ladled out to their receptive students. The sinister Treitschke, who
is one of half a dozen men who have torn down Imperial Germany just
as surely as Roon, Bismarck, and Moltke built it up, was the
arch-priest of this cult. Like Nietzsche, whose moral teaching was
the supplement to the Pan-German Material doctrine, Treitschke was
not, by extraction, a German at all. Both men were of the magnetic
Slav stock, dreamers of dreams and seers of visions--evil dreams and
dark visions for the land in which they dwelt. With their magic
flutes they have led the whole blind, foolish, conceited nation down
that easy, pleasant path which ends in this abyss.
Nietzsche was, as his whole life proved, a man upon the edge of
insanity, who at last went obviously mad. Treitschke was a man of
great brain power, who had an _idée fixe_--a monomania about
Britain. So long as he raved in Berlin, Englishmen took no more
notice than they do of an anarchist howling in the park; for it is
the British theory that a man may say and think what he will so long
as he refrains from doing. But Treitschke was always dangerous. He
was magnetic, eloquent, enthusiastic, flashing wondrous visions of
the future before his listeners, varying in beauty, but always alike
in that they were seen across our prostrate body. Those who are in a
position to judge, like the late Professor Cramb, say that his
influence on young Germany could only be compared with that of
Carlyle and Macaulay united in Great Britain. And now, after his
death, his words have all sprung to deeds to the ruin of his own
country and to the deep misfortune of ours. He used to visit
England, this strange and sinister man, but as he was stone deaf his
bodily presence brought him little nearer to us. With useless ears
and jaundiced eyes he moved among us, returning to Berlin for the
new Semester as ignorant as he had left it, to rail against us once
again. He worked to harm us, and he has done so, but Lord! what is
the worst that he has done to us compared with the irretrievable
ruin that he has brought to his own country! He and Von Tirpitz,
Count Bieberstein, Maximilian Harden and a few more, to say nothing
of the head plotter of all--a fine Germany they will leave behind
them! Treitschke is dead, and so is Bieberstein, but a good many of
their dupes may live to see the day when Indian princes ride as
conquerors down Unter den Linden and the shattered remains of the
braggadocio statues of the Sieges Allée, that vulgar monument of
bastard Imperialism, will expiate the honoured ashes of Louvain.
But the stupidity of it all--that is the consideration which comes
in a wave to submerge every other aspect of the matter. For consider
the situation: as lately as 1897 the European grouping was clear.
The antagonists were already ranged. Russia had definitely taken her
side with France; against them, equally definitely, were Germany and
Austria, whilst Italy clearly was on an orbit by herself. War sooner
or later was a certainty. Unattached, but with a distinct bias to
Germany on racial, religious, and other grounds, lay Great Britain,
the richest Power in the world, the ruler of the seas, and a nation
which was historically tenacious and unconquerable in war. Was it
not clear that the first interest of Germany was to conciliate such
a Power and to make sure that if she were not an ally she would at
least never be an enemy? No proposition could be clearer than that.
And yet cast your minds back and remember the treatment and bearing
of Germany towards Britain since that date--the floods of scorn, the
libels, the bitter attacks, the unconcealed determination to do her
harm. See how it has all ended, and how this atmosphere of hatred
has put a driving force into Great Britain which has astonished
ourselves. This is the end of all the clever Welt-Politik. Truly
_Quos Deus vult perdere_--the gods must have willed it much, for no
nation was ever madder.
Where were the sane Germans? Why was there no protest from them?
Perhaps there was, but we never heard of it amid the beating of
those great Pan-German drums. Did the whole nation, for example,
really agree in so harebrained a scheme as the Bagdad Railway? Think
of the insanity of such a project as that. Here is a railway
representing very many millions of German capital which is built in
the heart of Asia Minor, as far removed from any sort of German
protection or effective control as if it were in the moon. The next
step, vaguely thought out, was that German settlers were to be
planted along the line of the railroad, but upon that being advanced
the Turks, who had smiled most amiably at the actual railway
construction, put down their slippers in the most emphatic manner.
The net result, therefore, would seem to be that Turkey holds a
hostage of a great many millions of German capital which, so long
as Germany behaves herself, may or may not return some interest; but
if Germany goes against Turkish wishes could at once be confiscated.
Apart from Turkey, Russia in the Caucasus, and England in North-West
India regard with a good deal of interested attention this singular
and helpless German railway which projects out into space.
There is one phase of their doctrines which has, perhaps, received
less attention than it deserves. It will be found very fully treated
in Professor Usher's book on _Pan-Germanism_, which, coming from an
American authority who seems to have studied his subject very
thoroughly, has the merit of impartiality. This proposition is that
just as a treaty is only a scrap of paper, so also is a bond or
debenture, and that just as the highest interest of a nation may at
any moment override ordinary morality, the same vital urgency may
justify anything in the nature of repudiation of debt. This is not
to be done on account of inability to pay the debt; but through a
deliberate, cold-blooded plot to weaken the creditor by robbing him
of his property.
