CHAPTER VI

British Troops in Action--Their "Customary Coolness"--Zeppelin at Antwerp--German Atrocities--Lord Kitchener's Speech

The British Expeditionary Force was engaged in the battle at Mons, and it was subsequently stated that the soldiers had been fighting for thirty-six hours on end. A short statement by the Press Bureau was more usefully expanded into the following account, which was issued by the French Embassy and summed up the situation as it existed on Monday night, August 24th:

On the west of the Meuse the English army, which was on our left, has been attacked by the Germans. Its behaviour under fire was admirable, and it resisted the enemy with its customary coolness.

The French army which operated in this region attacked. Our army corps, with the African troops in the first line, carried forward by their over-eagerness, were received with a very murderous fire. They did not fall back, but later by a counter-attack by the Prussian Guard they were compelled to retire. They did so only after having inflicted enormous loss on the enemy. The flower of the Prussian Guard suffered very severely.

On the east of the Meuse our troops advanced across very difficult ground. They met with a vigorous attack as they left the woods, and were compelled to retire after fierce fighting on the south of the Semoy.

At the order of General Joffre, our troops and the English troops have taken up their position on the covering line, which they would not have quitted had not the splendid courage of the Belgian army permitted us to enter Belgium. The covering line is intact. Our cavalry has not suffered. Our artillery has proved its superiority. Our officers and our soldiers are in splendid physical and moral condition.

As a result of the orders given, the struggle will change its aspect for several days. The French army will for a time remain on the defensive. When the proper moment comes, as chosen by the Commander-in-Chief, it will resume a vigorous offensive.

Our losses are severe. It will be premature to estimate them or to estimate those of the German army, which, however, has suffered so severely as to be compelled to halt in its counter-attack and establish itself in new positions.

The communiqué then proceeds to deal with the situation in regard to Lorraine. It says:

Yesterday we four times counter-attacked from the positions we occupy on the north of Nancy, and we inflicted very severe losses on the Germans.

Generally speaking, we retain full liberty to use our railway system, and every sea is open for our re-provisioning. Our operations have permitted Russia to enter into action and to reach the heart of Eastern Prussia. It is, of course, regrettable that, owing to difficulties in execution which could not have been foreseen, our plan of attack has not achieved its object. Had it done so it would have shortened the war, but in any case our defence remains intact in face of an already weakened enemy.

All Frenchmen will deplore the momentary abandonment of the portions of annexed territory which we had already occupied. On the other hand, certain portions of the national territory must, unfortunately, suffer from the events of which they will be the theatre. The trial is inevitable, but will be temporary.

Thus, some detachments of German cavalry, belonging to an independent division operating on the extreme right, have penetrated into the Roubaix--Tourcoing district, which is defended only by Territorial forces. The courage of our brave people will support this trial with unshaken faith in our final success, which is beyond doubt.

In telling the country the whole truth, the Government and the military authorities afford it the strongest possible proof of their absolute confidence in a victory, which depends only on our tenacity and perseverance.

A thrilling description of the behaviour of the British troops at Mons was given by Mr. A.J. Rorke, the correspondent of the Central News Agency, who wired from Paris on Monday night:

Graphic stories of how the British troops at Mons fought during the two days in which they bore the brunt of the main German advance reached Paris in the early hours of this morning, when officers arriving from the front reported at the War Office, and, in subsequent conversation with their closest personal friends, told of the wonderful coolness and daring of our men. The shooting of our infantry on the firing fine, they said, was wonderful. Every time a German's head showed above the trenches and every time the German infantry attempted to rush a position there came a withering rifle fire from the khaki-clad forms lying in extending formation along a big battle front.

The firing was not the usual firing of nervous men, shooting without aiming and sometimes without rhyme or reason, as is so often the case in warfare. It was rather the calm, calculated riflemanship of the men one sees on the Stickledown range firing with all the artificial aids permitted to the match rifle expert whose one concern is prize money.

When quick action was necessary the firing and the action of the men was only that of prize riflemen firing at a disappearing target. There was no excitement, no nervousness; just cool, methodical efficiency. If the British lost heavily heaven only knows what the Germans must have lost, because, as one of their wounded officers (whom the British took prisoner) remarked, "We had never expected anything like it; it was staggering."

The British troops went to their positions silently but happily. There was no singing, because that was forbidden, but as the khaki-clad columns deployed and began to crawl to the trenches there were various sallies of humour in the different dialects of English, Irish, and Scottish counties. The Yorkshireman, for instance, would draw a comparison between the men they were going to fight and certain dogs that won't fight which the Yorkshire collier has not time to waste upon at the pit-head; the Cockney soldier was there with his sallies about "Uncle Bill," and every Irishman who went into the firing line wished he had the money to buy a little Irish horse, so that he could have a slap at the Uhlans.

And the cavalry! Officers coming from the front declare that our cavalrymen charged the much-vaunted German horsemen as Berserks might have done. When they got into action with tunics open, and sometimes without tunics at all, they flung themselves at the German horsemen in a manner which surprised even their own officers, who had themselves expected great things of them. The Uhlans, whose name and fearful fame had spread terror among the Belgian peasants and the frontier villages of France, were just the sort of men the British troopers were waiting for. The Britishers, mostly Londoners, who, as Wellington said, make the best cavalry soldiers in the world, were dying to have a cut at them; and when they got into clinches the Uhlans had the surprise of their lives.

From the scene of battle, the point of interest in the European war drama, as far as England is concerned, shifted in the small hours of this morning to the railway station at X, where officers and men of the Army Service Corps awaited the arrival of the wounded--the British wounded from the firing line. Everything was perfectly organised; there was no theatrical display; the officers and men of the British army waited silently and calmly for the toll of war, which they had been advised was on its way.

The station at the time was crowded with Americans coming to England from Paris after their release from Switzerland, and cheer after cheer, in which the French in the station joined, echoed under the arched roof. Britishers who were there felt very proud of their Empire and their soldiers at that moment. The men who were waiting for the wounded had not been in the first line of battle it was true--that was not their job--but their work was probably the greatest of all. It was for them to watch and wait, while every fibre of their inmost being thrilled to the note of war; and yet to restrain their desires while they practised that which the Iron Duke called the wonderful "two o'clock in the morning" courage. So they waited in a draughty station for their comrades, thrown back temporarily from the scene of action, to fit them to return, if possible, immediately.

