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liquidation because given by British statesmen.

The coming

Imperial Cabinet will be able to clear the air and take action that is urgently needed to strengthen the hands of less invertebrate Ministers against those in whose eyes Diplomacy consists of capitulation.

A Mysterious
Mission

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WE referred last month to the insolent speech of Count Hertling, the German Imperial Chancellor, who was pitchforked into that position as a Black Bavarian Catholic who might be useful in the event of the Vatican's services being again required by Berlin to lure the Allies into a premature patched-up peace. It will be remembered that in the course of an elaborate oration in the Reichstag purporting to reply to the British Prime Minister and the American President, Count Hertling went out of his way to insult this country by suggesting that in the interests of the "Freedom of the Seas" we should renounce Gibraltar, Malta, Aden, Hong-Kong, the Falkland Islands, and other strategic points. Quite so, in order that Germany might seize them. It was a case of Ôtes-toi que je m'y mette. It is now suggested that this impertinence was inspired by a deplorable piece of thoughtlessness on the part of our Government, which in the fourth year of the war walked plumb" into one of von Kühlmann's most palpable traps by dispatching one of its leading members (General Smuts) to Switzerland to "discuss" terms with Austria-Hungary. He is alleged to have met Count Mensdorff, who would unquestionably be the diplomat selected for such a purpose, because Count Mensdorff was for many years persona grata in London Society, though he has since proved himself to have been a snake in the grass by the Anglophobe sentiments he has given vent to, not to say the falsehoods he has told at our expense. That Downing Street knew that it was doing wrong in embarking on this essay in Secret Diplomacy is clear from the elaborate precautions taken to prevent the public from hearing of it, and even when tackled in the House of Commons by Mr. Whyte-one of the few Members of Parliament who takes a serious and intelligent interest in foreign affairs-Mr. Balfour returned an evasive answer, refusing either to confirm or deny the imputation, an attitude from which only one conclusion could be drawn.

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THEIR guilty conscience was also established by the selection of General Smuts, who does not pretend to know anything about or to take any interest in any outstanding question A Kick between the Allies and Austria-Hungary, but it was doubtless felt that in the probable event of its ultimate disclosure the Press would hesitate to criticize General Smuts as an honoured guest in this country, than it would one of our home politicians. What made it worse was that it is known to have been undertaken despite the Italian Government, which very naturally pointed out that any such pourparlers between her British Ally and the enemy in possession of Italian soil would give rise to regrettable misunderstandings among the Italian people. The French Government were no less averse to this enterprise, from which no advantage could possibly accrue, but as Mr. Lloyd George fancies himself no less as an amateur diplomat" than as an "amateur strategist," he insisted on making us the laughing-stock of the Chanceries of Europe, Allied, neutral, and enemy. It is fortunate that things are no worse. What, we should like to know, would the Times have said supposing Mr. Asquith had been detected in any such mystification after the Allies, from President Wilson downwards, had vetoed Secret Diplomacy? How true it is that one man may steal a horse while another may not look over a hedge! The readers of the Government Press have not even been allowed to know of General Smuts's trip-additional evidence that no kudos could be derived from it by Downing Street. Its only appreciable result is Count Hertling's speech with its demand that we should clear out of our coaling-stations, as Berlin, after its wont, argued, Great Britain must be in a very bad way that a member of the War Cabinet should be sent post-haste to Switzerland to try and separate Austria from Germany." By now we ought to have learnt that Defeatist diplomacy pays even less than Defeatist oratory, it is merely met by a hearty kick of the Prussian jack-boot. Let us hope that the episode may be a lesson to the Kindergarten, who are as little children vis-à-vis the Boche, though unfortunately they regard themselves as profound psychologists, and apparently the War Cabinet shares their illusion.

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Kaiser's
Dream

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MR. GERARD, late American Ambassador in Berlin, is increasing our already heavy debt for the valuable inside information he has published by another book on German policy before the war, which is appearing serially in the Times. In his opening chapter on The Kaiser" he narrates as evidence of that potentate's " subtlety of purpose a conversation he had with him at the New Year's reception of 1914. "The Kaiser talked at length to me about what he called Japan's designs on the United States. He warned me that Mexico was full of Japanese spies and an army of Japanese colonels." He also spoke about France, saying that "he had made every effort to make up with France, that he had extended his hand to that country, but that the French had refused to meet his overtures, that he was through and would not try again to heal the breach between France and Germany!" This took place seven months before the outbreak of war, and as Mr. Gerard subsequently realized the Emperor's object had been to persuade the United States Government through him " that he was really trying to keep Europe at peace, and that the responsibility for what was going to happen would be on France. The German is so skilful at intrigue that he seeks even in advance of an expected offensive to lay the foundation for self-justification." This is a very penetrating remark, showing that Mr. Gerard had not been in contact with the Berlin Government in vain. Would that all Allied politicians understood its methods like the ex-Ambassador, who describes "plotting and intriguing for power and mastery as the business of absolute rulers." He tells us that he had reason to believe that more than a year after the tragedy of Sarajevo the German autocracy was

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brooding over a plan according to which, on the death of Franz Joseph, the successor should be allowed to rule only as King or Grand Duke of Austria, the title of Emperor of Austria to disappear, and German Princes to be placed upon the thrones of Hungary and of a new kingdom of Bulgaria, all of whom were to be subject monarchs under the German Kaiser, who was thus to revive an Empire, if not greater, at least more powerful, than the Empires of Charlemagne and of Charles V.

