It may be said that from her own point of view Germany was quite right to take the initiative.  If she sincerely believed that the Entente was plotting her downfall, she was justified in attacking instead of waiting to be attacked.  That may be so.  It is the line to which General Bernhardi again returns in his latest book (Britain as Germany’s Vassal, translated by J. Ellis Barker).  But it does not alter the fact that this was an immense responsibility to take, and that the immediate onus of the war rests with Germany.  If she under all the above circumstances precipitated war, she can hardly be surprised if the judgment of Europe (one may also say the world) is against her.  If she has played her cards so badly as to put herself entirely in the wrong, she must naturally “dree her weird.”

There remains the case of her treatment of Belgium.  Britain certainly—­who has only lately assisted at the dismemberment of Persia, and who is even now allowing Russia (in the face of Persian protests) to cross neutral territory in the neighbourhood of Tabriz on her way to attack Turkey, who has uttered, moreover, no word of protest against the late Ukase (of mid-November) by which the independent rights of Finland have been finally crushed—­Britain, I say, need talk no cant about Belgian neutrality.  Britain, for her own absolute safety, has always required and still requires Belgian neutrality to be respected.  And that by itself is a sufficient, and the most honest, reason.  But in the eyes of the world at large Germany’s deliberate and determined sacrifice of Belgium, simply because the latter stood in the way of the rapid accomplishment of her warlike designs against France (and England), can never be condoned—­little Belgium who had never harmed or offended Germany in any way.  Add to this her harsh and brutish ill-treatment of the Belgian civilian people, her ravage of their ancient buildings and works of art, and her clearly expressed intention both in word and deed to annex their territory by force should the fortunes of war favour her—­all these facts, which we may say are proven beyond the shadow of a doubt, form a most serious indictment.  They substantiate the charge that Germany by acting throughout in this high-handed way has deeply violated the natural laws of the Comity of Nations, which are the safeguards of Civilization, and they confirm the rightful claim of Europe to sit in judgment on her.

I say nothing at the moment about the charges of atrocities committed by German troops, partly because such charges are always in warfare made by each side against the other, and partly because their verification should be the subject of a world-inquiry later on.  It may be said, however, that the Belgian and French Commissions of inquiry have certainly presented material and evidence which ought to be investigated later—­material which would hardly be credible of so humane and cultured a people as the Germans, were it not for the fact, alluded to already, of such severities having been deliberately recommended beforehand by the philosophical writers, military and political, who have during the last half-century moulded German public opinion.