Modern Germany has been largely built up by foreign capital. In war,
if Germany is conquered the debt necessarily holds good. But if
Germany wins, part of her reward of victory is the complete
repudiation of all debts. Thus the glorious or inglorious prize of
success would be, that all her vast industrial plant would be freed
from every debenture and start without an encumbrance, a free
present from the enemy. This example, they hope, would lead other
nations to do the same, and so still further ruin the finances of
England and France, which are the great lending nations of the
earth. They frankly admit that such a _coup_ would make it very
difficult for their nation to borrow money again, but on the other
hand, they would have made such an immense profit over the
transaction that they would be able to go on for many years without
any need of more capital. "To secure so stupendous a result as
this," said the American Professor, "is well worth the expenditure
of money for building a fleet. That money, so far as the German
nation is concerned, is merely invested in an enterprise from which
they confidently expect returns perhaps a hundred-fold."
As to the morality of this transaction, the Professor, who has
certainly no anti-German bias, expresses their views very plainly.
It is the same as Frederick the Great's views as to the morality of
treaties which have descended with such fatal effects upon his
successor on the Prussian throne. Once admit such anti-social
theories and there is no end to their application. Here it is in the
domain of economics just as shameless as in that of politics. "Once
more," says the Professor, "the Germans hear around them our cries
against the morality of this procedure. The Germans refuse to
recognise as moral anything which jeopardises their national
existence." They are to be the judges of what these are, and if
repudiation of debt is considered to be one of them, then all debt
may be repudiated. They will not put their views into practice this
time because they will not be the victors, but when the
reconstruction of Germany begins and she comes once again as a
chastened borrower into the market-place of the world, it would be
well to have some assurance as to how far she retains these views
upon commercial morality.
But I have visions of a really chastened Germany, of a Germany which
has sloughed all this wicked nonsense, which has found her better
self again, and which is once more that "deep, patient Germany" with
which I began this essay. She never can be now what she could so
easily have been. She could have continued indefinitely to extend
from Poland to the Vosges, one vast community, honoured by all for
industry and for learning, with a huge commerce, a happy, peaceful,
prosperous population, and a Colonial system which, if smaller than
that of nations which were centuries older in the field, would at
least be remarkable for so short a time. None of these things would
the world have grudged her, and in the future as in the past she
would have found in the British Dominions and in Great Britain
herself an entry for her products as free as if she were herself
part of the Empire.
All this must be changed for the worse, and it is just that she
should suffer for her sins. The work of sixty years will be
destroyed. But will not the spiritual Germany be the stronger and
better? We cannot say. We can but hope and wait and wonder. What is
sure is that the real Germany, of whom Carlyle spoke, can never be
destroyed. Nor would we desire it. Our wrath is not against Germany,
but against that Krupp-Kaiser-Junker combination which has brought
her to such a deadly pass.
* * * * *
IV
THE GREAT GERMAN PLOT
It will be a fascinating task for the historian of the immediate
future to work out the various strands of evidence which seem to be
independent and yet when followed up converge upon the central
purpose of a prearranged war for the late summer of 1914--a war in
which Germany should be the prime mover and instigator and Austria
the dupe and catspaw.
Of course, there are some great facts patent to all the world. There
is the sudden rapid acceleration of German preparations for the last
two years, the great increase of the army with the colours, and the
special emergency tax which was to bring in fifty millions of money.
Looking back, we can see very clearly that these things were the run
before the jump. Germany at the moment of declaring war had
accumulated by processes extending over years all the money which
by borrowing or taxation she could raise, and she cannot really
expect the rest of the world to believe that it was a mere
coincidence that a crisis came along at that particular and
favourable moment. All the evidence tends to show that the
long-planned outbreak--the "letting-go" as it was called in
Germany--was carefully prepared for that particular date and that
the Bosnian assassinations had nothing whatever to do with the
matter. A pretext could very easily be found, as Bernhardi remarks,
and if the Crown Prince of Austria were still alive and well we
should none the less have found ourselves at death-grips with the
Kaiser over the Belgian infraction.
There are a number of small indications which will have to be
investigated and collated by the inquiring chronicler. There is, for
example, the reception of guns for a merchant cruiser in a South
American port which must have been sent off not later than July 10,
three weeks before the crisis developed. There is the document of
this same date, July 10, found upon a German officer, which is said
to have censured him for not having answered some mobilisation form
on that day. Then there is the abnormal quantity of grain ordered in
Canada and America in May; and finally there is the receipt of
mobilisation warnings by Austrian reservists in South Africa,
advising them that they should return at a date which must place
their issue from Vienna in the first week of July. All these small
incidents show the absurdity of the German contention that at a
moment of profound peace some sort of surprise was sprung upon them.
