Of course, English public opinion was and still is divided.  As late as Aug. 1 The Daily Graphic wrote in reference to the Russian mobilization order:  “Will the Russian order also be carried out in the provinces on the German frontier?  If so, then the labor of the peace-preservers is at an end, for Germany is compelled to answer with the mobilization of its armed forces.  We confess that we are not able to understand this attitude of Russia, in view of the resumption of negotiations at Vienna.”

And a leaflet distributed in the streets of London said that “a war for Russia is a war against civilization.”

So much as to the preparations for the war—­and now we take up the conduct of the war itself.

By glancing at the foreign press during this one week we have been able to collect the following specimen pieces of news: 

     London—­The British Admiralty reports that the English fleet had
     driven back the German fleet to the Dutch coast.

There is not one word of truth in this.  The Admiralty itself appears later to have recovered its senses; at least, it denied a Reuter story about a “great English naval victory near the Dogger Bank.”  But the English manufactories of lies are already so actively at work that members of Parliament have protested in the House itself against the “lying reports of the English press.”

Paris—­From Paris the assertion was made and disseminated throughout the world that “the landing of English troops in Belgium has begun; they were enthusiastically received by the population.  The landing proceeded rapidly and in the best order, as the agreement between the two General Staffs guaranteed the perfect carrying out of the disembarkment plans.”

Not a single word of this is true.  At present not one English soldier has been landed.

In a similar way the Baltic Sea has become the scene of invented “battles”—­of “German defeats,” of course; the Russian Baltic Fleet sank a German war vessel in a battle that never occurred.

And, “The Russian vanguard has crossed the German frontier without meeting with opposition.”  As a matter of fact there is not a single Russian soldier on German soil.  All inroads have been repulsed, and the German offensive has everywhere been successful.

A Dutch newspaper prints the following report from France: 

Belfort—­Many hundreds of Alsatians are joining the French Army with great enthusiasm, also many Italian Swiss.  A large number of Alsace-Lorrainers are waiting near the frontier with a view of crossing it at a favorable opportunity to fight on the French side.

Such absurdity in the face of the unbroken unanimity of the entire German people and despite the manifest enthusiasm of the Alsace-Lorrainers for the German cause!

Equally stupid and made up for incurably credulous readers is an official report of the French War Ministry—­not a private rumor, be it noted, but an official communication.  It says: