Donkey! Austria must retake the Sandjak, or else the Serbians will come down to the Adriatic. Austria must become preponderant in the Balkans over the smaller states, at the expense of Russia, otherwise there will be no peace.

The important question of the British Fleet was considered, and the German Naval Attaché reported that it was not taking extraordinary measures, but was carrying out according to plan the previously contemplated dispersals (after the review). Upon that the Kaiser commented that the British Navy had no need to take extraordinary measures, since it was 'ready for war, as the review has shown, and has mobilized.'

On July 27 the Kaiser returned to Berlin, and the Austrian Ambassador telegraphed to Berlin:

Secretary of State informed me in strict confidence and very emphatically that during the next few days mediation proposals on the part of England might perhaps be communicated to Your Excellency by the German Government. The German Government, he said, offered the most unqualified assurance that it did not identify itself in any way with the proposals; that, on the contrary, it was decidedly opposed to their consideration; and that it would transmit them merely in order to conform to the English request.

In so doing the German Government proceeded from the point of view that it

was of the greatest importance that England should not at the present moment make common cause with Russia and France. Everything, therefore, must be done to prevent a breaking off of the wire between Germany and England, which had worked well hitherto. If Germany were flatly to declare to Sir Edward Grey that she declines to transmit to us his wishes regarding Austria-Hungary (which England believes would be more likely to be considered by us if we received them through the intermediary of Germany), then this rupture which must at all costs be avoided would come to pass.

from London repeating Sir Edward Prince Lichnowsky having wired Grey's statement that the situation was becoming serious, the Kaiser commented: "The biggest and most unheard of piece of English Pharisaism that I have ever seen! With such scoundrels I shall never conclude a naval agreement!' Prince Lichnowsky's further account of his conversation with Sir Edward Grey, in the afternoon of the 29th, was interlarded by the Kaiser with such expressions

as: 'Aha! the base deceiver!' 'Arch

base and Mephistophelian! But truly English!'

This pack of base hucksters has sought to deceive us with dinners and speeches. The King's (King George) message for me through Henry -'We shall remain neutral and try to keep out of this as long as possible was the grossest deception of all. Grey gives the King the lie, and this statement of his to Lichnowsky is the outcome of a guilty conscience, of the feeling in fact that he has deceived us. It amounts, moreover, to a threat, which is partly bluff, designed to separate us from Austria, to prevent us from mobilizing, and to foist upon us the responsibility for the war. He knows perfectly well that he has only to

utter one single sharp and earnest word of warning in Paris and in Petersburg and to enjoin neutrality upon them, and they will both at once keep quiet. But he takes good care not to utter this word, and threatens us instead! Low hound! Responsibility for peace or war now rests upon England alone, and no longer upon us!

Francis Joseph signed the declaration of war against Serbia on July 28 to Count Berchtold's dictation, but on his return to the Ballplatz the Austrian Foreign Secretary deleted in the document signed by the Emperor the reference to Serbian acts of hostility which had served the purpose of rousing the old gentleman, and the abbreviated declaration was delivered; while the next day the German ultimatum to Belgium was sent under sealed cover to the German minister at Brussels, with orders to await instructions. On August 2, he was directed to open the sealed ultimatum, present it, and demand a reply by the following morning.

Spasmodic attempts were made on July 30 by Von Bethmann-Hollweg, the Chancellor, who was profoundly impressed by the prospect that, in the event of war, England and Italy would make common cause with France and Russia, to induce Count Berchtold to accept Sir Edward Grey's last offer of mediation in any form. But meanwhile the Kaiser penned this further memorandum for the Chancellor:

It is now clear to me beyond all doubt that England, Russia, and France, on the ostensible ground that we are confronted with our casus fœderis toward Austria have seized the Austro-Serbian conflict as a pretext, and have deliberately concerted among themselves to embark upon a war of destruction against us. Hence Grey's cynical remark to Lichnowsky, to the effect that England will sit still so long as the war remains confined to Russia and Austria, and that only if we and France intervene would he be compelled to move actively against us that is to say, either we must basely betray our ally and deliver up our ally to the mercy of

Russia, thereby breaking up the Triple Alliance, or else, for our loyalty to our ally, we must submit to being set upon and chastised by the whole of the Triple Entente, whose envy would at last have the gratification of totally ruining us by their combined efforts.