There was, indeed, a surprise intended, but they were to be the
surprisers--though, indeed, I think their machinations were too
clumsy to succeed. They had retained the immorality but lost the
ability for that sudden tiger pounce which Frederick, in a moment of
profound peace, made upon Silesia.
I fancy that every Chancellery in Europe suspected that something
was in the wind. It was surely not a mere coincidence that the grand
Fleet lay ready for action at Spithead and that the First Army Corps
was practising some very useful mobilisation exercises at
Aldershot. After all, our British Administration is not so
simple-minded as it sometimes seems. Indeed, that very simplicity
may at times be its most deadly mask. At one time of my life I was
much bruised in spirit over the ease with which foreigners were
shown over our arsenals and yards. Happening to meet the head of the
Naval Intelligence Department, I confided my trouble to him. It was
at a public banquet where conversation was restricted, but he turned
his head towards me, and his left eyelid flickered for an instant.
Since then I have never needed any reassurance upon the subject.
But there is another matter which will insist on coming back into
one's thoughts when one reviews the events which preceded the war. I
was in Canada in June, and the country was much disturbed by the
fact that a shipload of Hindus had arrived at Vancouver, and had
endeavoured to land in the face of the anti-Asiatic immigration
laws. It struck me at the time as a most extraordinary incident, for
these Indians were not the usual Bengalee pedlars, but were Sikhs of
a proud and martial race. What could be their object in
endeavouring to land in Canada, when the climate of that country
would make it impossible for them to settle in it? It was a most
unnatural incident, and yet a most painful one, for the British
Government was placed in the terrible dilemma of either supporting
Canada against India or India against Canada. Could anything be
better calculated to start an agitation in one country or the other?
The thing was inexplicable at the time, but now one would wish to
know who paid for that ship and engineered the whole undertaking. I
believe it was one more move on Germany's world-wide board.[3]
[3] Two months later, according to _The Times_, official
evidence of this was actually forthcoming.--A. C. D.
In connection with the date at which the long-expected German war
was to break out, it is of interest now to remember some of the
conversations to which I listened three years ago, when I was a
competitor in the Anglo-German motor competition, called the Prince
Henry Tour. It was a very singular experience, and was itself not
without some political meaning, since it could hardly have been
chance that a German gunboat should appear at Agadir at the very
instant when the head of the German Navy was making himself
agreeable (and he can be exceedingly agreeable) to a number of
Britons, and a genial international atmosphere was being created by
the nature of the contest, which sent the whole fleet of seventy or
eighty cars on a tour of hospitality through both countries. I
refuse to believe that it was chance, and it was a remarkable
example of the detail to which the Germans can descend. By the rules
of the competition a German officer had to be present in each
British car and a British officer in each German one during the
whole three weeks, so as to check the marks of the driver. It was
certainly an interesting situation, since every car had its foreign
body within it, which had to be assimilated somehow with the
alternative of constant discomfort. Personally we were fortunate in
having a Rittmeister of Breslau Cuirassiers, with whom we were able
to form quite a friendship. Good luck to you, Count Carmer, and bad
luck to your regiment! To you also, little Captain Türck,
_Fregattencapitän am dienst_, the best of luck, and ill betide
your cruiser! We found pleasant friends among the Germans, though
all were not equally fortunate, and I do not think that the net
result helped much towards an international entente.
However, the point of my reminiscence is that on this tour I, being
at that time a champion of Anglo-German friendship, heard continual
discussions, chiefly on the side of British officers, several of
whom were experts on German matters, as to when the impending war
would be forced upon us. The date given was always 1914 or 1915.
When I asked why this particular year, the answer was that the
German preparations would be ready by then, and especially the
widening of the Kiel Canal, by which the newer and larger
battleships would be able to pass from the Baltic to the North Sea.
It says something for the foresight of these officers that this
widening was actually finished on June 24 of this year, and within
six weeks the whole of Europe was at war. I am bound to admit that
they saw deeper into the future than I did, and formed a truer
estimate of our real relations with our fellow-voyagers. "Surely
you feel more friendly to them now," said I at the end to one
distinguished officer. "All I want with them now is to fight them,"
said he. We have all been forced to come round to his point of view.
Yes, it was a deep, deep plot, a plot against the liberties of
Europe, extending over several years, planned out to the smallest
detail in the days of peace, developed by hordes of spies, prepared
for by every conceivable military, naval, and financial precaution,
and finally sprung upon us on a pretext which was no more the real
cause of war than any other excuse would have been which would serve
their turn by having some superficial plausibility. The real cause
of war was a universal national insanity infecting the whole German
race, but derived originally from a Prussian caste who inoculated
the others with their megalomania.
