This was what the German military caste had in mind–that is to say, the Kaiser, the Crown Prince, and the 40,000 or 50,000 officers and civilians recruited from the nobility, high society, from the professions and the educated officials. And the crowd–the masses–would go to sleep each evening blinded to the facts, but convinced that numberless enemies were preparing to pounce covertly on their Fatherland.
The great hope of the German Government from 1908 to 1914 was to get the war started without it being apparent that Germany provoked it.
But as so often repeated to us by that fine Swiss fellow, Hinterman, who was interned with us, the artifices of the Germans are easily seen through. And all the scheming of the events which preceded the invasion of Belgium, however clever it was, will not prevent history from bringing against William Hohenzollern and his entourage a verdict of guilty.
The interview at Potsdam, on July 5, 1914, in which the Kaiser and the Austrian delegates took part; the ultimatum to Serbia; the refusal of Austria to accept the very satisfactory and conciliating answer of Serbia–and this without previous consultation with Germany–does not all this show that everything was decided on July 5, aforesaid? The rejection by Germany of the proposal for a conference made by Sir Edward Grey, British Minister of Foreign Affairs; the hesitations, the subterfuges of Von Jagow towards Monsieur Cambon, the French Ambassador; the entering of German troops into Belgium during the night of July 31–that is to say two days before the ultimatum of former Emperor William to the King of Belgium; the telegraphic correspondence between the Tsar of Russia, King George, and William II., all, indeed, carries on its face the stamp of Germany’s duplicity.
Of the underhand methods of the authors of the plot and murder at Serajevo, impartial history will tell later.
The mass of the German population when apprised of these historical facts disentangled from all pan-Germanic camouflage will not hesitate to stand as accusers of the real authors of the war; of those, finally, who were the cause of the collective aberration of the nation.
The flight of the Imperial family and the high officers to Holland will not prevent them from escaping the abhorrence of the German people. Can there be a more exemplary and a more bitter punishment at the same time than that meted out to a sovereign by his own subjects?