xvi Foreword 



Nor must it be imagined that, because the period treated here shows 

 England the chief sinner among the white Empires in their dealings 

 with the weak nations of the African world, my sympathy is more with 

 the others. As masters of alien races both France and Italy, to say 

 nothing of Portugal and Belgium, have shown themselves far worse 

 and less scrupulous oppressors than we have been, or in Asia than 

 Russia was under the Czars, while, as for Germany, it was less the 

 will than the opportunity of evil that limited its lawless ventures. I 

 have no love for the German race or its ideals, having an ancient bone 

 to pick with Prussia dating from as long ago as the Franco-Prussian 

 War of 1870, when, young and enthusiastic, I made a vow of boy- 

 cotting the whole Teutonic race (a vow which I have kept), but this 

 does not blind me to the fact that as active aggressors in deed as well 

 as word, it was not at Berlin that the first steps were taken in the direc- 

 tion of world-wide conquest. The will was there, theatrically dis- 

 played at intervals in Kaiser Wilhelm's not quite sane pronouncements, 

 and to my knowledge had been there before his day ; but Germany's 

 plunder of the weak had been small in act compared to ours, or even 

 to that of France, during the past half century, while in each and all 

 of the great Empires there had been the same ominous growth of 

 militarism and contempt for the old rules of international right where 

 the defenceless peoples were concerned. The only difference between 

 Berlin morality and ours in Downing Street had been that we had been 

 careful to preserve our outward attitude of forbearance and respect 

 for moral right, while Berlin had been shameless in its anti-human 

 logic. Also that as an Empire we were already sated like a lion sur- 

 rounded with the carcasses of its prey, while Germany was alert and 

 hungry. Well might we want peace ! Almost as well might Germany 

 prepare for war! 



These things, which need to be remembered, will be found more 

 plainly indicated in Part II of the present issue, which will be pub- 

 lished in the course of the summer, and complete my contribution of 

 Memoires pour servir a I'histoire de mon temps, and, as I think, dis- 

 charge my true patriotic duty as a nineteenth century Englishman. 



Xmas, 1918. W. S. B. 



PS. — It has been suggested to me, as an appropriate addition to the 

 value of the present volume, that I should place in the Appendix a 

 transcript of a yet earlier diary kept by me during the first months 

 of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. There is so much in these that 

 stands in close relation with the war just over, that I have agreed, and 

 so I print them here. 



