NOTES 667 



foundering of one having been seen by a German airship ! But 

 their mendacity on the course of the war is as nothing to their 

 mendacity regarding the causes of it, and the world's breath is 

 taken away by their absolutely impudent statements, evidently 

 issued on the supposition that the earth is peopled only by fools. 

 Fortunately, however, this is not so much the case (outside 

 Germany) as they think, and it does not need a psychologist to 

 detect the quite simple but characteristic quality of the German 

 lie. This is to accuse one's adversary of one's own crime. Thus 

 if the Germans fire at attackers under cover of the white flag, 

 they accuse the latter of having violated the conventions of war, 

 and if they throw bombs on a civil population, they say that this 

 was in retaliation for the same act on the part of their adversaries. 

 Similarly as to the cause of the war, they wish to pose as a 

 harmless and peace-loving population attacked by arrogant, 

 jealous, and designing ruffians who wish to crush them out of 

 existence. 



Perhaps the most remarkable instance of this kind of state- 

 ment was afforded by an address given by Dr. Kuno Meyer 

 to the Clan-na-Gael in America (Times, December 24, 1914). 

 "From 1896," he said, "when the first distinctly threatening 

 note was sounded in England that Germany was the arch-rival 

 who must at all costs be crushed, 1 have followed closely every 

 step that brought us nearer to the inevitable issue, carefully 

 noting everything in my diary. It was in the summer of 1911 

 that I lost all hope of peace between England and Germany." 

 That was the time when a handful of Britons, led by Lord 

 Roberts' National Service League, were vainly attempting to 

 persuade the British nation to undertake general military training 

 for the purpose of defending themselves against the attack which 

 Germany had been obviously preparing for the last ten years. 

 As every one knows, Lord Roberts' appeal fell entirely on deaf 

 ears ; and now, in spite of this, Prof. Kuno Meyer accuses us 

 of having started designs to crush Germany ! Surely there 

 cannot be a single man outside Germany who is fool enough to 

 believe such a story. At the beginning of the present war the 

 effective army of Britain scarcely numbered four hundred thousand 

 men, while that of Germany numbered about four millions — that 

 is ten times as many. Does any one really believe that Britain 

 proposed to crush Germany with a force not numbering more 

 than one man to ten possessed by her proposed victim ? This is 



