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
ueber 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.