19143 OstwaW s Pronouncement 



quest . . . but measures must now be taken which 

 shall not lead to conquest in any form." 



In November of this year Ostwald sent to Mead The 



(as secretary of the World Peace Foundation) the 

 following statement, which I present as throwing 

 light on the position of many German scholars : 



1. The war is the result of a dehberate onslaught upon 

 Germany and Austria by the Powers of the Triple Entente — 

 Russia, France, and England. Its object is on the part of Russia 

 an extension of Russian supremacy over the Balkans, on the 

 side of France revenge, and on the side of England annihilation 

 of the German navy and German commerce. In England 

 especially it has been for several centuries a constant policy 

 to destroy every navy of every other country which threatened 

 to become equal to the English navy. 



2. Germany has proved its love of peace for forty-four 

 years under the most trying circumstances. While all other 

 states have expanded themselves by conquest — Russia in 

 Manchuria, England in the Transvaal, France in Morocco, 

 Italy in Tripoli, Austria in Bosnia, Japan in Korea — Germany 

 alone has contented itself with the borders fixed in 1871. It 

 is purely a war of defense which is now forced upon us. 



3. In the face of these attacks Germany has until now, the 

 end of August, proved its military superiority, which rests 

 upon the fact that the entire German military force is scien- 

 tifically organized and honestly administered. 



4. The violation of Belgian neutrality was an act of military 

 necessity, since it is now proved that Belgian neutrality was 

 to be violated by France and England. A proof of this is the 

 accumulation of English munitions in Maubeuge, aside from 

 many other facts. 



5. According to the course of the war up to the present 

 time, European peace seems to me nearer than ever before. 

 We pacifists must only understand that unhappily the time was 

 not yet sufficiently developed to estabHsh peace by the peaceful 

 way. If Germany, as everything now seems to make probable, 

 is victorious in struggle not only with Russia and France, but 



C659 1 



German 

 ■position 