This, in a nutshell, is the true, naked situation slowly but surely initiated by Edward VII, promoted by him, and, despite all denials, systematically developed by means of conversations on the part of England with Paris and Petersburgwhich is now finally being completed and set in motion by George V. To this end a noose is being made for our necks out of the stupidity and clumsiness of our ally. And so, notwithstanding all the efforts of our politicians and diplomatists to prevent it, the celebrated 'encirclement' of Germany has at last become a fully accomplished fact. The net has suddenly been drawn over our heads, and England, with a sneer, has scored the most brilliant success of her tenacious, purely anti-German worldpolicy, against which we have found ourselves powerless, for as soon as we were struggling all alone in the net, a halter for our political and economic destruction was tied out of our loyalty to our Austrian ally. A grandiose performance which deserves admiration at the hands even of him who is doomed to perish by it.

Edward VII is dead, but he is still stronger than I, who am alive.

And yet there have been people who thought that England might be won or placated by this or that petty expedient! ! ! Unceasingly, unyieldingly, she has pursued her aim by means of notes, proposals for a naval holiday, scares, Haldane, etc., until the desired point had been reached. And we fell into the trap; we even introduced the one-ship-a-year rate of construction into our programme, in the touching hope that we might thereby reassure England!!! All my warnings, all my entreaties, fell upon deaf ears. Now comes England's so-called thanks for all this. Out of the dilemma of allied loyalty toward the venerable old Emperor (Francis Joseph) is being created for us the situation which gives England the desired pretext for destroying us, with the hypocritical semblance of justice presented by helping France to maintain the notorious balance of power in Europe; in other words, all the states of Europe are to be played off against us for the benefit of England!

All these machinations must now un

sparingly be laid bare: the mask of Christian peaceableness must be openly and violently torn from them in public, and this Pharisaical pretense of peace must be pilloried!! And our consuls in Turkey and India, our agents, etc., must inflame the whole of the Mohammedan world into a savage uprising against this hated, lying, unscrupulous nation of hucksters. For if we are to bleed to death, England shall at the very least lose India!

Of King Victor Emanuel of Italy, the Kaiser demanded, through a special envoy, 'the immediate mobilization of the Italian army and navy,' in accordance with the Berlin interpretation of the Triple Alliance Treaty, and, on the receipt of a direct communication explaining why Italy could not join Austria and Germany, wrote the word 'scoundrel' immediately after the King's signature. 'Like master, like man,' and on August 5, after the receipt of the British declaration of war, von Moltke, Chief of the General Staff, addressed the following memorandum to the Foreign Office in Berlin:

England's declaration of war, which, according to trustworthy information, was The London Telegraph, December 12, 1919

designed from the very beginning of the conflict, compels us to exhaust every means that may contribute to victory. The grave situation in which the Fatherland finds itself makes it a duty to resort to every means that is calculated to injure the enemy. The unscrupulous policy which our adversaries are conducting against us warrants ruthless action on our part.

The insurrection of Poland has been initiated. The seed will fall on fruitful soil; our troops have already been greeted in Poland almost as friends. At Wloclavek, for example, they have been welcomed with bread and salt. The sentiment of America is friendly to Germany. American public opinion is indignant at the shameful way in which we have been treated. Every effort must be made to turn this sentiment to account. The influential personages of the German colony must be urged to exert further influence ir our sense upon the press. It may, perhaps, prove possible to induce the United States to take naval action against England, in return for which Canada beckons as the prize of victory.

Important above all, as I have already explained in my communication of the 2d instant (No. 1, P.), are the insurrection of India and Egypt, and also of the Caucasus. By means of our treaty with Turkey the Foreign Office will be in a position to realize this idea, and to excite the fanaticism of Islam.

THE Americanization of the Treaty by the United States Senate is by far the most momentous event that has taken place since the armistice, for not only does it throw all Europe back upon the imponderabilia of politics, but in an immediate and absolute sense it will force us all, whether Polish nationalist or Italian irredentist, to think perhaps for the first time again since the outbreak of war. Months ago this eventuality was anticipated in the English Review; month after month it has been pointed out that Republican America would not blindly pledge herself to uphold and fight for a Treaty which every American at Paris condemned; which of fended American national spirit; which would make America the catspaw, banker, and arsenal of agonized Europe; which, finally, would syndicate a Treaty violated and contradicted by a covenant which again, if it meant anything, violated and contradicted the Treaty.

