The Days of a Man 1913 



Schemes of During my stay in Germany I secured through 

 Panger- friends considerable information about the more or 

 less publicly disclosed plans of the " Alldeutschtum 

 Verband" (Pangermanist Union), as well as some- 

 thing of those of the German General Staff with 

 which the Union (through utterances of retired officers 

 like Generals von Bernhardi and von Keim, and 

 Admiral Breusing) was closely connected. These 

 plans demanded war with France, for which they 

 would invent some excuse in Alsace-Lorraine after 

 the harvests of 1914. The affair at Zabern pointed 

 in that direction, and the arrest for treason of Jean 

 Jacques Walz, "Oncle Hansi," because of his clever 

 and exasperating "Mon Village." 1 



Military Already certain Pangermanists noisily advocated 

 necessities ^[^g possession of both Belgium and Holland, the 

 former -- notwithstanding her "paper bulwark" 

 because the port of Antwerp, "a dagger pointed at 

 the heart of England" as Napoleon put it, would be 

 vital in any attack on Britain. But to secure Antwerp 

 it would be necessary to coerce Holland also, as the 

 Meuse flows from Antwerp past Rotterdam and 

 Flushing - - both in Dutch territory before reach- 

 ing the sea. From France the two departments of 

 Nord and Pas-de-Calais would be demanded, control 

 of Boulogne Harbor being vital to naval plans. There 

 they intended to create a great seaport, protecting 

 the ample bay by a breakwater and occupying it 

 with the German fleet before Britain could enter 

 the war if indeed she should resolve to do so at 

 all. 



1 See Chapter xi.in, pages 506-508. 



2 A phrase already used by Bernhardi, foreshadowing Bethmann-Hollweg's 

 "scrap of paper." 



C 554 3 