While the crowd waited for the wounded, train after train rolled slowly through carrying more of "our boys" to the active front. They were sleeping in horse trucks alongside their equine friends; they were sleeping in cattle wagons; yet they stood up when the cheering reached their ears, looking fresh, fit, clean, and healthily British from their service caps to their puttee straps. All young, all full-blooded, all British; happy and eager to get at grips in what is to them a holy war. And then, at the end, as the boat-train was creeping out in the early morning, the wounded arrived.

It was my privilege to witness, on the road between Boulogne and Paris last Saturday, a scene as picturesque and deeply inspiring as a page from Froissart. The two English Cardinals, Cardinal-Archbishop Bourne and the Cardinal Abbot Gasquet, famed as an historian, had left London to journey to the Conclave at Rome. On the line the train in which they travelled was stopped, and by a curious chance a train in which a regiment including in its ranks a large number of Irish Catholics--these men, like the Plantagenets of old, wearing a sprig of green in their head-dress--was drawn up for a moment alongside.

The Cardinals, who, under their cassocks, wore the red of their rank, stepped into the corridor, and, leaning out of a window, said together, "May God bless you, my children."

In an instant every Catholic soldier in the open trucks of the troop train dropped to his knees to receive the Cardinals' blessing. It appears, maybe, a simple affair, but in its spontaneity and sincerity, its mingling of the spiritual with the grimly material, it was eloquent and moving beyond the comprehension of those who only read what others saw.

On August 25th the Germans made a raid by Zeppelin airship on Antwerp and dropped several bombs on the palace, the St. Elizabeth Hospital, and other public buildings. Twelve persons were blown to pieces in different parts of the city, and shots aimed at the airship proved ineffectual. The same evening the Belgian Government gave out the following official statement regarding the shocking atrocities committed by the invading forces in various parts of the occupied territory:

In spite of solemn assurances of goodwill and long-standing treaty obligations, Germany has made a sudden savage and utterly unwarranted attack on Belgium.

However sorely pressed she may be, Belgium will never fight unfairly and never stoop to infringe the laws and customs of legitimate warfare. She is putting up a brave fight against overwhelming odds, she may be beaten, she may be crushed, but, to quote our noble King's words, "she will never be enslaved."

When German troops invaded our country, the Belgian Government issued public statements which were placarded in every town, village, and hamlet, warning all civilians to abstain scrupulously from hostile acts against the enemy's troops. The Belgian Press daily published similar notices broadcast through the land. Nevertheless, the German authorities have issued lately statements containing grave imputations against the attitude of the Belgian civilian population, threatening us at the same time with dire reprisals. These imputations are contrary to the real facts of the case, and as to threats of further vengeance, no menace of odious reprisals on the part of the German troops will deter the Belgian Government from protesting before the civilised world against the fearful and atrocious crimes committed wilfully and deliberately by the invading hosts against helpless non-combatants, old men, women, and children.

Long is the list of outrages committed by the German troops, and appalling the details of atrocities, as vouched for by the Committee of Inquiry recently formed by the Belgian Minister of Justice and presided over by him. This committee comprises the highest judicial and university authorities of Belgium, such as Chief Justice Van Iseghem, Judge Nys, Professors Cottier, Wodon, etc.

The following instances and particulars have been established by careful investigations based in each case on the evidence of reliable eye-witnesses:

German cavalry occupying the village of Linsmeau were attacked by some Belgian infantry and two gendarmes. A German officer was killed by our troops during the fight and subsequently buried at the request of the Belgian officer in command. No one of the civilian population took part in the fighting at Linsmeau. Nevertheless, the village was invaded at dusk on August 10th by a strong force of German cavalry, artillery, and machine guns. In spite of the formal assurances given by the Burgomaster of Linsmeau that none of the peasants had taken part in the previous fight, two farms and six outlying houses were destroyed by gun-fire and burnt. All the male inhabitants were then compelled to come forward and hand over whatever arms they possessed. No recently discharged firearms were found. Nevertheless, the invaders divided these peasants into three groups, those in one group were bound and eleven of them placed in a ditch, where they were afterwards found dead, their skulls fractured by the butts of German rifles.

During the night of August 10th, German cavalry entered Velm in great numbers. The inhabitants were asleep. The Germans, without provocation, fired on M. Deglimme-Gevers' house, broke into it, destroyed furniture, looted money, burnt barns, hay and corn stacks, farm implements, six oxen, and the contents of the farmyard. They carried off Madame Deglimme, half-naked, to a place two miles away. She was then let go, and was fired upon as she fled, without being hit. Her husband was carried away in another direction, and fired upon. He is dying. The same troops sacked and burned the house of a railway watchman.

Farmer Jef Dierick, of Neerhespen, bears witness to the following acts of cruelty committed by German cavalry at Orsmael and Neerhespen on August 10th, 11th, and 12th:

An old man of the latter village had his arm sliced in three longitudinal cuts; he was then hanged head downwards and burned alive. Young girls have been maltreated, and little children outraged at Orsmael, where several inhabitants suffered mutilations too horrible to describe. A Belgian soldier belonging to a battalion of cyclist carabineers, who had been wounded and made prisoner, was hanged, whilst another, who was tending his comrade, was bound to a telegraph pole on the St. Trond road and shot.

On Wednesday, August 12th, after an engagement at Haelen, Commandant Van Damme, so severely wounded that he was lying prone on his back, was finally murdered by German infantrymen firing their revolvers into his mouth.

On August 9th, at Orsmael, the Germans picked up Commandant Knapen, very seriously wounded, propped him up against a tree, and shot him. Finally they hacked his corpse with swords.

In different places, notably at Hollogne sur Geer, Barchon, Pontisse, Haelen, and Zelck, German troops have fired on doctors, ambulance bearers, ambulances, and ambulance wagons carrying a Red Cross.

At Boncelles a body of German troops marched into battle carrying a Belgian flag.

On Thursday, August 6th, before a fort at Liège, German soldiers continued to fire on a party of Belgian soldiers (who were unarmed, and had been surrounded while digging a trench) after these had hoisted the white flag.

On the same day, at Vottem, near the fort of Loncin, a group of German infantry hoisted the white flag. When Belgian soldiers approached to take them prisoners the Germans suddenly opened fire on them at close range.

Harrowing reports of German savagery at Aerschot have reached the Belgian Government at Antwerp from official local sources. Thus on Tuesday, August 18th, the Belgian troops occupying a position in front of Aerschot received orders to retire without engaging the enemy. A small force was left behind to cover the retreat. This force resisted valiantly against overwhelming German forces, and inflicted serious losses on them. Meanwhile practically the whole civilian population of Aerschot, terrorised by the atrocities committed by the Germans in the neighbouring villages, had fled from the town.

Next day, Wednesday, August 19th, German troops entered Aerschot without a shot having been fired from the town and without any resistance whatever having been made. The few inhabitants that remained had closed their doors and windows in compliance with the general orders issued by the Belgian Government. Nevertheless the Germans broke into the houses and told the inhabitants to quit.

In one single street the first six male inhabitants who crossed their thresholds were seized and shot at once under the very eyes of their wives and children. The German troops then retired for the day, only to return in greater numbers on the next day, Thursday, August 20th.

They then compelled the inhabitants to leave their houses and marched them to a place 200 yards from the town. There, without more ado, they shot M. Thielmans, the Burgomaster, his fifteen-year-old son, the clerk of the Local Judicial Board, and ten prominent citizens. They then set fire to the town and destroyed it.

The following statement was made by Commandant Georges Gilson, of the 9th Infantry of the Line, now lying in hospital at Antwerp:

I was told to cover the retreat of our troops in front of Aerschot. During the action fought there on Wednesday, August 19th, between six and eight o'clock in the morning, suddenly I saw on the high road, between the German and Belgian forces, which were fighting at close range, a group of four women, with babies in their arms, and two little girls clinging to their skirts. Our men stopped firing till the women got through our lines, but the German machine guns went on firing all the time, and one of the women was wounded in the arm. These women could not have got through the neighbouring German lines and been on the high road unless with the consent of the enemy.

All the evidence and circumstances seem to point to the fact that those women had been deliberately pushed forward by the Germans to act as a shield for their advance guard, and in the hope that the Belgians would cease firing for fear of killing the women and children.

This statement was made and duly certified in the Antwerp Hospital on August 22nd by Commandant Gilson, in the presence of the Chevalier Ernst N. Bunswyck, Chief Secretary to the Belgian Minister of Justice, and M. de Cartier de Marchienne, Belgian Minister to China.

Further German atrocities are continuously being brought to notice and made the subject of official and expert inquiry by the proper authorities.

* * * * *

In issuing the above statements to the English Press, the only comment the Press Bureau could offer was that these atrocities appeared to be committed in villages and throughout the country side with the deliberate intention of terrorising the people, and so making it unnecessary to leave troops in occupation of small places or to protect lines of communication. In large places like Brussels, where the diplomatic representatives of neutral Powers are eye-witnesses, there appeared to have been no excesses.

When Parliament met on August 25th, after a short adjournment, Lord Kitchener, Minister for War, gave the following account of the situation in the House of Lords:

As this is the first time that I have had the honour of addressing your lordships, I must ask for the indulgence of the House. In the first place I desire to make a personal statement. Noble lords on both sides of the House doubtless know that, while associating myself in the fullest degree for the prosecution of the war with my colleagues in His Majesty's Government, my position on this Bench does not in any way imply that I belong to any political party, for as a soldier I have no politics.

Another point is that my occupation of the post of Secretary of State for War is a temporary one. The terms of my service are the same as those under which some of the finest portions of our manhood, now so willingly stepping forward to join the colours, are engaging. That is to say for the war; or if it lasts longer, then for three years.

It has been asked why the latter limit has been fixed. It is because should this disastrous war be prolonged--and no one can foretell with any certainty its duration--then, after three years' war, there will be others, fresh and fully prepared, to take our places and see this matter through.

The very serious conflict in which we are now engaged on the Continent has been none of our seeking. It will undoubtedly strain the resources of our Empire and entail considerable sacrifices on our people. These will be willingly borne for our honour and the preservation of our position in the world, and will be shared by our dominions beyond the seas, now sending contingents and assistance of every kind to help the Mother Country in this struggle.

If I am unable, owing to military consideration for the best interests of the allied armies in the field, to speak with much detail on the present situation of our army on the Continent, I am sure your lordships will pardon me for the necessary restraint which is imposed upon me.

The Expeditionary Force has taken the field on the French north-west frontier, and has advanced to the neighbourhood of Mons, in Belgium. Our troops have already been for thirty-six hours in contact with a superior force of German invaders. During that time they have maintained the traditions of British soldiers, and have behaved with the utmost gallantry. The movements which they have been called upon to execute have been those which demand the greatest steadiness in the soldiers, and skill in their commanders. Sir John French telegraphed to me at midnight, as follows:

"In spite of hard marching and fighting, the British force is in the best of spirits."

I replied:

"Congratulate troops on their splendid work. We are all proud of them."

As your lordships are aware, European fighting causes greater casualties than the campaigns in which we are generally engaged in other parts of the world. The nation will, I am sure, be fully prepared to meet whatever losses and sacrifices we may have to make in this war. Sir John French, without having been able to verify the numbers, estimates the loss since the commencement of active operations at rather more than 2,000 men _hors-de-combat_.

As to the work of the last few weeks, I have to remark that when war was declared, mobilisation took place without any hitch whatever, and our Expeditionary Force proved itself wholly efficient, well equipped, and immediately ready to take the field.

The Press and the public have, in their respective spheres, lent invaluable aid to the Government in preserving a discreet silence, which the exigencies of the situation obviously demanded, and I gladly take this opportunity of bearing testimony to the value of their co-operation. The hands of the military authorities were also strengthened by the readiness with which the civilian community faced and accepted the novel situation created by the issue of requisitions for horses, transport, supplies and billets.

The railway companies, in the all-important matter of the transport facilities, have more than justified the complete confidence reposed in them by the War Office, all grades of railway services having laboured with untiring energy and patience. And it is well to repeat that the conveyance of our troops across the Channel was accomplished, thanks to the cordial co-operation of the Admiralty, with perfect smoothness and without any untoward incident whatever.

We know how deeply the French people appreciate the value of the prompt assistance we have been able to afford them at the very outset of the war, and it is obvious that not only the moral but the material support our troops are now rendering must prove to be a factor of high military significance in restricting the sphere and determining the duration of hostilities.

Had the conditions of strategy permitted, everyone in this country would have rejoiced to see us ranged alongside the gallant Belgian army in that superb struggle against desperate odds which has just been witnessed. But, although this privilege was perforce denied to us, Belgium knows of our sympathy with her in her sufferings, of our indignation at the blows which have been inflicted on her, and also of our resolution to make sure that in the end her sacrifices will not have been unavailing.

While other countries engaged in this war have under a system of compulsory service brought their full resources of men into the field, we, under our national system, have not done so, and can, therefore, still point to a vast reserve drawn from the resources both of the Mother Country and of the British Dominions across the Seas.

The response which has already been made by the great Dominions, abundantly proves that we did not look in vain to these sources of military strength, and while India, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are all sending us powerful contingents, in this country the Territorials are replying with loyalty to the stern call of duty which has come to them with such exceptional force.

