THE REAL PRUSSIANISM

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 84, 2 January 1918, Page 6

THE REAL PRUSSIANISM

WAR IDEALS OF GERMANY WORDS THE ALLIED PEOPLES MUST HEED "The Allies were agreed that peace was impossible while the militarists ruled Germany. The whole of the resources of the Allies and America, were being concentrated ■upon crushing German militarism."—Mr. Lloyd George's statement to the executive of the British Labour Conference. It is just as well to remember clearly, in these days when the rulers of Germany are bidding ty'r a German peace, what Prussian militarism is and what it means. Germany's bid for world dominion has been made and it has i?ot succeeded. The Germans are not yet defeated; but they know that they can. not win, and so they are talking glibly of the rights of nationalities, of concessions, and plebiscites. But they are not repentant, ;nd they renounce nothing. The democratic peoples of the world are justified in assuming that German militarism has undergone no change of heart sincejt found expression in the words quoted below:— "Remember that you are the chosen people. The spirit of the Lord has descended on mo because I am the Emperor of the Germans! I am the instrument of the Most High. lam His eword, his representative! Disaster and death to those who resist my will I Disaster and death to those who do. cot believe in my mission! Disaster and death to the cowards! Let them all perish, the enemies of the German people."—The Kaiser to his Eastern armies. !

"Gpd demands the destruction of our enemies., God, through my mouth, commands you to execute His orders."— The Kaiser. . "The efforts directed towards the abolition of war must not only be termed foolish, but absolutely immoral, and must bo stigmatised as unworthy of the human race The weak nation is to have the same right to live as the powerful and vigorous nation! The whole idea represents a presumptuous encroachment on the natural laws of development."—General von Bernhardt.

Shuffling and Sword-rattling. ( "Let it be the task of our diplomacy j so to shuffle the cards that we may be j attacked by France., for then there | would l)e a reasonable prospect chat • Russia for a time would remain neu-1 tral. . . . But we must not hope to j bring about this attack by waiting pas- j sively. Neither France, nor Russia, i nor England need to attack in order j to further their interests. ... If I wo wish to bring about an attack by j our opponents, we must initiate an ac- i tive policy which, without attacking I France, will so prejudice her interests or those of England that both these States would feel themselves compelled to attack us. Opportunities for Mich ! procedure aro offered both in Africa and in Europe."—General von Bern-1 hardi (prior to the present war). i "One single highly-cultured German warrior, of those who are, alas, fallifig iu thousands, represents a higher intellectual and moral life-value than hundreds of the raw children of nature whom England and France, Russia and Italy, oppose to them. —Piof. E.. Haeckel. "Surely the Chancellor must know that his contention that the war was ■ forced upotv us. has met with credence : hardly anywhere in the whole wiilo world. ... It is Germany that at- j tacks. When sho "lias conquered new \ domains through her genius the priests.: of all the gods will praise this blessed; war."—Horr Maximilian Harden. j "Lot us bravely organise great .forced I migrations of the inferior peoples.- Posterity will lie grateful to us. Coercion j will bo necessary. . . . Those ad- j versaries who succumb as they try to ] bar our passage must be driven into j 'reserves,' where we shall keep them segregated in order that we may obMiii the space necessary for our expansion."—K. Wagner. "Germany must stand alone, and is dcterminc/d to do so. It is her destiny, to rule tho world for tho good of humanity."—Professor von Layden. "The Kaiser may have thought that war was not necessary .... because every year of peace increased tho power of tho Empire, and because the German hegemony in Europe was safe enough without shedding a drop of blood. To this one must reply that the noblest weapon rusts if its uso is too long restricted to reviews and parades . . . . and that every ascent to a higher mental Kultur impairs tho barbaric energy of warriors, and encumbers them with scruples which damp their joyous courage."—Maximilian Harden. Blasphemous Conceit. \ "Men must come to understand that whoever cannot speak German is a pariah. . . . Germany has been for centuries the true and only home of a freedom worthy of humanity and elevating to humanity. . . . An un-German freedom is no freedom! . . . He who does not believe in the Divine mission of Germany had better hang himself, and rather to-day than to-morrow." "We aro beginning slowly, humbly, and yet with a deep gladness, to divine God's intentions. It may sound proud, my friends, but we are conscious that it is also iu all humbleness that wo say it: tho German soul is God's soul: it shall and will rulo over mankind."— Pastor W. Lohmann. "Verily the Bible is our book. . . It was given and assigned to us, and we read it in tho original text of our destiny, which proclaims to mankind salvation,or disaster, according as wo will it."—Pastor J. Hump. "Whoever cannot prevail upon himself to approve from the bottom of his heart the sinking of the Lusitania— whoever cannot conquer his sense of tho gigantic cruelty (ungeheurc Grausamkoit) to uiinumbured "perfectly innocent victims .... and give himself up to honest delight at this victorious exploit of German defensive power— him we judge to bo no true German. —Pastor I)'. Baumgarten. ■

The "Blonde Beasts" of Nietzsche. "One must. . . resist all sentimental weakness: life is in its essence appropriation, injury, the overpowering of whatever is foreign to us and weaker than ourselves, suppression, hard-* ness, the forcing upon others of our own forms, tho incorporation of others, or, at the very least and mildest, their exploitation."—Nietzsche. "Those very men who are so strictly kept within bounds by good manners . . . who, in their behaviour to one another, show themselves so inventive in consideration, self-control, delicacy, loyalty, pride and friendship —those very men are to the outside world, to tilings foreign and to foreign countries, little better than so. many uncaged beasts of prey. Here they enjoy liberty from all social restraint . . . and become rejoicing monsters, who perhaps go on their way, after a hideous sequence of murder, conflagration, violation, torture, with us much gaiety and equanimity as if they had merely taken part in some student gambols. . . . Deep in the nature of all these noble races there lurks unmistakably the beast of prey, the blond beast, lustfully roving in search of booty and victory."— Nietzsche. The Bismarckian Idea. "Sentimentality and tho regard for justice aud humanity aro ft weakness,

and wo must be strong." wrote Bismarck. "Where the power of Uermaiiy is in question, no law exists,i'or me "• He showed tho true German spirit when lie brought about tho Francoi'russiau war of 1870. Hβ has told tho story himself in his ■ memoirs, when describing his manipulation of the famous Ems telegram: — "Wo were all cast down. We felt that the airair was dribbling away into the sande. "I turned to Moltke and asked him if our principal weapon, the army, waa in such a condition that we could eiiter upon the war with the greatest; possible chance of success. Moltke, in whom I had absolute confidence, replied that it was never in better condition than at that moment. " 'Well,' said I, 'go quietly on with- your dinner. , Thoreupon I seated myself at a little table, re-read tho telegram carefully, took a pencil, and without! hesitation scored out tho passage in which it waa stated that Benedetti had asked for another audience. I left only the beginning and the end, so that tho telegram produced quite a different effect. I read it in this form to Moltke and Itoon, and they both exclaimed, 'Magnificent!That will do the business." Then we resumed our dinner with the host of appetite.".