to maintain 
 its credit on the strength of successful military operations 
 which it has skilfully exploited — ^this Government will 
 fall to pieces when, as the result of an important military 
 reverse, the last illusions of those who still believe in the 
 final triumph of our arms have vanished. 
 
 " I do not go so far as to say that we shall then have a 
 bloody revolution, but I am certain that when the German 
 people awake from the state of lethargy in which the 
 manoeuvres of a special military caste have plunged them, 
 their relentlessness will be in proportion to their disillusion. 
 
 " As to the violation of Belgium, I condemn it, firstly, as a 
 German ; and secondly, in the name of the treaties and con- 
 ventions which guaranteed the neutrality of that country. 
 I condemn at the same time the pretext invoked by the 
 German Government that the war was a defensive war. 
 In the first place this assertion rests on no true basis. 
 Germany was threatened by no one, and in the second place 
 the fact that you suspect your neighbour of intending to 
 steal does not authorise you to knock him down and rob 
 him of his watch. 
 
 " Happily we may say from to-day that Prussian mili- 
 tarism is overcome ; it is clear that sooner or later Germany 
 must yield to the superior power of her adversaries, to the 
 economic difficulties which beset her. 
 
 ' ' England has never yet been known to yield. She fought 
 against Napoleon for fifteen years, and Napoleon was cer- 
 tainly as formidable as those who are to-day at the head of 
 the Prussian military caste. 
 
 " For my country's interest, I ardently hope that the Allies 
 will speedily win the victory, and that an end will be made 
 once and for all of the uniformed coteries, the wearers of 
 long sabres, the enemies of progress and of real civilisation. 
 
 " In its interest I hope that the restoration of peace and 
 the establishment of a republic will permit the German 
 
THE DANGERS OF A PREMATURE PEACE 309 
 
 people, delivered at last from the oppressor, to accomplish 
 useful and peaceful work. 
 
 "If Germany should, contrary to all expectations, emerge 
 victorious from this terrible conflagration, liberalism and 
 the power of nations to dispose freely of their destinies 
 would be for ever denied them. There would, in one word, 
 be an end to right and justice and a return to primitive 
 barbarism. 
 
 " The war must make a clean sweep of everything which 
 might serve in the future to encourage a return to the 
 attack. For this reason the peace for which the Allied 
 armies are fighting must be a peace which will give an 
 aspect to the map of Europe altogether different from 
 that which it had before the war. 
 
 " The treaty which will regard the condition of future 
 peace must have its basis in respect of the rights of the small 
 nations to exist — ^the Serbs, Czechs, Roumanians, Ruthen- 
 ians, Poles and others, not forgetting the valiant little 
 Belgium, who must be reinstated in her territorial and 
 constitutional rights with a heavy indemnity." 
 
 Security for the future must be of a twofold nature. It 
 is not enough that it should be made physically impossible 
 for Germany to repeat her attack upon the freedom of the 
 nations ; such retribution must be meted out to those who 
 are proved to be directly responsible for the crime as will 
 deter others from following in their footsteps. Their 
 treachery has already found imitators in Greece, whose 
 rulers have set at naught the sanctity of treaties with the 
 same callousness as the German Chancellor himself. 
 Others, as we have seen, have shown themselves apt 
 pupils of Germany in their disregard of the rules of 
 war. 
 
 The day may be yet distant when justice will be done, 
 though, in the opinion of many, it is near at hand. An 
 American journalist, Mr. Frank H. Simmonds, prophesied 
 that : "As the third year of the war opens not more than 
 4,000,000 Austro-Germans, the last line, will confront 
 6,000,000 Russians, British, and French, helped by some 
 
310 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 hundreds of thousands of Slavs and Belgians, behind whom 
 will stand Russian and British reserves of at least 4,000,000. 
 This means, Avith every discount for the roughness of the 
 estimate, that some time in the third year, while Russia 
 and Britain are still able to keep their armies at their 
 present point, Austro-German forces will begin to decline 
 rapidly and a tremendous advantage of numbers will 
 belong to the enemies of Germany." ^ 
 
 Of greater weight is the testimony of an eminent Frank- 
 fort banker, who, in an interview at Amsterdam with the 
 special correspondent of the Petit Parisien, made the 
 following statement : — 
 
 " We shall never conquer our enemies. We were de- 
 ceived as to the attitude of Italy and Roumania as much as 
 we were in regard to England and Belgium. We were 
 formidably deceived as to the strength of resistance and 
 the moral unity of France, and deceived as to the attitude 
 of neutrals, especially the United States, who to-day hate 
 Germany more than any enemy country does. All our 
 Foreign Ministers, all our Ambassadors, have lied to us. 
 
 " Fortunately we had a good army. It has spared us 
 many miseries, and without it we shovild have been finished. 
 As it is, we are too ill to recover, for where shall we get 
 money? That is the insoluble question for Germany. 
 To-morrow she will be ruined financially. 
 