Over seventy battalions have, with fine patriotism, already volunteered for service abroad, and when trained and organised in the larger formations, will be able to take their places in the line.

The 100,000 recruits for which, in the first place, it has been thought necessary to call, have been already practically secured. This force will be trained and organised in divisions similar to those which are now serving on the Continent.

Behind these we have our Reserves. The Special Reserve and the National Reserve have each their own part to play in the organisation of our national defence.

The Empires with whom we are at war have called to the colours almost their entire male population. The principle we, on our part, shall observe, is this, that while their maximum force undergoes a constant diminution, the reinforcements we prepare shall steadily and increasingly flow out, until we have an army in the field which in numbers, not less than in quality, will not be unworthy of the power and responsibilities of the British Empire.

I cannot, at this stage, say what will be the limits of the forces required, or what measures may eventually become necessary to supply and maintain them. The scale of the Field Army which we are now calling into being is large and may rise in the course of the next six or seven months to a total of thirty divisions continually maintained in the field. But if the war should be protracted, and if its fortunes should be varied or adverse, exertions and sacrifices beyond any which have been demanded will be required from the whole nation and Empire, and where they are required we are sure they will not be denied to the extreme needs of the State by Parliament or the people.

THE CASE FOR BELGIUM

It has been sought in the preceding chapters to give as detailed a description as the information at our disposal will allow of the fighting in the North--_i.e._ the struggle for Liège and Namur, and the subsequent series of closely-contested battles from Tirlemont to Mons. The case for the Belgian people, and an account of the sufferings which had to be endured by a peaceful, non-combatant population, will be found mentioned also in the course of the narrative. The diplomatic case for Belgium has already been given to the public in another volume of this series ("How the War Began"); but the details of this case, and the reasons why this country is taking part in the war, have been so well summed up by Mr. Asquith that a few extracts from his speech are necessary to make this volume complete.

The first of a series of meetings to bring home to the people of England the vital importance of the questions at issue was held in the Guildhall on Friday, September 4th; and the speakers included the Prime Minister, Mr. Bonar Law, Mr. Churchill, and Mr. Balfour. In the course of his remarks Mr. Asquith referred to the Arbitration Treaty between Great Britain and the United States, which he mentioned at a previous Guildhall meeting some three and a-half years previously. "We were very confident three years ago in the rightness of our position," he said. "We are equally confident to-day, when reluctantly and against our will, but with a clear judgment and with a clean conscience we find ourselves involved with the whole strength of this Empire in a bloody arbitrament between Might and Right."

Mr. Asquith continued:

The issue has passed out of the domain of argument into another field, but let me ask you, and through you the world outside, what would have been our condition as a nation to-day, if we had been base enough, through timidity, or through a perverted calculation of self-interest, or through a paralysis of the sense of honour and duty, if we had been base enough to be false to our word and faithless to our friends?

Our eyes would have been turned at this moment, with those of the whole civilised world, to Belgium, a small State, which has lived for more than seventy years under the several and collective guarantee to which we, in common with Prussia and Austria, were parties; and we should have seen, at the instance and by the action of two of these guaranteeing Powers, her neutrality violated, her independence strangled, her territory made use of as affording the easiest and most convenient road to a war of unprovoked aggression against France.

We, the British people, would at this moment have been standing by with folded arms, and with such countenance as we could command, while this small and unprotected State, in defence of her vital liberties, made an heroic stand against overweening and overwhelming force. We should have been admiring, as detached spectators, the siege of Liège, the steady and manful resistance of their small army; the occupation of their capital, with its splendid traditions and memories; the gradual forcing back of their patriotic defenders of their native land to the ramparts of Antwerp; countless outrages suffered through buccaneering levies exacted from the unoffending civil population, and finally, the greatest crime committed against civilisation and culture since the Thirty Years' War--the sack of Louvain and its buildings, its pictures, its unique library, its unrivalled associations--shameless holocaust of irreplaceable treasures, lit up by blind barbarian vengeance.

What account should we, the Government and the people of this country, have been able to render to the tribunal of our national conscience and sense of honour if, in defiance of our plighted and solemn obligations, we had endured, if we had not done our best to prevent--yes, and to avenge--these intolerable outrages?

For my part I say that sooner than be a silent witness, which means in effect a willing accomplice, of this tragic triumph of force over law, and of brutality over freedom, I would see this country of ours blotted out of the page of history.

Several German newspapers, distorting the facts of the case with remarkable disingenuousness, had roundly asserted that England had chosen to take part in the war for purely materialistic reasons, and that this country was not so anxious to vindicate the principle of Belgian neutrality as to secure the oversea trade of the German Empire. Even if Mr. Asquith had not spoken on the subject at all, it would have been realised sooner or later that there was no foundation for this assertion; for it was hardly likely, if we had had only this object in view, that a community of practical business men would have tolerated the enormous sacrifice of life and money involved in attempting by war to displace German exports to European and non-European countries.

As this argument was advanced with such persistence in the German Press, it may be worth while dwelling on it for a moment. The total value of the German export trade for 1913 was just over £495,000,000, and of our own export trade £635,000,000. With many German products, such as dyes, and certain chemical and electrical goods, this country has never been able to compete. At the beginning of the war, for example, when the German coast had been blockaded by our Fleet, we should have been compelled to spend millions of pounds in order to experiment with, and later on to manufacture, aniline dyes analogous to those produced in Germany. The same remark applies to many classes of electrical goods. Millions would have had to be spent on experiments before we began to manufacture the products, assuming--in many cases a large assumption--the success of the experiments. This, too, at a time when money was notoriously scarce, when accommodation could not be obtained from the banks, and when the Government had just announced that it wanted a hundred millions sterling as a first instalment of war expenses.

Apart from this, even if we had thought of capturing Germany's export trade, or a large part of it, it was clear that other nations had conceived the same notion and were getting ready to act upon it. Japanese merchants, for instance, had their eyes fixed on the markets of China, and manufacturers in the United States had been showing, even before the war, a deep interest in South America. Is it likely, in these circumstances, that a nation such as this would have seen at least half a million men withdrawn from productive work, and the expenditure of millions of money, purely for the sake of competing with the United States and Japan in foreign markets?--always realising that the war must end some time, that Germany must once more begin to manufacture, and that competition would be as severe as ever in less than a decade? No; if we can capture some of Germany's export trade, that will be a mere incidental in the struggle for national existence, and the profits represented thereby will but ill balance the lives and money which will have to be sacrificed in the meantime.

