Before consigning the German Chancellor’s Pecksniffian oration to well-deserved oblivion, there is one other fact to state, because it is of immediate interest to Great Britain.  In the person of Bethmann-Hollweg the German Government stood before the world on August 4th, 1914, and endeavoured to prove that Germany was attacked, and that her conscience was clear.  There are even Britons who have got stuck in Bethmann-Hollweg’s peace-lime.  Yet it would be interesting if the German Government would explain why the civilian population was ordered to leave Heligoland on the afternoon of Friday, July 31st.  They were allowed twenty-four hours within which to leave the island, and one who was in the exodus describes the scene in the Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten for August 12th.  Early on Saturday morning the civilians proceeded on to the landing-stage, where several steamers were waiting.  “Suddenly the Koenigin Luise started off without taking any passengers on board, and soon disappeared under full steam.”

This was the boat which laid mines round the mouth of the Thames.  Although the German Chancellor protested his desire for peace with England as late as August 4th, it seems quite evident from the events in Heligoland that war with this country had been decided upon on July 31st.

CHAPTER IV

MOBILIZATION

“Munich.—­Evening after evening masses of people thronged the streets.  The heavy, oppressive atmosphere weighed upon the spirit—­a leaden pressure which increased with every hour.  Then came the stirring events on the evening of July 3ist, when the drums beat ‘general march’ on the Marienplatz, and a commissioner read the articles of war to a crowd numbered by thousands.  Thirty drummers and commissioners in motors rushed through the streets of the city.

“On Saturday evening, August 1st, the general order for mobilization was proclaimed from the offices of the Muenchener Neuesten Nachrichten.  A deep solemnity fell upon the masses of spectators and the crowd fell into rank to march to the Royal Palace, from a window of which King Ludwig spoke words of comfort and inspiration.  Still singing the ’Wacht am Rhein,’ this river of humanity flowed on to the ‘Englischen Garten,’ at the corner of which stands the Austrian Legation.  A gentleman addressed the representative of our beloved ally, who sounded in his reply the note of ‘faithfulness unto death.’

“And now from out the stifling depression of the leaden weight of the previous days there arose a terrible, united will, a single mighty thought.  The whole of a great and powerful people was aroused, fired by one solemn resolve—­to act; advance on the enemy, and smash him to the earth!