 " We should know, in the first place, whether the Allies 
 are disposed to converse. If they are we should be disposed 
 to join a conference at an early date at the Hague, under 
 the auspices of Queen Wilhelmina. Germany is ready to 
 make sacrifices, because she sees that unless she humiliates 
 herself nothing will happen. If, on the other hand, the 
 Allies are not disposed to converse, an internal revolution 
 will be the result, for the German people have had enough. 
 
 " That is the whole secret of the situation. The Kaiser, 
 in spite of his divine right, must reckon with his people. 
 For thirty months he has let butchery loose, and this is 
 the end of it all. This war has caused us to advance a 
 
 ^ Tfie Review of Reviews, February, 1915. 
 
THE DANGERS OF A PREMATURE PEACE 311 
 
 century in two years, and that is the only benefit we shall 
 derive from it." 
 
 Decidedly optimistic in tone is a report by Sir Douglas 
 Haig — and what better assurance can we have ? " The 
 enemy's power," he says, "has not yet been broken, nor is 
 it yet possible to form an estimate of the time the war 
 may last before the objects for which the Allies are fighting 
 have been attained. 
 
 "But the Somme battle has placed beyond doubt the 
 ability of the Allies to gain those objects. 
 
 " The German army is the mainstay of the Central Powers, 
 and a full half of that army, despite all the advantages 
 of the defensive, supported by the strongest fortifications, 
 suffered defeat on the Somme this year." 
 
 The submarine menace, too, will be overcome. But there 
 is stem work yet before us. Let us nerve ourselves to 
 face it for the sake of those who will come after, though our 
 resources have to be strained to the utmost. There are 
 few of us to whom this war has not brought distress in one 
 form or another. To very many of us it has brought days 
 of bitter agony ; but we must march on with dry eyes to 
 the completion of our task. " For the present, we must 
 think of the past," as General Joffre said to his troops, 
 " only that we may gather assurance for the future and 
 remember the dead only that we may avenge them " — or at 
 least bring it about that they shall not have died in vain. 
 
 " This is no time for tears — no time to mourn. 
 No time for sombre draperies of woe. 
 Let the aggressors weep, for they have sinned 
 The sin of Satan — lust of power and pride — 
 Mean envy of their neighbours' weal — a plot 
 Hatched amidst glozing smiles and prate of peace, 
 Through the false years — until the Day — the Day 
 When all this kneeling at the Devil's feet 
 Should win the world — ^ay, let them weep. 
 
 But we 
 With eyes undimmed march on — our mourning robes 
 Bejewelled by the deeds of those that die, 
 Lustre on lustre — ^till no sable patch 
 Peeps through their brilliance. 
 
312 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL 
 
 In the years to come. 
 When we have done our work, and G!od's own peace. 
 The peace of Justice, Mercy, Righteousness, 
 Like the still radiance of a summer's dawn. 
 With tranquil glory floods a troubled world — 
 .... That is the time for tears — 
 Drawn from a well of love deep down — deep down, 
 Deep as the mystery of immortal souls — 
 That is the time for tears — not now — not now ! " ^ 
 
 It has been said that this is a war to end war. If this 
 aim is reached, good will ensue commensurate even with 
 the blackness of Germany's crime, 
 
 1 From a poem entitled "Aftermath," published in The 
 Times, in November, 1914. 
 
LIST OF AUTHORS AND NEWSPAPERS 
 CITED OR REFERRED TO 
 
 Ambert (General). " Recits Militaires," 268 
 " Amicus Patri^." " Armenien und Kreta," 23 
 Ammianus Marcellinus. Roman History, 263 
 Andler (Charles). " ' Frightfulness ' in Theory and Prac- 
 tice," 15, 271 ; " Pan-Germanism," 20, 23 
 
 Bailey (The Right. Hon. W. F.). " The Slavs of the War 
 
 Zone," 245w. 
 Baumgarten (Pastor D.). " Deutsche Reden in schwerer 
 
 Zeit," 204 
 Bavarin (Fleury) in the Figaro, 143 
 Beck (James M.). " The Evidence in the Case," 120; " Edith 
 
 Cavell," 20V 
 B:feDiER (Joseph). " Les Crimes Allemands d'aprSs des t^moi- 
 
 gnages allemands," 182-3, 184; "Comment I'AUemagne 
 
 essaie de justifier ses crimes," 183 
 Belgian Official Reports, 149, 181 
 Berlin- Anzeiger, 151 
 Berliner Post, 274 
 Bernhardi (General von). " Germany and the Next War," 
 
 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 133, 284; " How Germany 
 
 makes War," 13, 14, 18; " Unsere Zukunft," 262; " Vom 
 
 Heutigen Kriege," 141 
 Blatchford (Robert). " Germany and England," 4-5, 27 
 Bloem (Walter) in the Kolnische Zeitung, 136 
 Blue Book relating to German Atrocities and Breaches of the 
 
