Germany will perhaps lose a part of her colonial possessions in this war.  Germany is in no position to protect these against many enemies during the war.  Germany has steadily counted upon some colonial losses in the struggle.  We Socialists especially have in our opposition to capitalistic colonial policy continually pointed to the fact that in the event of war colonies cannot be retained.

For the rest, however, Germany is of good courage.  No one has the slightest doubt that our country will claim victory against the hostile oppression from without.  In the meantime you in America have long since learned that all announcements of defeats which Germany is said to have suffered in the east, in the west, and on the sea, are lies.  It is true that at Schirmek in Alsace a few cannon were lost by our troops.  But, on the other hand, the fact is established that in the very first days after mobilization all the enemies’ troops were completely driven from Germany, and further, that during the mobilization of our troops victorious battles occurred at Muelhausen and Lagarde in Alsace; that in the east they have made sharp inroads on the Russians; that they overcame Luettich with all its forts and captured Brussels on the 20th of August.

Here in Germany we are expecting every moment news of the taking of Namur.  The quicker decisive battles take place, by so much sooner will there be some possibility of establishing peace with France.

PHILIPP SCHEIDEMANN.

* * * * *

“CRITIQUE OF WEAPONS.”

Karl Kautsky, in the Neue Zeit, Berlin, Aug. 8.

Kautsky has for over a quarter of a century been one of the foremost Socialist leaders in Germany; the founder and present editor of the Neue Zeit.  The present article on the war appeared before the periodical was suppressed by the Government.

War, with all its attendant horrors, has broken loose, the “Critique of Weapons” has been set up, and the weapons of criticism are consequently broken.  This is not merely the inevitable result of the automatic limitations which would be imposed by any state of war, but rather—­though this is but a transitory phase—­because of an absolute lack of interest in any sort of critical estimate of the whole situation.  In breathless suspense, every man is concentrating the whole of his mental energy on the news of the next moment, news concerning which none can make even fairly clear surmise, and about which one fact only is known in advance, that whatever it is, it is sure to be horrible.  For relief from this wretched suspense men are looking to dispatches and decisions of battles, not to critical speculation.

Yet by the time these lines come before the reader this stage may already be giving way, and in all probability there will be beginning to be felt the need of regaining our usual attitude, of taking account of this monstrous event which has broken in on us so suddenly—­so unexpectedly that for the moment it has stunned us—­of making ourselves clear concerning the end toward which we are moving.