Fortunately, Mr. Asquith took the opportunity, when speaking at the Guildhall, to make it clear that Great Britain and the British Dominions were not actuated by materialistic aims in entering upon the greatest campaign in history. There was something to be considered besides profits. Having referred to the sacking of Louvain, Mr. Asquith went on to say:

That is only a phase--a lurid and illuminating phase--in the contest in which we have been called, by the mandate of duty and of honour, to bear our part. The cynical violation of the neutrality of Belgium was, after all, but a step--a first step--in a deliberate policy of which, if not the immediate, the ultimate and the not far-distant aim was to crush the independence and the autonomy of the Free States of Europe. First Belgium, then Holland and Switzerland--countries, like our own, imbued and sustained with the spirit of liberty--were one after another to be bent to the yoke; and these ambitions were fed and fostered by a body of new doctrines, a new philosophy, preached by professors and learned men.

Free and full self-development, which to these small States, to ourselves, to our great and growing Dominions over the seas, to our kinsmen across the Atlantic, is the well-spring and life-breath of national existence--that free self-development is the one capital offence in the code of those who have made force their supreme divinity, and upon its altars are prepared to sacrifice both the gathered fruits and the potential germs of the unfettered human spirit. I use this language advisedly.

This is not merely a material; it is also a spiritual conflict. Upon its issue everything that contains promise and hope, that leads to emancipation, and a fuller liberty for the millions who make up the mass of mankind, will be found sooner or later to depend.

The Prime Minister proceeded to combat the absurd suggestions that the Anglo-French Agreement of 1904, and the Anglo-Russian Agreement of 1907, were likely to prove a menace to the German Empire:

Let me now just for a moment turn to the actual situation in Europe. How do we stand? For the last ten years, by what I believe to be happy and well-considered diplomatic arrangements, we have established friendly and increasingly intimate relations with the two Powers, France and Russia, with whom in days gone by we have had, in various parts of the world, occasions for constant friction, and now and again for possible conflict. Those new and better relations, based in the first instance upon business principles of give-and-take, have matured into a settled temper of confidence and goodwill. They were never in any sense or at any time, as I have frequently said in this hall, directed against other Powers.

No man in the history of the world has ever laboured more strenuously or more successfully than my right honourable friend, Sir Edward Grey, for that which is the supreme interest of the modern world--a general and abiding peace. It is, I venture to think, a very superficial criticism which suggests that, under his guidance, the policy of this country has ignored, still less that it has counteracted and hampered, the Concert of Europe. It is little more than a year ago that under his presidency, in the stress and strain of the Balkan crisis, the Ambassadors of all the Great Powers met here day after day, curtailing the area of possible differences, reconciling warring ambitions and aims, and preserving, against almost incalculable odds, the general harmony.

And it was in the same spirit, and with the same purpose, when a few weeks ago Austria delivered her ultimatum to Servia, that the Foreign Secretary--for it was he--put forward the proposal for a mediating Conference between the four Powers who were not directly concerned--Germany, France, Italy, and ourselves. If that proposal had been accepted actual controversy would have been settled with honour to everybody, and the whole of this terrible welter would have been avoided.

With whom does the responsibility rest for its refusal and for all the illimitable suffering which now confronts the world? One Power, and one Power only, and that Power is Germany. That is the fount and origin of this world-wide catastrophe.

We are persevering to the end. No one who has not been confronted, as we were, with the responsibility of determining the issues of peace and war can realise the strength and energy and persistency with which we laboured for peace. We persevered by every expedient that diplomacy could suggest, straining almost to the breaking point our most cherished friendships and obligations, even to the last making effort upon effort, and hoping against hope. Then, and only then, when we were at last compelled to realise that the choice lay between honour and dishonour, between treachery and good faith--when we at last reached the dividing line which makes or mars a nation worthy of the name, it was then, and then only, that we declared for war.

Is there anyone in this hall, or in this United Kingdom, or in the vast Empire of which we here stand in the capital and centre, who blames or repents our decision? (Cries of "No!") For these reasons, as I believe, we must steel ourselves to the task, and in the spirit which animated our forefathers in their struggle against the domination of Napoleon, we must, and we shall, persevere to the end.

At the Guildhall, as in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister referred to the noble example shown by the Belgian people in summoning all their available forces to repel the aggression of a Power which had been presumed to be friendly. He said:

It would be a criminal mistake to under-estimate either the magnitude, the fighting quality, or the staying power of the forces which are arrayed against us. But it would be equally foolish and equally indefensible to belittle our own resources whether for resistance or attack. (Cheers.) Belgium has shown us by a memorable and a glorious example what can be done by a relatively small State when its citizens are animated and fired by the spirit of patriotism. In France and Russia we have as allies two of the greatest Powers of the world engaged with us in a common cause, who do not mean to separate themselves from us any more than we mean to separate ourselves from them, (Cheers.)

Having paid this tribute--how well deserved it was, and to what a remarkable extent the German check at Liège influenced the subsequent developments of the campaign, the world is now beginning to realize--Mr. Asquith paid an equally warranted tribute to our own Fleet:

We have upon the seas the strongest and most magnificent Fleet which has ever been seen. The Expeditionary Force which left our shores less than a month ago has never been surpassed, as its glorious achievements in the field have already made clear, not only in material and equipment, but in the physical and the moral quality of its constituents.

As regards the Navy, I am sure my right honourable friend (Mr. Winston Churchill) will tell you there is happily little more to be done. I do not flatter it when I say that its superiority is equally marked in every department and sphere of its activity. We rely on it with the most absolute confidence, not only to guard our shores against the possibility of invasion, not only to seal up the gigantic battleships of the enemy in the inglorious seclusion of their own ports, whence from time to time he furtively steals forth to sow the seeds of murderous snares which are more full of menace to neutral ships than to the British Fleet--our Navy does all this, and while it is thirsting, I do not doubt, for that trial of strength in a fair and open fight which is so far prudently denied it, it does a great deal more.

It has hunted the German mercantile marine from the high seas. It has kept open our own sources of food supply and largely curtailed those of the enemy, and when the few German cruisers which still infest the more distant ocean routes have been disposed of, as they will be very soon, it will achieve for British and neutral commerce passing backwards and forwards from and to every part of our Empire a security as complete as it has ever enjoyed in the days of unbroken peace. Let us honour the memory of the gallant seamen who in the pursuit of one or another of these varied and responsible duties have already laid down their lives for their country.