 Rules of War in Africa, 212 
 Bluntschli (Professor). 140 
 BoTTA. " Storia della Guerra Americana," 271 
 Brenier (Flavien). " Le Vieux Dieu Allemand," 194, 246-8, 
 
 267 
 
 C-ESAR (Julius). " De Bello GalUco," 266, 293 
 Campe-Hildesheim (Dr. von) in the Hamburger Nachrichten, 
 
 286 
 Chemnitzer Volkstimme, 27 
 
 313 
 
314 LIST OF AUTHORS AND NEWSPAPERS 
 
 Clausewitz (General von). " Vom Kriege," 17, 135, 136 
 CoHN (August). " Some Aspects of the War as viewed by- 
 Naturalised British Subjects," 123 
 Cook (Sir Theodore Andrea). " Kaiser, Krupp and Kultur," 
 
 50, 118, 138, 189; " The Mark of the Beast," 288 
 Corbett-Smith (Major). " The Retreat from Mons," 193-4 
 Cramb (Professor). " Germany and England," 3, 10 
 
 Dagbladet, 299 
 
 Dahn (Felix). " Urgeschichte der Germanischen und Roman- 
 
 ischen Volker," 269 ; Poem, 244 
 Dampierre (Jacques de). " L'AUemagne et le Droit des 
 
 Gens," 30, 42, 43, 133-4, 140, 145, 149, 181, 182, 186, 191, 
 
 205, 241, 244 
 Darmstadter Tageblatt, 28 
 
 Davignon (Henri). " La Belgique et I'AUemagne," 141 
 Delbruck (Professor). " Germany's Answer," 19, 274 
 Der Tag, 50 
 
 Deutsche Tageszeitung, 27 
 Dillon (Dr.). " A Scrap of Paper," 3, 49 
 Dion Cassius. Roman History, 266 
 Diplomatic Documents, 34-42, 53, 54, 55-116 
 DiTHEURT (Gteneral von) in Der Tag, 290 
 DuRKHEiM (Professor). " Germany above All," 19 
 
 Fernau (Hermann). " Gerade weil ioh Deutscher bin," 6, 
 
 239, 307 
 FiTZPATRicK (Sir Percy). " Germany's Designs on South 
 
 Africa," 22, 44, 242, 307 
 Florus. Roman History, 265, 267n. 
 Fraley (Joseph). " How and Why a War Lord wages War," 
 
 140 
 Froissart. " Chronicles," 270 
 Frymann (Daniel). " Wenn ich der Kaiser war, 21 
 
 Gerlach (Herr von) in Die Welt am Montag, 9 
 German Staff. " Rules of Continental War," 136 
 " German War Book," 135, 137 
 " Germany, Turkey and Armenia," 218-224 
 " Germany's Great Lie," 125-7, 263n., 264w. 
 " Germany's War Mania," 11, 132-3w., 243 
 Gierke (O) in the Bevue de Paris, 273 
 Goethe. " Conversations with Eckermann," 262 
 Gray (Alexander). " The True Pastime," 27 
 
 Haesseler (von). 133 
 
 Hale (Professor) in the New York Tribune, 25, 303-4 
 
CITED OR REFERRED TO 315 
 
 Halsalle (Henry de). " Degenerate Germany," 272 
 
 Hamburger Nachrichten, 28 
 
 Hammer (von). " Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches," 213 
 
 Hamp (Pierre) in the Figaro, 306 
 
 Hanotaux (Gabriel) in the Revue Hebdomadaire, 138 
 
 Harden (Maximilien) in Die Zukunft, 128-9, 134, 137 
 
 Hartmann (General Julius von) in Die Deutsche Rundschau, 185 
 
 Hasse (Ernst). " Weltpolitik," 17 
 
 Hueffer (Ford Madox). " When Blood is their Argument," 
 
 44, 132 
 Hurd (A.). " Miu-der at Sea," 204, 205 
 
 " J' Accuse " (translated by A. Gray), 121 
 
 Jairazbhoy (Cassamally). " The Suicide of Turkey," 254-6 
 
 " Jugendgeieitbuch," 244 
 
 Jungdeutschland Post, 29 
 
 Klein (General) in Der Tag, 28 
 KoHLER. " Not kennt kein Gebot," 290 
 KSlnische Volkszeitung, 209 
 KSlnische Zeitung, 241 
 Koloniales Jahrbuch, 22 
 Kreuzzeitung, 274, 285 
 Krieg's Chronik, 189 
 