This insanity was based upon the universal supposition that the
Germans were the Lord's chosen people, that in the words of Buy,
they were "the most cultured people, the best settlers, the best
warriors"--the best everything. Having got that idea thoroughly
infused into their very blood, the next step was clear. If they were
infinitely the best people living amidst such tribes as "the
barbarous Russians, the fickle French, the beastly Servians and
Belgians," to quote one of their recent papers, then why should they
not have all the best things in the world? If they were really the
most powerful, who could gainsay them? They need not do it all at
once, but two great national efforts would give them the whole of
unredeemed Germany, both shores of the Rhine down to the sea, the
German cantons of Switzerland, and, in conjunction with Austria, the
long road that leads to Salonica. All local causes and smaller
details sink into nothing compared with this huge national ambition
which was the real driving force at the back of this formidable
project.
And it was a very formidable project. If such things could be
settled by mere figures and time-tables without any reference to the
spirit and soul of the nations, it might very well have succeeded. I
think that we are not indulging too far in national complacency if
we say that without the British army--that negligible factor--it
would for the time at least have succeeded. Had the Germans
accomplished their purpose of getting round the left wing of the
French, it is difficult to see how a debacle could have been
avoided, and it was our little army which stood in the pass and held
it until that danger was past. It is certain now that the huge sweep
of the German right had never been allowed for, that the French
troops in that quarter were second-line troops, and that it was our
great honour and good fortune to have dammed that raging torrent and
stopped the rush which must have swept everything before it until it
went roaring into Paris. And yet how many things might have
prevented our presence at the right place at the right time, and how
near we were to a glorious annihilation upon that dreadful day when
the artillery of five German army corps--eight hundred and thirty
guns in all--were concentrated upon Smith-Dorrien's exhausted men.
The success or failure of the great conspiracy hung upon the
over-matched British covering batteries upon that one critical
afternoon. It was the turning-point of the history of the world.
* * * * *
V
THE "CONTEMPTIBLE LITTLE ARMY"
Early last year, in the course of some comments which I made upon
the slighting remarks about our Army by General von Bernhardi, I
observed, "It may be noted that General von Bernhardi has a poor
opinion of our troops. This need not trouble us. We are what we are,
and words will not alter it. From very early days our soldiers have
left their mark upon Continental warfare, and we have no reason to
think that we have declined from the manhood of our forefathers."
Since then he has returned to the attack. With that curious power of
coming after deep study to the absolutely diametrically wrong
conclusion which the German expert, political or military, appears
to possess, he says in his _War of To-day_, "The English Army,
trained more for purposes of show than for modern war," adding in
the same sentence a sneer at our "inferior Colonial levies." He will
have an opportunity of reconsidering his views presently upon the
fighting value of our over-sea troops, and surely so far as our own
are concerned he must already be making some interesting notes for
his next edition, or rather for the learned volume upon _Germany and
the Last War_ which will no doubt come from his pen. He is a man to
whom we might well raise a statue, for I am convinced that his
cynical confession of German policy has been worth at least an army
corps to this country. We may address to him John Davidson's lines
to his enemy--
"Unwilling friend, let not your spite abate,
Spur us with scorn, and strengthen us with hate."
There is another German gentleman who must be thinking rather
furiously. He is a certain Colonel Gadke, who appeared officially at
Aldershot some years ago, was hospitably entreated, being shown all
that he desired to see, and on his return to Berlin published a
most depreciatory description of our forces. He found no good thing
in them. I have some recollection that General French alluded in a
public speech to this critic's remarks, and expressed a modest hope
that he and his men would some day have the opportunity of showing
how far they were deserved. Well, he has had his opportunity, and
Colonel Gadke, like so many other Germans, seems to have made a
miscalculation.
An army which has preserved the absurd _Paradeschritt_, an exercise
which is painful to the bystander, as he feels that it is making
fools of brave men, must have a tendency to throw back to earlier
types. These Germans have been trained in peace and upon the theory
of books. In all that vast host there is hardly a man who has
previously stood at the wrong end of a loaded gun. They live on
traditions of close formations, vast cavalry charges, and other
things which will not fit into modern warfare. Braver men do not
exist, but it is the bravery of men who have been taught to lean
upon each other, and not the cold, self-contained, resourceful
bravery of the man who has learned to fight for his own hand. The
British have had the teachings of two recent campaigns fought with
modern weapons--that of the Tirah and of South Africa. Now that the
reserves have joined the colours there are few regiments which have
not a fair sprinkling of veterans from these wars in their ranks.
The Pathan and the Boer have been their instructors in something
more practical than those Imperial Grand Manoeuvres where the
all-highest played with his puppets in such a fashion that one of
his generals remarked that the chief practical difficulty of a
campaign so conducted would be the disposal of the dead.