In this connexion the writer quotes this observation of Wilhelm II:

From childhood I have been influenced by five men, Alexander the Great, Julius Cæsar, Theodoric II, Frederick the Great, and Napoleon. Each of these men dreamed a dream of world Empire. They failed. I have dreamed a dream of German world Empire, and my Mailed Fist shall succeed.

VOL. LXXI

2

Rulers of
Germany

-IN a subsequent chapter Mr. Gerard discusses "the break with the United States," explaining the position of the Great German General Staff which so few foreigners appreciate, least of all the statesmen of parliamentary countries, who cannot get it out of their heads that the parliamentarians of Germany hold an equivalent place to themselves and are the real rulers of the country, and the only people with whom we need concern ourselves. But as the exAmbassador points out, "the Reichstag, of course, has no real power; the twenty-five ruling Princes of Germany, voting in the Bundesrat through their representatives, control the Reichstag, and the Chancellor is not responsible to either, but only to the Emperor." As we have frequently pointed out, but we cannot get this elementary fact believed, Bethmann-Hollweg or Hertling or any other Chancellor occupies much the same position in Berlin as Lord Stamfordham, the King's Private Secretary, in London. In explaining the change of policy towards the United States when "unrestricted submarine warfare was decided upon, Mr. Gerard declares

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the Foreign Office did not have this decision. Its members, made up of men who had travelled in other countries, who knew the latent power of America, did not advise this step with the exception, however, of Zimmermann, who, carried away by this sudden elevation, and by the glamour of personal contact with the Emperor, the Princes, and the Military Chiefs, yielded to the arguments of military expediency. Then follows a truism unrecognized abroad, especially in Downing Street, though we sincerely hope it is grasped in the White House: "The one force in Germany which ultimately decides every great question, except the fate of its own head, is the Great General Staff"; and in answering the question, "Who decided on the break with America?" the ex-Ambassador declares:

It was not the Chancellor, notoriously opposed; it was not the Foreign Office, nor the Reichstag, nor the Princes of Germany, who decided to brave the consequences of a rupture with the United States on the submarine question. It was not the Emperor, but a personality of great power of persuasion. It was Ludendorff, QuartermasterGeneral, chief aid and brains to Hindenburg, Chief of the Great General Staff, who decided upon this step.

Von Tirpitz, backed by many officers plus the Navy League, advocated this policy, promising Germany peace within three weeks of its adoption, public opinion being "unquestionably made" in its favour by the Krupps and the League of Six (the great iron and steel companies), who sought annexation of the coal and iron lands of France, but the deciding voice was that

of the Great General Staff. This is in accordance with all the probabilities, and we trust that hereafter Allied statesmen eloquent on War Aims will realize with whom they have to deal, i.e. the real Germany that decides the big questions of policy. They should ask themselves what prospect there is of the Great General Staff co-operating in the creation of Leagues to Enforce Peace, universal arbitration, general disarmament, and the brotherhood of man-except as camouflage to mask some sinister design?

WHILE these pages have been printing the Russian debacle has proceeded at a prodigious pace. Each day we receive fresh

Russian
Debacle

opportunities of testing Bolshevikism as a form of Government, as also German good faith as an opponent of " annexations and indemnities," which was proclaimed as German policy by the puppet Parliament of Berlin last year, and taken seriously in serious quarters in London and Washington. We cannot pursue the Russian phantasmagoria, which continually varies, though it never takes a turn for the better. The latest phase is a complete and unreserved capitulation by the Bolsheviks-who had their admirers in Progressive circles in this country. After eating an enormous amount of dirt at Brest-Litovsk-where they invited the Allies they had deserted to join them--and elsewhere without, however, satisfying their ruthless German taskmasters, Messrs. Lenin and Trotsky announced that there would be peace without a treaty-doubtless a twelfthhour effort to save their own skins by disclaiming responsibility for Germany's harsh terms. The latter's reply was to invade the now defenceless Empire, announcing further huge captures of booty, including more of the precious guns supplied by the Allies to the recalcitrant army. There was no attempt at resistance, which anyhow would now have been hopeless, despite the frenzied appeals and exhortations of the Bolsheviks to everybody else-especially the despised bourgeois-to spring to arms. was, however, too late. The once great army had practically disappeared, and even if the Bolsheviks had wished to make a show of fighting, which is doubtful in view of their past record and probable understanding with the invaders, it would have been impossible. It is therefore not surprising to learn as we go to press that Germany has made another offer of terms-yet more grasping than the conditions of Brest-Litovsk-and

It

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