 Lagarde (Paul de). " Deutsche Schriften," 19 
 
 UAgence des Balkans, 225 
 
 Lamprecht. 273 
 
 Lange (Friedrich). " Reines Deutschtum," 25 
 
 Lanoir (Paul). " L'Espionnage Allemand en France, 6-8 
 
 La Revue de Paris, 278-83 
 
 La Revue des Deux Mondes, 197 
 
 Lasson (Adolf). " Das Kultur-Ideal und der Krieg," 134, 136 ; 
 
 in the Amsterdammer, 274 
 UEcho de Paris, 196 
 Le Correspondant, 195 
 Le Figaro, 285 
 
 Le Gaulois, 195, 215, 234-5, 236 
 Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten, 151 
 Le Matin, 152, 235, 294, 295, 307-9 
 Le Petit Parisien, 195, 310 
 Le Temps, 86 
 Lokalanzeiger, 290 
 Lord Bryce's Report on (Jerman Atrocities, 176-6, 199 
 
 Masaryk (Professor) in the New Europe, 2, 22 
 Melgar (Count) in the Matin, 187 
 
316 LIST OF AUTHORS AND NEWSPAPERS 
 
 Members of the Oxford Faculty of Modern History, " Why we 
 
 are at War," 10 
 Messagiere, 214-15 
 Morgan (Professor). " German Atrocities," 140, 178, 183, 186, 
 
 194, 200, 203, 261-2 
 Mt)NSTERBURG (Profcssor). " A Textbook of Psychology," 274 
 
 Nazarius. " Panegyrics," 262-3 
 
 NicoLL (Sir William Robertson) in " The Great War Book," 
 
 242 
 Nietzsche. " Also sprach Zarathustra," 14, 137 
 NipPOLD (Dr. Otfried). " Der Deutsche Chauvinismus," 27 
 Novoye Vremya, 195 
 
 Official Report of French Commission on German Atrocities in 
 France, 175-6 ' .„ 
 
 " Paroles Allemandes," 17, 131, 134, 153, 181, 182, 243, 262 
 PoMMER (Hans). " Zwanzig Jahre als Infanterie-offizier in den 
 
 Reichslanden," 272 
 PoMPONius Mela. " De Situ Orbis," 263^ 
 PowYS (John Cowper). " The War and Culture," 297 
 Procopius. " Gothic Wars," 263, 264 
 
 Reich (Emil). " Germany's Swelled Head," 4, 240 
 Reimer (J. L.). " Ein Pangermanisches Deutschland," 31 
 Reiss (Professor). " How Austria-Hungary waged war in 
 
 Serbia," 148, 179 
 Report of OjBBcial Belgian Commission on Atrocities committed 
 
 in Belgium, 177 
 Report on the Typhus Epidemic at Gardelegen by Government 
 
 Committee, 227-8 
 Reports by Ofl&cials of United States Embassy on German and 
 
 Austrian internment camps in the United Kingdom, 229-31 
 Repplier (Miss Agnes), 274m., 277-8 
 Reventlow (Count zu) in the Deutsche Tageszeitung, 285 
 Robertson (The Right Honourable J. M.). " The German 
 
 Idea of Peace Terms," 136 ; " The Germans," 269-70 
 RoNNBERG. " Uber Symbolische Bucher im Bezug auf 
 
 Staatsrecht," 133-4 
 R6SEMEIER (Dr. Hermann). " An Open Letter," 123 
 
 Salvianus. " De Gubernatione Dei," 263n., 264-5 
 ScHELtENDORF (General Bronsart von), 17 
 Schopenhauer. " Memorabilien," 262 
 Seyden (Professor von) in the Frankfurter Zeitung, 273, 285 
 Smith (Thomas F. A.). " The Soul of Germany," 11, 240 
 
CITED OR REFERRED TO 317 
 
 Sprengeb (Anton). " Babylonien das reichste Land in der 
 Vorzeit und das lohnendste Kolonisationsfeld f(ir die 
 Gegenwart," 23 
 
 Steffens. " Was ich erlebte," 271 
 
 Strabo. " Geography," 293 
 
 Struycken (Professor). " German White Book on the War 
 in Belgium. A Commentary," 200-1 
 
 Tacitus. "History," 22, 266, 296; "Annals," 1, 265, 266, 
 
 267, 296 ; " Germania," 44, 263, 267, 272 
 Tannenberg. " Gross-Deutschland," 17, 21, 22, 23, 24, 47, 
 
 48, 135, 187 
 The Daily Express, 286, 287 
 The Daily Mail, 126 
 The Evening News, 227 
 The German White Book, 202 
 " The Horrors of Wittenberg," Official Report of the British 
 
 Government, 226 
 " The Military Interpreter," 275 
 The Morning Post, 259-60 
 The Near East, 153, 251-4 
 The New York Herald, 209 
 The New York Times, 50, 209, 299 
 The New York Tribune, 299-301 
 The North American, 294 
 The Review of Reviews, 810 
 The Spectator, 26 
 The Times, 50, 198, 216, 218, 812 
 " The War and the German Propaganda," 20, 240 
 The War Week by Week, 26, 132 
 Treitschke. "Die Politik," 11, 16, 20, 132, 133, 242; 
 
