( xcii ) 



zeal for " the achievements of culture." Yet we are bound 

 to point out that a very different view of War, and of national 

 aggrandizement based on the threat of War, has been advocated 

 by such influential writers as Nietzsche, von Treitschke, von 

 Biilow, and von Bernhardi, and has received widespread 

 support from the press and from public opinion in Germany. 

 This has not occurred, and in our judgment would scarcely 

 be possible, in any other civilized country. We must also 

 remark that it is German armies alone which have, at the 

 present time, deliberately destroyed or bombarded such 

 monuments of human culture as the Library at Louvain and 

 the Cathedrals at Rheims and Malines. 



No doubt it is hard for human beings to weigh justly their 

 country's quarrels; perhaps particularly hard for GermaiLs, 

 who have been reared in an atmosphere of devotion to their 

 Kaiser and his army; who are feeling acutely at the present 

 hour; and who live under a Government which, we believe, 

 does not allow them to know the truth. Yet it is the duty 

 of learned men to make sure of their facts. The German 

 White Book contains only some scanty and carefully explained 

 selections from the diplomatic correspondence which preceded 

 this War. And we venture to hope that our German colleagues 

 will sooner or later do their best to get access to the full 

 correspondence, and will form therefrom an independent 

 judgment. 



They will then see that, from the issue of the Austrian Note 

 to Serbia onwards. Great Britain, whom they accuse of causing 

 this War, strove incessantly for I'eacc. Her successive pro- 

 posals were supported by France, Russia, and Italy, but 

 imfortunatcly not by the one Power which could by a single 

 word at Vienna have made Peace certain. Germany in her 

 own oflicial defence — incomplete as that document is — does 

 not pretend that she strove for Peace ; she only strove for 

 " the localization of the conflict." She claimed that Austria 

 should be left free to " chastise " Serbia in whatever way she 

 chose. At most she proposed that Austria should not annex 

 a portion of Serbian territory : a futile provision, since the 

 execution of Austria's demand would have made the; whoh; 

 of Serbia subject to her will. 



