On the morning of that Thursday in May, the German reading public took up its morning paper with a sigh of relief that the long suspense was ended--and dropped it again with a gasp of despair. But Germany wore its rue with a difference. The opposition to the Treaty was of two kinds. The original split of the Independent idealists with the Majoritarian real-politikers had been over foreign policy--first in the prosecution of the war, then in the preparation for peace. These Independents condemned such crimes as the U-boat war and the military murders of Miss Cavell and Captain Fryatt, uncompromisingly. Their main reason for leaving the Coalition Socialist Government in December was that they could not get their liberal policy carried in respect either of Poland and the Baltic provinces, or as to a frank recognition of responsibility for the war and full reparation to France and Belgium.
Their main objection to the present Government had been that it prejudiced the German political revolution and spiritual renascence in the eyes of the Entente. And they now, as representing the main forces of idealism in Germany, opposed the peace terms on international not on national grounds--as a conspiracy against the peace and prosperity of the European worker, not as a combination against the power and progress of the German Empire. Consequently, as the main body of the workers, that is, the driving power of the country, were of this party and had moreover been forced out of practical politics by the reaction party, when the terms were published there was no spontaneous explosion of emotion in Germany. Crushing as they were, there was no moral force to oppose against them; either national, as a century before in revolutionary France, or international, as a year before in revolutionary Russia.
The whole tone of private conversations and of Press _communiqués_ on Thursday and Friday showed that the Government with individual exceptions, would sign the terms. And further the whole tradition of the Majority-Socialist and of the Centrum rank and file suggested that they would in this follow the lead of the Government and give it a parliamentary majority. Indeed, such passive acquiescence reflected accurately enough the prevalent point of view in a disorganised and devitalised community.