 " Deutsche Kampfe," 51 
 " Truth and Travesty," 203 
 
 Usher (Professor). " Pan-Germanism," 45 
 
 Vorwaerts, 240 
 
 Velleius Paterculus. " Roman History," 264 
 
 Vossische Zeitung, 291 
 
 Wagner (Klaus). " Rrieg," 242 
 
 Weeks (Professor Raymond) quoted in " A Text-Book of the 
 War for Americans," 275-6 
 
 Weill (Alexander). " Revolt of the Peasants," 194 
 
 White (J. William). " A Text-Book of the War for Ameri- 
 cans," 26, 45, 132, 134, 188-9, 142, 198, 203, 248, 294, 296, 
 802, 804 
 
318 LIST OF AUTHORS AND NEWSPAPERS 
 
 Whitridge (Frederick W.). " One American's Opinion of 
 
 the European War," 276-7, 306 
 Wilson (H. W.) in the National Review, 54, 123, 141-2, 150, 
 
 151, 152, 196-7, 287-8 
 Wrichen (General von) in the Danziger Neueste Nachrichten, 28 
 
 Zeller (Jules). " Les Origines de TAllemagne," 267-8, 269 
 
GENERAL INDEX 
 
 (The Roman numerals refer to the chapters) 
 
 Adana, massacre of Armenians at 
 
 in 1909, 213 
 Adana-Baghdad Railway, 22 
 Agadir, 9, 35 
 Agha Khan, 251, 255 
 Algeciras Conference, 9 
 Algeria, German intrigues in, 24, 36 
 Alsace-Lorraine, 239, 300 
 American Rights Committee, 27 
 Amiens, Peace of, 293 
 Antwerp, 51 
 
 Arabia, German designs on, 23 
 Argentine Republic, 24 
 Ariovistus, 291 seq. 
 Armenians, massacre of, 213-224 
 Arminius, 265-6 
 
 Asia Minor, German designs on, 23 
 Asquith (The Right Hon. H. H.), 
 
 5, 210, 232, 250 
 Atrocities, committed by Germans 
 and Austrians in Europe, VI, 
 VII; in Africa, X 
 German defence of, VIII 
 testimony of German soldiers, VII 
 committed by Bulgarians, 224r-5 
 model letter for denial of, 275 
 Attila, 134, 135k. 
 
 Austria, alleges that she has no 
 intention of occupying Serbian 
 territory, 96 
 refuses negotiations, 50, 65, 68 
 her ultimatum to Serbia, 52 seq. 
 declares war against Serbia, 65, 
 67 
 
 Balfour (Right. Hon. A. J.), 5 
 Balkan Question, 72 
 Barzilai (Signer), 123»i. 
 Beck (James M.), his verdict as to 
 responsibility for war, 118-19 
 
 Belgian Official Reports, 149?i., 
 
 174, 177 
 Belgians, transportation of, 147, 
 
 150 
 Belgium, alleged agreement of, with 
 England, 141-2?i. 
 French Government imdertakes 
 
 to respect neutrality of, 90 
 German Government refuses to 
 give assurances to respect 
 neutraUty of, 89, 90, 91 
 German schemes for annexation 
 
 of, 17, 21, 22, 24 
 tJerman schemes for invasion 
 
 of, 38 
 integrity of, 70 
 invasion of, 109 
 
 King of, his appeal to King 
 George, 107; his conversation 
 with Kaiser, 41 
 refuses " friendly neutrality," 
 
 107 
 treaties guaranteeing neutrality 
 
 of, 139^0 
 ultimatum to, 38, 107, 109 
 violation of neutraUty of, by 
 
 Germany, 141-2 
 will maintain her neutrality, 93 
 BenckendorfE (Count), 56 
 Berchtold (Count), 58, 64, 95 
 Berlin-Baghdad scheme, 32 
 Bethmann-HoUweg (Imperial Chan- 
 cellor), 60, 289 
 his speech before Reichstag, 142-3 
 Bismarck, 4, 5, 10, 43, 44, 243 
 Bissolati (Signor), 296 
 Boehn (General von), 191, 307 
 BoUvia, 24 
 
 Brazil, German schemes with regard 
 to, 24, 25 
 
 319 
 
320 
 
 GENERAL INDEX 
 
 British doiuiiiions, loyalty of, 306 
 merchant ships, detained at 
 
 Hamburg, 93, 108 
 British Empire, German misjudg- 
 
 ment of situation in, 60 
 Bryce (Viscount), his committee, 
 
 153»., 175, 199 
 Bucharest, attempts by Germans 
 
 to infect the population of, 
 
 with disease, 153 
 Bulgaria, 24 
 
 Bulgarian atrocities, 224r-5 
 Bulow (General von), 145 
 Bunsen (Sir M. de), 64 
 Butters (Lieutenant Harry), 304 
 