As not the least important object of the Guildhall meeting was to stimulate recruiting, Mr. Asquith naturally referred to the army and its work. At a very early stage in the war both Germany and France had called up practically their last available man. Indeed, so hard pressed did the German Empire find itself after five weeks' fighting that arrangements, it was officially announced, were made for giving instruction in rifle shooting to boys aged from sixteen to nineteen. It was not, of course, intended that these lads should at once take an active part in the fighting: but it was assumed that by the time they reached their military age they would be familiar with the use of weapons and more or less adequately drilled. Retired officers who were too old to take part in the campaign were ordered to take the boys in hand.

To remedy the inevitable wastage in the French Army, as well as in our own Expeditionary Force--which, a few days before Mr. Asquith's speech, had already fought gallantly and lost some 14,000 men at Mons and Charleroi--it was desired that armies should be raised in England, trained, and sent out to the fighting line as required. For this purpose Lord Kitchener had intimated that at least 500,000 men would be required, and calls were made for 100,000 men at a time. The oversea Dominions, and, above all, India--where the German Government had vainly tried to bring about a disloyal outbreak--hastened to come forward with offers of men; but all this did not relieve the home country of its responsibility. Speaking on this subject, Mr. Asquith said:

In regard to the Army, there is call for a new, a continuous, a determined, and a united effort. For, as the war goes on, we shall have not merely to replace the wastage caused by casualties, not merely to maintain our military power at its original level, but we must, if we are to play a worthy part, enlarge its scale, increase its numbers, and multiply many times its effectiveness as a fighting instrument. The object of the appeal which I have made to you, my Lord Mayor, and to the other Chief Magistrates of our capital cities, is to impress upon the people of the United Kingdom the imperious urgency of this supreme duty.

Our self-governing Dominions throughout the Empire, without any solicitation on our part, demonstrated, with a spontaneousness and a unanimity unparalled in history, their determination to affirm their brotherhood with us, and to make our cause their own. From Canada, from Australia, from New Zealand, from South Africa, and from Newfoundland the children of the Empire assert, not as an obligation but as a privilege, their right and their willingness to contribute money, material, and, what is better than all, the strength and sinews, the fortunes, and the lives of their best manhood.

India, too, with no less alacrity has claimed her share in the common task. Every class and creed, British and natives, Princes and people, Hindus and Mahommedans, vie with one another in noble and emulous rivalry. Two divisions of our magnificent Indian Army are already on their way. We welcome with appreciation and affection their proffered aid. In an Empire which knows no distinction of race or cause we all alike, as subjects of the King-Emperor, are joint and equal custodians of our common interests and fortunes. We are here to hail with profound and heartfelt gratitude their association, side by side and shoulder to shoulder, with our home and Dominion troops, under the flag which is the symbol to all of a unity that a world in arms cannot dissever or dissolve.

With these inspiring appeals and examples from our fellow-subjects all over the world what are we doing, and what ought we to do here at home?

Mobilisation was ordered on August 4th. Immediately afterwards Lord Kitchener issued his call for 100,000 recruits for the Regular Army, which has been followed by a second call for another 100,000. The response up to to-day gives us between 250,000 to 300,000. I am glad to say that London has done its share. The total number of Londoners accepted is not less than 42,000.

I need hardly say that that appeal involves no disparagement or discouragement of the Territorial Force. The number of units in that force who have volunteered for foreign service is most satisfactory and grows every day. We look to them with confidence to increase their numbers, to perfect their organisation and training, and to play efficiently the part which has always been assigned to them, both offensive and defensive, in the military system of the Empire.

But to go back to the expansion to the Regular Army. We want more men--men of the best fighting quality--and if for a moment the number who offer themselves and are accepted should prove to be in excess of those who can at once be adequately trained and equipped, do not let them doubt that prompt provision will be made for the incorporation of all willing and able men in the fighting forces of the kingdom. We want first of all men, and we shall endeavour to secure them, and men desiring to serve together shall, wherever possible, be allotted to the same regiment or corps. The raising of battalions by counties or municipalities with this object will be in every way encouraged.

But we want not less urgently a larger supply of ex-non-commissioned officers, and the pick of the men with whom in past days they served, men, therefore, whom in most cases we shall be asking to give up regular employment and to return to the work of the State, which they alone are competent to do. The appeal we make is addressed quite as much to their employers as to the men themselves. The men ought to be absolutely assured of reinstatement in their business at the end of the war. Finally, there are numbers of commissioned officers now in retirement, who are much experienced in the handling of troops and have served their country in the past. Let them come forward, too, and show their willingness, if need be, to train bodies of men for whom at the moment no cadre or unit can be found.

Mr. Asquith concluded one of the most eloquent speeches he had ever delivered with a warning to the optimists who had predicted a too easy task for the allied forces, and recommended those present--and, through them, the British Empire generally--to cultivate the virtue of patience:

I have little more to say. Of the actual progress of the war I will not say anything, except that, in my judgment, in whatever direction we look there is abundant ground for pride and for confidence. I say nothing more, because I think we should all bear in mind that we are at present watching the fluctuations of fortune only in the early stages of what is going to be a protracted struggle. We must learn to take long views, and to cultivate, above all other faculties, those of patience, endurance, and steadfastness.

Meanwhile, let us go, each of us, to his or her appropriate place in the great common task. Never had a people more or richer sources of encouragement and inspiration. Let us realise first of all that we are fighting as a united Empire in a cause worthy of the highest traditions of our race; let us keep in mind the patient and indomitable seamen, who never relax for a moment, night or day, their stern vigil of the lonely sea; let us keep in mind our gallant troops, who to-day, after a fortnight's continuous fighting, under conditions which would try the mettle of the best army that ever took the field, maintain not only an undefeated, but an unbroken front.

Finally, let us recall the memories of the great men and the great deeds of the past, commemorated, some of them, in the monuments which we see around us on these walls; nor forgetting the dying message of the younger Pitt, his last public utterance, made at the table of one of your predecessors, my Lord Mayor, in this very hall: England has saved herself by her exertions, and will, as I trust, save Europe by her example.

The England of those days gave a noble answer to his appeal, and did not sheath the sword until after nearly twenty years of fighting the freedom of Europe was secured. Let us go and do likewise.

As the published documents now at our disposal sufficiently show, the German Government matured its preparations for the greatest war in history in what they believed to be the certain hope that Great Britain would not intervene. It was fully believed at Berlin that our domestic differences would prevent any designs at helping Belgium which the Government here might wish to carry out. The sudden change in national feeling, which reconciled political opponents like Sir Edward Carson and Mr. John Redmond, or Mr. Asquith and Mr. Bonar Law, Mr. Winston Churchill and Lord Charles Beresford, could not be comprehended on the other side of the North Sea, and completely upset the plans of the German Government. This loyalty to the nation, taking the place of loyalty to party at a time of national emergency, was demonstrated in the House of Commons as soon as the crisis became acute. At the Guildhall, too, Mr. Bonar Law once more proved how ready the Opposition were to sink their differences with the Government, and to support the Liberal Ministry in its endeavours to bring the campaign to an honourable conclusion.

