Nothing has damned the Germans more in the eyes of other nations,
belligerent and neutral alike, and nothing will have a more subtle
and lasting influence on future relations, than the revelation of
stealthy preparation for conquest under a mask of innocent and friendly
intercourse. The whole process of “peaceful penetration,” pursued in
a thousand ways with infernal ingenuity and relentless determination,
is an exhibition of systematic treachery such as all the Macchiavellis
have never conceived. Germany has revealed herself as a nation of
spies and assassins. To take advantage of a neighbour’s unsuspecting
hospitality, to enter his house with an air of open friendship, in
order to stab him in the back at a convenient moment, is an act of the
basest treachery, denounced by all mankind in all ages. No one would
be more shocked by it in private life than the Germans themselves.
But when it is undertaken methodically on a national scale under
the influence of _Deutschland über Alles_, the same conduct becomes
ennobled in their eyes, they throw themselves into it with enthusiasm
and lose all sense of honour. Such is the moral perversion worked by
Kultur and the German theory of the State.
An inevitable consequence is that in future the movements and
proceedings of Germans in other countries will be watched with intense
suspicion, and if Governments do not prevent the sort of thing depicted
by Mr. Raemaekers the people will see to it themselves. The cartoon is
not, of course, intended to reflect personally on the owner of Krupp’s
works, who is said to be a gentle-minded and blameless lady. It is
her misfortune to be associated by the chance of inheritance with the
German war machine and one of the underhand methods by which it has
pursued its aims.