 Calais, 51 
 
 Cambon (M. Jules, French Ambas- 
 sador at Berlin), 71 
 instructed to ask for his pass- 
 ports, 105 
 
 Castberg (President of the Nor- 
 wegian Lower House), 298 
 
 Cathedrals, destruction of, 248, 
 295 
 
 Cavell (Miss Edith), murder of, 
 205-8 
 statue of presented to the ViUe de 
 Paris by the Matin, 284 
 
 Central Africa, German schemes 
 with regard to, 26 
 
 " Central Europe," 30, 32 
 
 Charlemagne, 247 
 
 Cherbourg, 51 
 
 Chili, 24 
 
 China, division of, 24 
 
 German propaganda in, 234 
 
 Christ, of German origin, 31 
 
 Colonies, British, German intrigues 
 in, 44 
 French.German refusal to guaran- 
 tee integrity of, 70 
 German, 36 
 
 Conference, suggested by Sir 
 Ediyard Grey to avert war, 
 58, 69, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 68, 
 74, 79, 83, 84, 85, 88, 94, 98 
 
 Congo State, proposed annexation 
 of, by Germany, 21 
 
 Cromer (Lord), 5 
 
 Democracy, 241, 296 
 Denmark, 37; proposed annexa- 
 tion of, by Germany, 17 
 Demburg (Count), 237 
 
 Deschanel (M. Paul, President of 
 French Chamber), 296-7 
 
 " Deutsohland iiber Alias," 10, 25, 
 238, 297 
 
 " Deutschtum fiber Alles," 36, 239, 
 240, 297 
 
 Dieckmann (Major), 147 
 
 Dinant, atrocities at, 148-9, 201 
 
 Egypt, 22, 23 
 
 German intrigues in, 36-7, 44, 46 
 Egyptian School, 37 
 Emerson, 203 
 
 England, Tannenberg's assertions 
 with regard to, 45 seq. 
 
 the last settlement with, 51 
 English language, to be replaced 
 
 by German, 27 
 Entente Cordiale, 9, 40-41 
 
 FaUha, 102ra. 
 
 Ferdinand (Archduke), murder of,52 
 
 Fontenoy, 281 
 
 France, 49 
 
 German misjudgment of the 
 situation in, 50 
 Franks, 263, 264, 269 
 Frederick the Great, 1, 300 
 French Official Beport on German 
 
 Atrocities, 174, 176 
 Fryatt (Captain), 204, 208-10 
 " Furor Teutonicus," 272 
 
 Gardelegen, treatment of prisoners 
 
 at, 226 
 Garroni (Senator, Italian Ambas- 
 sador at Constantinople), 123n. 
 Chzetle des Ardennes, 235 
 Gerard (Mr. J. W., American Am- 
 bassador at Berlin), 116 
 German allegations as to secret 
 treaty between England and 
 Belgium, 141ji. 
 army, its rapid development, 5; 
 secret report on strengthening 
 of, 34-38 
 bid for neutrahty of Great 
 
 Britain, 70, 71, 79, 91, 92 
 chauvinism, 27 seq. 
 fleet, 6, 25 
 Humanity League, their appeal 
 
 to foreign Socialists, 259-60 
 language to be forced on the 
 
 world, 27 
 propaganda, XIII 
 
GENERAL INDEX 
 
 821 
 
 Germaji soldiers' diaries testitjmig 
 
 to commission of atrocities, VII 
 spy system, 7-9, 44, 243 
 troops enter Belgian territory, 
 
 109-10 
 ultimatum to Russia, 86, 88, 
 
 89, 92, 101, 102 ' 
 War Journal, 141 
 White Book, 1914, 34; concerning 
 
 Atrocities in Belgium, 200-3 
 Germans, as known to the Bomans, 
 
 262 seq. 
 as seen by themselves, 262, 263-^ 
 "das Kulturvolk kot' i\oxMv" 
 
 262 
 instability of, 1 
 naturalisation of, abroad, 276, 
 
 278 
 their carousals, 271, 272». 
 their conduct in earlier wars, 
 
 270-1 
 their cult of war, I passim 
 their designs on America, 26 
 their dreams of conquest, I 
 
 passim, 44, 128, 129, 238, 239, 
 
 301 
 their hatred of England, 284 seq. 
 their inability to understand the 
 
 English character, 48 
 Germany, aggressive intentions of, 
 
 I passim 
 crimie in, 272-3 
 declares war on Russia, 103 
 military party in, 40 
 refuses to give assurances to 
 
 respect Belgian neutrality, 89, 
 
 90, 91 
 refuses to interfere in Austro- 
 
 Serbian dispute, 57, 62, 78, 83 
 repeats assurances that she will 
 
 not annex Belgian territory, 
 
 108 
 God, old German, 1, 138, 243-5 
 Goethe, 16, 262 
 Goltz (von der), his proclamation, 
 
 146 
 Gosohen (Sir Edward), his final 
 
 interview with Herr von 
 
 Jagow, 109-11 ; do. with Chan- 
 cellor, 111-13 
 asks for passports, 110 
 Great Britain, Germany's bid for 
 
 neutrality of, 71, 70, 91, 92 
 decUnes to enter into any engage- 
 ment to stand aside, 72 
 