When Mr. Asquith, after an enthusiastic burst of applause, had sat down, Mr. Bonar Law rose, amid an equally enthusiastic demonstration of welcome, and said:

It would, indeed, be impossible for me to add anything to the force of the appeal which has just been addressed by the Prime Minister to our people. But I am glad to be here as representing one of our great political parties in order to show clearly that in this supreme struggle, and in everything connected with it until it is brought to a triumphant close, the head of our Government must speak not as the leader of a party but as the mouthpiece of a nation.

We are a peace-loving people, but never, I believe, in our history has the whole nation been so convinced as it is to-day that the cause for which we are fighting is righteous and just. We strove for peace by all means up to the last moment, but when, in spite of our efforts, war came, we could not stand aside. The honour and the interests of Great Britain-and believe me, they go together--alike forbade it. It was inevitable that we must be drawn into this world struggle, and the only question was whether we should enter it honourably or be dragged into it with dishonour.

This war is a great crime--one of the greatest in history. But it is a crime in which as a nation we have no share. Now, as always, for nearly a generation, the key of peace or war was in Berlin. The head of the German Government had but to whisper the word "Peace," and there would have been no war. He did not speak that word. He drew the sword, and may the accursed system for which he stands perish by the sword!

War has come, and we are fighting for our life as truly as Belgium or France, where the tide of battle, with all its horrors, is rolling on. As Cromwell said of his Ironsides we can say with equal truth to-day: "We know what we are fighting for, and we love what we know."

We are fighting for our national existence, for everything which nations have always held most dear. But we are fighting for something more--we are fighting for the moral forces of humanity. We are fighting for respect for public law, and for the right of public justice, which are the foundation of civilisation. We are fighting, as the Prime Minister has said, for Right against Might. I do not attempt what Burke has declared to be impossible--to draw up an indictment against a whole people--but this I do say, that the German nation has allowed itself to be organised as a military machine which recognises no law except the law of force, which knows no right except the right of the strongest. It is against that we are fighting to-day.

The spirit in which this war was entered into was shown clearly in the words addressed to our Ambassador at Berlin by the German Chancellor. "You are going to war," he said, "for a scrap of paper." (Cries of "Shame!")

Yes, but a "scrap of paper" with which was bound up the solemn obligation, and with that obligation the honour, of a great nation--a "scrap of paper" in which was involved also the right to independence, to liberty, the right even of existence, of all the small nations of the world. It is for that "scrap of paper" that the Belgian soldiers have fought and died, that the Belgian people, by what they have done, and by what they have endured, have won for themselves immortal fame. It is for that "scrap of paper," and all that it means, that we, too, have already watered with the blood of our sons the fair fields of France, and for which we shall conquer or perish.

Like Mr. Asquith, Mr. Bonar Law emphasised the fact that the war was a spiritual and not a materialistic conflict; and he denounced in no less vigorous terms the atrocities which had been perpetrated by the German Army on its way through a friendly country. After his reference to the "scrap of paper," he went on to say:

The words which I have quoted show not merely the spirit in which the war was entered into, but the spirit in which it is being conducted to-day. When reports first reached us of German atrocities in Belgium I hoped for the sake of our common humanity that they were untrue, or at least exaggerated. We can entertain that hope no longer. The destruction of Louvain has proclaimed to the world in trumpet tones what German methods are. It has fixed upon German honour an indelible stain, and the explanations which it has been attempted to give of it have only made that stain the deeper.

War at the best is terrible. It is not from the ordinary soldier, it is not from below, that restraint can be expected. It must come, if it come at all, from above. But here the outrages have come not from below but from above. They are not the result of accident, but of design. They are part of a principle--the principle by any means, at any expense of the lives of defenceless men or helpless women and children, to spread terror in the country and to facilitate the German arms. This is a moral and a spiritual conflict. Believe me, in the long run, the moral and the spiritual are stronger than the material forces.

The object of this meeting, and of the speech to which we have just listened, is to appeal to the manhood of our country to rally once again round the old flag. That appeal will not be made, is not being made, in vain. Our people had only to realise, as at first they did not quite realise, what were the issues at stake to come forward with all the spirit of their fathers. That lesson is being driven home now by influences stronger far than any speeches. It is being taught by the heroic steadfastness of the Belgian people. It is being taught now by the knowledge that but for the close shield of the Navy--the shield which if we fail to conquer cannot save us--our fate to-day would be the fate of Belgium. It is being taught, above all by the accounts, meagre though they are, of what has been done by our soldiers on the field of battle. With that mistaken estimate of themselves and of others, which is one of the explanations of this war, the Germans, before and after the outbreak, have spoken of us as a decadent nation. Do they say that to-day?

Let the long-drawn-out fight that began at Mons give the answer. There our troops, pitted against the choicest bodies of the German army, outnumbered by nearly three to one as I believe, were undefeated and unbroken. When the story of that fight comes to be written, it is my belief that it will form as glorious a page as is to be found in the whole annals of our history. The men will come.

There is no doubt of that. Everywhere I find the same spirit. Everyone is asking, "What can I do to help my country?" The men will come.

There is one thing more only which I should like to say. Many of those whom I am addressing are, like the Prime Minister and myself, unable to take our place in the fighting line. It is not right, it is not fair, that we should make an appeal for sacrifices to the patriotism of those only who are able and willing to fight our battles. An equal sacrifice is demanded of those who remain behind. Let us not as a Government merely, but as a nation, realise our obligation and make a vow and keep it, that no dependent of any man who is fighting our battles shall go hungry while we have bread to eat. And let us realise also, as we have not always realised in the past, that our soldiers are the children of the State, and that they have the first claim upon the resources of our nation.

When Mr. Balfour had supported the leader of the Unionist party there were loud calls for Mr. Churchill, who made a very brief but pointed speech on the Navy and its work:

My Lord Mayor and Citizens of London,--You may rely with good confidence upon the strength and efficiency of our naval defence. That defence will enable you to live and to work and draw the means of life and power from the utmost ends of the earth. It will give you the time, it will give you the means to create the powerful military force which this country must wield before this trouble is brought to its conclusion.

Certain I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.

