(_From General VON BERNHARDI._)
ALL-HIGHEST WAR LORD,--To have received from you a letter written in
your own gracious and weapon-bearing hand is an honourable privilege,
under the weight of which many a General might have felt his knees
tremble, and I confess that I too, though used to your Majesty's
kindnesses, have not been unmoved.
Your Majesty asks me what I now think of this war of mine--I quote your
words--and goes on to insinuate that in some measure the humble books
that I have from time to time written, and the conversations I have held
with your supreme self and with others, are responsible for what is now
taking place in France, Flanders, and the Eastern seat of war. This
insinuation I must with all my strength repudiate. It is true that I
have been an advocate of war. For the Germans it was necessary that war
should be the object of their policy in order that when the hour struck
they might be able to attack their foes under the most favourable
conditions and conquer them in the shortest possible time. But in saying
this I made myself merely the echo of your Majesty's speeches and the
faithful interpreter of your august mind. When you in words of matchless
eloquence spoke of the mailed fist and bade your recruits shoot their
parents rather than disobey their Kaiser, a humble General like myself
could not go far wrong if he supposed that the thought of war was
constantly in your Imperial mind. No other nation, I knew, had the
purpose of attacking us, and I assumed therefore that if we were to gain
the world-power at which we aimed we must be ready to attack other
nations. Everything, however depended on the conditions and the moment.
As for a war begun, as this war was begun, in a sudden fit of temper, I
must use frankness with your Majesty and say that I never contemplated
it. War against France--yes; and war against Russia, if needs must be,
though even then I deny that we ought to have made ourselves the mere
instrument of Austrian ambitions and allowed ourselves to be dragged
into danger for the _beaux yeux_ of the Ballplatz. But to manage things
so ill as to make it certain that England must declare against us and
that Italy must refuse to help us--this, indeed, was the master-stroke
of stupidity. Your Majesty will, no doubt, say that this was the fault
of BETHMANN-HOLLWEG and VON JAGOW, but I am not sure that you yourself
must not share with them the responsibility, for it was you who lost
your head and gave the final word--which, of course, no one else could
have given. You could have spared Belgium and kept England out of the
war, so as to deal with her alone at a later date, but you took the bit
between your autocratic teeth, and, alas, there was nobody who could
stop you.
I say again, this is not my war. I never imagined it or planned it in
this way, and I decline to be made responsible for it. I wanted a war
that might be quickly prosperous and as safe for Germany as any war can
be--a war of which we might keep the management in our own hands with
great profit to ourselves. But now, though only four months have passed,
we have lost the reins and Fate has taken them up and is directing the
course of things. When that happens anything may happen. It is useless,
therefore, to turn round and make accusations which are not founded in
reason. My system was a good one and is still good, but it cannot now be
used. There is nothing for it now except to continue hammering with our
heads against a stone wall, which is not an agreeable occupation even
when the heads are German.
Your Majesty's faithful subject,