“It is obvious that we shall not join in this game.  We exercise our most careful judgment before publishing anything; in these serious times we must decline to speculate in the thirst for sensation which has been bred in the public.  Rather, on the contrary, we must beg our readers always to accept all news, WHICH NOW EMANATE ALMOST ENTIRELY FROM OFFICIAL SOURCES,[61] with the necessary reserve."[62]

[Footnote 61:  The emphasis is mine.  Author.]

[Footnote 62:  Leipziger Volkszeitung, August 7th.]

The author has ventured to lead his readers on a mad-brained chase after non-existent motor-cars and mythical French gold.  He hopes that his readers’ patience has not been exhausted, because the ride may prove an instructive education in German methods and the standards of truth accepted in a country where only might is right.

The object in view, in submitting these modern fairy-tales to the British public, is to lay bare the pillars of truth which support the Fatherland.  During the first month of the war there was an outbreak of brutality in Germany; contemporaneously with these horrors some million members of the same nation flooded Belgium with dread deeds of an indescribable nature.  This is a noteworthy coincidence.

We have seen how Germans treat Germans, which makes it easier to comprehend how Germans treated Belgians.  The present chapter gives a picture of how the German Press is worked, how popular opinion is created and blood-lust awakened.  When dealing with Germany’s defence of her Belgian horrors, we shall find that her entire case rests alone upon the utterances of her oracles of truth:  Wolff’s Telegraphic Bureau and Germany’s venal, lying newspapers.

That was the reason for this mad joy-ride from end to end of the German Empire, and that is the only apology which the author has to make for introducing the latest contributions to Germanic mythology into an otherwise serious work.

Incidentally we have observed that German civilians were permitted to bear arms and did not hesitate to use them “in defence of the Fatherland,” as Edmund Edel put it.  The civilians were doubtless inspired by the noble desire to grab French gold.  Yet when Belgian civilians—­as Wolff’s Bureau alleges—­dared to defend their homes, wives and children against the most treacherous and dastardly invasion in the world’s history—­then, of course, Germany was perfectly justified in murdering all and sundry, burning towns and hamlets and laying waste a fertile land.

CHAPTER VI

THE DEBACLE OF THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATS

In the second paragraph of the Social Democratic programme published after the Halle Congress in 1890, we read:  “The German workmen’s socialistic party, although working for the present on national lines, is aware of the international character of the workmen’s movement, and is determined to fulfil all duties accruing thereby to the working classes, in order to make the brotherhood of all men a reality.”