 Great Britain, German schemes with 
 
 regard to, 27 
 
 Germany's attempt to bribe, 48 
 
 presents ultimatum to Germany, 
 
 109 
 
 Greece, German propaganda in, 
 
 233 
 Grey (Sir Edward), 5, 56, 61, 69, 80 
 his efforts for peace, 80, 88, 
 126, 127 
 
 Haeokel (Ernst), 132 
 Hague, tribunal of the, 64 
 
 conferences, 152n., 164, 212 
 Haig (Su- Douglas), 311 
 Harden (Maximilien), 128n. 
 Hasselt, 146 
 Heimdall, 245 
 Heine, 248?i., 262 
 Hirschel, 262 
 Holland, 20, 21, 24, 33, 70 
 Hospital ships, torpedoing of, 152, 
 
 198, 286 
 Hospitals, filed on, 163 
 Hyderabad (Nizam of), 250 
 
 India, German intrigues in, 44, 
 255 
 German propaganda in, 234, 238 
 loyalty of, 306 
 Islam, fate of under German rule, 
 288 seq. 
 holy places of, 232, 256; respect 
 of, by British Government, 250 
 Italy, considers war declared by 
 Austria as having aggressive 
 object, 106-7 
 
 Jagow (Herr von), 55, 61, 62, 140 
 his views on small States, 19 
 last interview with Sir Edward 
 
 Gosohen, 110 
 Sir Edward Goschen appeals to 
 his humanity, 102 
 Jena, 1 
 JoflFre (General), his addresses to 
 
 his troops, 297, 311 
 Jugendgeleitbuch, 244 
 
 Kaiser, 6, 9, 10, llw., 30 
 an " Instrument of heaven," 295-6 
 his address to the army proceed- 
 ing to China, 134-5 
 his address to the armies proceed- 
 ing to the East, 130 
 
322 
 
 GENERAL INDEX 
 
 Kaiser, his alleged letter to Austrian 
 Emperor, 187 
 his change of attitude in 1913, 
 
 42, 44 
 his conversation with the King 
 
 of Belgium, 41 
 his personifications, 246 and n. 
 his religion, 243 
 " the only master," 240 
 Kantagora, Emir of, 251 
 Kultur, 16, 28, V 248 
 at home, 271-2 
 
 Lansdowne (Marquis of), 5 
 
 Law (the Right Hon. Bonar) 296, 
 306 
 
 League of Neutral States, Holland 
 Section of, 297-8 
 
 Lichnowsky (Prince), 54, 56 
 
 Liebknecht, 52 ; his protest against 
 the war, 258-9 
 
 Li6ge, atrocities at, 148 
 
 Longwy, 103 
 
 Louvain, atrocities at, 148, 300 
 
 iMsitania, 204r-5, 300 
 
 Luxemburg, suggested annexation 
 of, 21 
 neutrality of, violated by Ger- 
 many, 103-5, 143 
 
 Machiavelli, 132-3, 242n. 
 
 " Man hat geschossen," 201 
 
 Megamolania, Prussian, 2 
 
 Melgar (Count), 187 
 
 Mensdorff (Count, Austrian Ambas- 
 sador in London), 73, 95 
 
 Mercier (Cardinal), 150?i., 203 
 
 Mesopotamia, German designs on, 
 23 
 
 Mihtarism, 241, 289-90, 294 
 
 MiUioud (French translator of 
 Gross -DeutscMand), 242 
 
 Mobilisation by Austria, 59, 60, 
 63, 85 
 by Eranoe, 94-5 
 by Germany, 59, 82, 86, 94-5, 
 
 97, 99, 100 
 by Russia, 59, 65, 69, 75, 76, 
 77, 78, 85, 86, 87, 89, 92 
 
 Moltke (Count von), 15, 41 
 
 assures Kaiser of German enthu- 
 siasm for war, 42 
 
 Monroe Doctrine, in danger from 
 German aggression, 25-6 ' 
 
 Morocco, 19 
 
 I Morocco, German intrigues in, 36, 71 
 Moschee, 248 
 
 Namur, atrocities at, 154 
 
 Napoleon, 293, 300, 308 
 
 Naumann (Pastor), 23 
 
 Navy League (Grerman), 6 
 
 Nero, 288 
 
 Nietzsche, 139 
 
 Nonnenmacher (Melchior), 194re. 
 
