To-day Germans are seriously discussing measures by which Britain’s financial supremacy—­and therewith her naval supremacy—­can be overthrown, after the present war.  One writer proposes a return to Napoleon’s Continental system, and concludes his plea: 

“The British Empire can and must be overthrown, so that the Continent of Europe may flourish and develop according to the dictates of Europe’s will.  According to Herbert Spencer’s view, Europe must exercise the highest ethics, viz., ’give the highest possible total of human beings, life, happiness and above all harmony of work.’

“England has never comprehended what ‘the harmony of work’ means.  Her entire heroism consisted in brutally suppressing the weaker, and avaricious exploitation of everything foreign by means of cunning treaties and business tricks.  Even an Englishman, Sir J. Seeley, in his book, ‘The Growth of British Policy,’ has defied this characteristic with objective clearness.

“For sixty years England struggled against Holland—­after which the latter lay prostrate before her.  Now England’s battle against her greatest and mightiest rival has commenced—­against Germany.  This struggle will last sixty years and longer if Great Britain does not succumb before.  Every peace will only mean preparation for new battles, till the final result is attained; English history affords proof of this.

“Shall Germany, the latest rival, be broken too?  Or shall it be her mission to awaken Europe to war against greed and avarice, hypocrisy and theft, robbery and violence?  Lands which have slept and dreamed for centuries, do not easily awake.  And a part of Europe still dreams deeply under the hypnotic influence of English cant and altruism, or at least of her God-ordained hegemony.

“This must be the goal of German statecraft and German diplomacy.  The dream must be dispelled, and the mask torn from the hypocrite’s face.  If Germany desires to exist, then the weak, faltering expediency-policy of the German Empire must be at an end.  Our one and only aim must be:  Down with England!

“Germany, however, may not strive to enter into England’s heritage—­that must fall to the Continent.  England’s heir shall be Europe, which will then be able to progress and develop as history intended."[217]

[Footnote 217:  Captain H. Schubart:  “England und die Interessen des Kontinents” ("England and Continental Interests"), p. 50.]

German hate has been fed by stories of British atrocities, ill-treatment of German civilians, the alleged use of dum-dum bullets by British soldiers, and the employment of coloured troops from India etc.  A book has been published under the style of “The Black Book of Atrocities committed by our Enemies."[218] The charges concerning the use of dum-dum bullets by the British are dealt with on pp. 39-43.

[Footnote 218:  “Das Schwarzbuch der Schandtaten unserer Feinde.”  Berlin, 1915.]