Baron Schoen is perfectly right, I am not in a position to examine German
opinion, but I note every day how public opinion in France becomes more
suspicious and chauvinistic. One meets people who assure one that a war
with Germany in the near future is certain and inevitable. People regret
it, but make up their minds to it.... They demand, almost by acclamation,
an immediate vote for every means of increasing the defensive power of
France. The most reasonable men assert that it is necessary to arm to the
teeth to frighten the enemy and prevent war.
On April 16th he reports a conversation with M. Pichon, in which the latter
says:--
Among us, too, there is a spirit of chauvinism which is increasing,
which I deplore, and against which we ought to react. Half the theatres
in Paris now play chauvinistic and nationalistic pieces.
The note of alarm becomes more urgent as the days go on. On January 16,
1914, the Baron writes:--
I have already had the honour to tell you that it is MM. Poincaré,
Delcassé, Millerand and their friends who have invented and pursued the
nationalistic and chauvinistic policy which menaces to-day the peace of
Europe, and of which we have noted the renaissance. It is a danger for
Europe and for Belgium. I see in it the greatest peril, which menaces the
peace of Europe to-day; not that I have the right to suppose that the
Government of the Republic is disposed deliberately to trouble the peace,
rather I believe the contrary; but the attitude that the Barthou Cabinet
has taken up is, in my judgment, the determining cause of an excess of
militaristic tendencies in Germany.
It is clear from these quotations, and it is for this reason alone that
I give them, that France, supported by the other members of the Triple
Entente, could appear, and did appear, as much a menace to Germany as
Germany appeared a menace to France; that in France, as in other countries,
there was jingoism as well as pacifism; and that the inability of French
public opinion to acquiesce in the loss of Alsace-Lorraine was an active
factor in the unrest of Europe. Once more I state these facts, I do
not criticize them. They are essential to the comprehension of the
international situation.