You have only to persevere to save yourselves and to save all those who rely upon us. You have only to go right on, and at the end of the road, be it short or be it long, victory and honour will be found.

_Apropos_ of the German atrocities at Liège, the brutal character of the German troops, and Mr. Bonar Law's reference to the fact that the outrages were instigated from above and were not to be blamed wholly on the soldiers themselves, a word may be added regarding one or two philosophical misconceptions which have arisen as to the origin of this modern trait in the character of the German people. It is often asserted that the philosophy of Nietzsche has been responsible for not merely encouraging but developing the German belief in physical power and brute force; and amid the host of "professors," on whom blame is cast for urging on the Teuton to develop his country at the expense of his neighbours, Nietzsche has frequently been singled out for special mention as a man in whose works the Kaiser has always taken an especial interest.

This belief is quite erroneous. Nietzsche, who poked bitter fun at the clumsiness and stupidity of his countrymen, who cracked jokes over the musicians and philosophers most dear to the German heart, and who, before all else, repudiated Prussianism lock, stock, and barrel, was certainly not a writer likely to appeal to the Kaiser or to any of the makers of modern Germany. The reader cannot fail to be impressed by the striking fact that the "professors" who have written in support of German development have one and all disclaimed any connection with Nietzsche or his teachings. The thinker who is really responsible, even more so than Treitschke, for Germany's attempt to burst her confines and to increase her possessions, is a man of a very different order.

A year or two ago there appeared the English translation of a book by Houston Stewart Chamberlain, "The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century." This was a book dealing generally, in so far as a connected thread ran through it, with racial problems, and the author's admiration for the Teutonic race was expressed without limits. Chamberlain came of English stock, but he developed German sympathies, lived in Germany, and wrote in German. For the Aryans, gradually turned into the Teutons and modern Germans, Chamberlain claimed all the virtues of mankind; and his net was spread wide. The Founder of the Christian Church was of Teutonic stock, according to the teachings of the Chamberlain school; and so was Dante. The Latin races, on the contrary, were held to be decadent--it was only a matter of time before they would have to disappear and make way for the strong, virile race from the North.

This book created a profound impression at the time of its publication in Germany--and in German, although the author had been an Englishman. It was read widely in Court circles, by the "professors," and by military men. It was brought to the notice of the Kaiser, who ordered several hundred copies to be sent to him. These--the number was said to be as many as eight or nine hundred--were distributed, by the Imperial command, to heads of schools, burgomasters, and the like, throughout the length and breadth of the German Empire. To the views of the Chamberlain school Nietzsche was unalterably opposed; and his choicest fulminations were directed against the group of thinkers who wrote with unstinted admiration of the Teutonic race. To use his own expression, the victories of 1870-1871 had given the Germans an inflated conception of their own importance in the world, and the material wealth that accrued to them during the next two decades ruined completely the old German philosophy and culture which had been the pride and hope of such men as Goethe, Schiller, Beethoven, and Schopenhauer.

Next to Chamberlain, the greatest influence in the modern development of Germany was the famous historian, Heinrich von Treitschke. Like Chamberlain, Treitschke distorted some facts to suit his purpose, and neglected others which would have spoilt his theories; but there is no doubt about the vigour of his thought and the lucid style in which he wrote. He lived from 1834 to 1896, and specialised on historical subjects from his 'teens. His view was that the Germans were the greatest people on earth, that it was their duty to the world to subjugate other peoples and races, and that nothing should prevent the fulfilment of this task. These opinions, enunciated at first in a series of brilliant historical essays, found their most dramatic, one might almost say their most sensational, expression in Treitschke's "History of Germany in the Nineteenth Century," a work which has for many years been regarded in Germany as scarcely less important than the Bible itself. It was Treitschke who first poured contempt on the French as a race of "decadents," and who prophesied that the most difficult reckoning would be with England.

These two men had, and still have, innumerable followers; nor should we overlook Bismarck's speeches. But there was a third and independent influence who must not be overlooked, either. This is General von Bernhardi, whose book "Germany and the Next War" has now become notorious, as much in the original as in the English and other translations. With a curious smattering of philosophy and religion, General von Bernhardi advocated the opinion that war was not merely difficult to avoid, but that it was desirable and necessary for maintaining the virility and strength of a nation. For this reason he did not profess to shrink from a European campaign, no matter how dire the effects of it might be; and his book contains a full _exposé_ of what the German plans should be, on land and sea, on the outbreak of war. He has full confidence in the German army, and no less confidence in the German navy; and he is determined that the power of Prussia and the Prussian system shall be used to secure for his country the place in the sun to which he thinks she is entitled. He ridicules Peace Conferences, Geneva Conventions, and the like--for war is war, and not, as the German Ambassador in Washington has just told us, an afternoon tea-party--and war is to be waged ruthlessly against France and this country. "France," writes General von Bernhardi, "must be crushed so that she can never again cross our path."

It is obvious to any reader who compares the thoughts and sentiments in all these works with the Kaiser's speeches that his Majesty is a careful student of them. To him both Heine and Nietzsche, who preferred the old to the new Germany, are enemies of his Empire; but men like Bernhardi, Treitschke, Chamberlain, Bismarck, and Frederick the Great are safe guides. The Kaiser has, throughout his speeches, made many references to Frederick the Great, whose literary works deserve more study than is usually accorded them in England. They contain the views of a man who, bullied in childhood by a coarse father, had to fend for himself and to make his own discoveries in war and social administration. His experiences are summed up, now and then, in a series of snappy epigrams which are even more to the point than Bismarck's. Within his limits, the Emperor William II. is at least original, and it would hardly be fair to accuse him of plagiarism; but he has, at least, had recourse to his great ancestor for inspiration.

A survey of the influences at work in modern Germany, then, must include the writings of the men just referred to, and often of their followers as well. When these writings are considered we shall be able to realise why Mr. Bonar Law had to refer so pointedly to the Belgian atrocities and their instigation "from above." The Kaiser himself has declared more than once that war must be waged ruthlessly; and Treitschke, Bernhardi, Frederick the Great, Bismarck, and Chamberlain unite in holding weakness up to ridicule and in emphasising the necessity for brutality, in the face of these teachings, which have influenced the ruling caste in the German Empire for more than a generation, we need not wonder if the invaders of Belgium and France have been urged on by their officers to excesses which have called forth the censure of the civilised world. When the Emperor himself advises his soldiers to "leave a name like Attila," we may be sure that his officers will not be behindhand in enforcing the instruction.

_Wyman & Sons, Ltd., Printers, London and Reading._

End of Project Gutenberg's The Campaign Round Liege, by J. M. Kennedy