 Odin, 243 
 Odin-Verein, 245 
 
 Palestine, Gterman designs on, 23 
 
 Pan-Grermanism, 30-33 
 
 Papen (Captain von), 238 
 
 Paraguay, 24 
 
 Peace, dangers of a premature, 2, 
 
 XVI 
 views of German inteUecfcuals as 
 
 to, 15 
 Poland, 24 
 Poles, 239-40 
 Powell (E. Alexander), atrocities 
 
 witnessed by him, 189-91 
 his interview with General von 
 
 Boehn, 191-2, 307 
 Prisoners, treatment of, in Gtermany 
 
 and England, ^TT 
 Proclamations by German officers 
 
 in France and Belgium, 145-8 
 distributed by aeroplanes, 236 
 Propaganda, Grerman, 233, XTTT 
 " Provocation" for atrocities, 198 
 Priin (Emile, Burgomaster of Che- 
 
 vraux), 259 
 Psychological moment (the), 18, 11, 
 
 44-5, 57 
 
 Rheuus, hostages seized at, 146 
 Roberts (Lord), 3, 4, 5 
 Roumania, 24 
 
 Russia, her efforts towards concilia- 
 tion, 78 
 German misjudgment of situa- 
 tion in, 49 
 German ultimatum to, 86, 88, 89, 
 92, 99, 102 
 
 Salisbury (Marquis of), 3 
 
 Sarajevo, 62 
 
 Sazonof (M. de), Russian Minister 
 
 for Foreign Affairs), 68, 64, 
 
 77, 78, 94. 97, 102 
 
GENERAL INDEX 
 
 323 
 
 Sazonof, his efforts to avoid war, 98 
 Scandinavia, 37 
 Scarborough, 152n. 
 So6zaen (Count), 68, 63 
 Schiller, 30w. 
 
 Schleswig-Holstein, 239, 300 
 Schnee (Governor of German South 
 
 Africa), his circular concerning 
 
 the spread of Islam, 249 
 " Scrap of paper," 111 
 Sempst, atrocities at, 148ra., 163 
 Senoussi, 234 
 Serbia, 24 
 
 ultimatum to, 52 seq., 76 
 Shereef of Mecca, his manifesto, 
 
 251-4 
 Siam, 74 
 Slavs, 31 
 Small States, annexation of, 17, 
 
 19, 20, 21, 37, 38, 135 
 South Africa, German schemes 
 
 with regard to, 22 
 South America, German schemes 
 
 with regard to, 25 
 Statecraft, 132 seq. 
 Stenger (General), orders for murder 
 
 of prisoners, 147 
 Stieber, 7, 8 
 Switzerland, 21, 37 
 Syria, Gferman designs on, 23 
 
 Tangier, 9 
 
 Teuton and Slav Question, 72 
 
 Thor, 243 seq. 
 
 Thugs, 243, 288 
 
 Tibet, 297 
 
 Treaty proposed by Tannenberg 
 
 with England, 24 
 with Austria, 25 
 Trieste, proposal that Germany 
 
 should annex, 17 
 Treitschke, 11 and n., 20 
 Tsar, appeal to, by Serbia, 54 
 Txmis, 24 
 
 German intrigues in, 36 
 Turkey, German designs on, 22, 
 
 25, 30, 255-6 
 
 Umfrid (O.), 11m. 
 
 United States, German propaganda 
 in, 233, 237«e3., 302 aeg. 
 German schemes with regard to, 
 
 25, 26, 27 
 sympathy of, with Allies, 26, 
 257, 302 
 Uruguay, 24 
 
 Vandaleur (Major), 196 
 
 Varus, 265, 293 
 
 Venice, proposed annexation by 
 
 Germany, 17 
 Vieber (General von), 146 
 
 WalhaUa, 244 seq. 
 War, Englishmen's attitude with 
 regard to, 278-283 
 German cult of, 11 seq., 40 
 German preparations for, 5, 6, 36, 
 
 39, 44, 82, 85 
 Germany throws responsibility 
 
 for, on Russia, 96-7 
 Germany responsible for, as a 
 
 nation, 42, 43, 258-62 
 responsibUity for, IV 
 what Tannenberg predicted on 
 outbreak of, 45-8 
 Waterloo, 271 
 Wavre, 146 
 " Weltmacht oder Niedergang," 
 
 12 
 Wittemberg, treatment of prisoners 
 
 at, 226 
 Wotan, 243 
 
 Yellow Book (French) 1913, 34- 
 
 42 
 " Young Turkey " party, 251 seq. 
 
 Zamacois (Miguel, French poet), 
 187». 
 
 Zeppelins, raids by, 15l7i. 
 
 Zimmermann (von, German Under- 
 Secretary of State), his inter- 
 view with Sir Edward Goschen, 
 113 
 
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