The most regrettable side of the whole incident is that the resignation of the above gentlemen has been proclaimed by innumerable German writers as proof of Sir Edward Grey’s double dealing, and proof that Britain is waging an unjust war.  Still, it may console these gentlemen to know that the nation which wages war on women and children acclaims them to-day “all honourable men,” and doubtless without the Shakespearian intonation.

By reason of the above incidents, and more of a similar nature, Germans accuse the late Liberal Government with perfidy of the basest kind.  The author is not in the least inclined to admit the charge, but thinks, rather, that the Government in question—­individually and collectively—­was astonishingly ignorant of European conditions and problems, especially those prevailing in the Germanic Empires.

To what a degree Germany was obsessed by the idea that Britain was trying to strangle her by an encircling policy, is apparent in a diplomatic document quoted by Professor Oncken.  Its author’s name is not given, and it was doubtless a secret report sent to the German Foreign Office in 1912; its freedom from bias is also questionable.  Moreover, it is probable that it belongs to the same category of documents as those quoted in the French Yellow Book—­reports intended to exercise due influence on the mind of the Emperor.

“French diplomacy is succeeding more and more in entangling England in the meshes of her net.  The encouragement which England gives, directly or indirectly, to French chauvinism may one day end in a catastrophe in which English and French soldiers must pay with their blood on French battlefields for England’s encircling policy.  The seeds sown by King Edward are springing up.”

Another link in the chain of proof of Britain’s guilt, is found in the documents seized by the Germans in Brussels.  The enemy seems to attach great importance to them, for they are being employed in much the same way that parliamentary candidates use pamphlets during an election.  Yet they do not contain a particle of proof that Britain had hostile intentions against Germany, but only confirm the presence of the German menace.

The documents[198] in question are reports sent by the Belgian Legation Secretaries in London, Paris and Berlin to the Minister for Foreign Affairs in Brussels.  These gentlemen held opinions identical with those expressed again and again in German newspapers, and even in some British and French organs.  Messieurs Comte de Lalaing (London), Greindl (Berlin), Leghait (Paris), evidently believed that the activities of the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente endangered the peace of Europe.

[Footnote 198:  Published by the Berlin Government as supplements to the Nord-deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, July 29th and 31st; August 4th, 8th and 12th, 1915.]