Newspapers will no doubt deplore this 'unfortunate' event, and we shall be told by academic Liberalism that the League of Nations is consequently imperiled, and by opponents of the League that it is scotched, while militarists will assure us that Utopianism always was a visionary snare and that force is the only dignified argument of man. But in reality such pessimism is entirely unjustified. On the contrary, the reservations of the American Senate will prove supremely beneficial to Europe and to the world, for in substance they denote a return to sanity

and from the quarter which economically controls; which must, therefore, no matter what attempts are made publicly or surreptitiously to obscure and prejudice the position, eventually compel politicians and public to reconsider the European situation from the angle not of destruction but of construction.

The bitter truth is simply this. Politicians at Paris made a peace which is economically unworkable. Those who care to know how men came to do a thing at once so silly and irresponsible can learn from a perusal of Dr. Dillon's scathing analysis and indictment, The Peace Conference; those who want to know know and it is every man's duty to know what the Treaty means can inform themselves in half an hour by reading a little work called The Peace Treaty, issued by the Swarthmore Press. Europe has been regrouped on strategic or military lines; that is the net result, and so far has this design been carried out that half of all Europe has been reduced to a system of noneconomic units, this system to be standardized and upheld by a covenant, as an integral part of the Treaty, euphemizing the rearrangement under a Supreme Council, called the League of Nations, which was to be the cornerstone of the new order. America's attitude dissipates this illusion. We return to reality. Once more we return to practical politics.

It is very important that we should clearly grasp the full meaning of this qualification, because there are only two world powers left at this hour

Britain and America - and obviously if one goes out, we, as the control, incur the responsibility for the whole; that is, are liable, as the largest and only true solvent shareholders in the concern, to provide the necessary money and the indispensable militarism which alone can maintain a Treaty based on starvation, throttling two Powers, one of seventy million people and the other of one hundred and fifty million. At Paris, the politicians, taking the measure of President Wilson, reckoned that they could regroup Europe to their hearts' content, like a nursery garden, on the support of America, and they set to work accordingly. The idea was economic control, or the control of raw materials, which, with the control of the seas, would give the covenant grouping supreme authority over Europe, who would consequently be dependent for production upon the good will of the Supreme Council. It was a helot peace founded upon economic world-control, guaranteed by the League of Nations.

This idea can no longer be carried out, because America refuses to pledge herself to fight for the racial, linguistic, tribal, sectarian, and imperial animosities, jealousies, greeds, and rapacities of old Europe, thus leaving Europe to herself. Now the effect of this is primarily economic. It concerns the British Empire vitally. It means that the whole outlook must be reconsidered - upon a new basis. It imposes upon Britain the immediate duty of seeking a fresh orientation, or accepting the full liability of our position ordained in the Treaty as the chief constable of Europe ready and willing to fight at any moment and in any spot to uphold the dislocations from the Rhine to the Urals and from the Baltic to the Mediterranean created by a Treaty whose basic design was the military domination in Europe of France, which we

alone are rich enough and powerful enough to safeguard, even for twelve months, if force is to remain the meaning of statesmanship and of the socalled new order.

It was because I foresaw this im passe that I opposed the Prime Minister at the Carnarvon Boroughs in the last elections. I saw what an ebullition mandate would imply. But men refused mind at that time. The Prime Minister was accordingly sent to Paris on a hurricane mandate of victimization to 'down' President Wilson. He did 'down' him. Now the President has been 'downed.' We return to where we were before the wild election. But there is nothing catastrophic in the fact that America differs from Mr. Bottomley. It is quite reasonable and quite inevitable. The only thing is that now we shall have to think; think intelligently, or Europe, already sinking into medieval chaos, will drift even this winter into the night of madness and anarchy, for which we shall be directly responsible.

That is the position. The question is: What does this breakdown signify? Does it mean that the League of Nations is dead? Will it help or retard? It is my deliberate opinion that it will prove eminently helpful, and for this reason. We in Britain will now have to come down to earth and face the facts, not only the facts as they confront us in a Balkanized, Bolshefied Europe, with all that such a condition must mean to us, to our markets or selling power, and to our home political difficulties, but essentially the problem of our credit hypothecated on the security of an anarchy, which we alone can uphold or dissolve.