GERMANY IS COMING.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 196, 19 August 1912, Page 6

GERMANY IS COMING.

GENERAL YON BERNHARDI'S BOOK.

» FATHERLAND WAR BOSS OF

EARTH.

JINGO RECORDS ALL BROKEN

Discussion of Gen. Friedrich yon Bernhardi's book thriller ''Germany and the Next War," has reached almost the white heat stage among the New York critics because of the receipt of several advance copies of the work from Berlin a few days ago. Most of the critics denounce the book for its shameless "blood and iron' advocacy, its phychology of the caveman's type and its absolute disregard of the economical problems of the day. Such utterances as the following will illustrate contentions of the militant author that have provoked such a storm of adverse comment:-- .< . "Germans are the God .appointed leaders of the world. Therefore they must lead. As their leadership, however, is contested by England, and as England has the support of France, France's power must be utterly annihilated and the European equilibrium' destroyed. As a war of aggression against France would oblige Russia to help her aUy, German diplomats must tease France .until she attacks Germany, and the trick will be done. This war is necessary, for Germany needs more territory in Africa and un'ess she goes to war and obliges France and England to give it up she will be continually bulldozed, as was the case at the time of the Morrocan incident."

''Every onejis ranting about peace," the General writes, "as though, peace was- an unmitigated blessing, the most desirable"thing man could attain. And. still that, peace talk is a mere symptom of anaemia and weakness. To quote thef historian Treitschke, it is only in periods of weariness, discouragement and exhaustion that nations discuss the possibility of everlasting r>eaoe.'* "Furthermore, all tliQS© people who talk peace have ulterior, sordid motives. Most of them us a their love of peace as a folind; ccc what happen--ed at the Hggue.congresses. All the Powers which are .weak and in danger •of being* beaten and conquered have willingly accepted the American proposals of arbitration treaties. Obvious motives hare led the businesslike Americans, as well as "perfidious" Albion to enter into such arrangements. England wished to protect her rear in case of a war with Germany and the United States wished to remain undisturbed while applying in Central America, their system of oppression and while carrying out their selfish, plans in regard to the Panama Oanajl. Theorists and dreamers imagine tfeat.the efforts of President Taft w©re a decided ste,p forSvard in the direction of universal peace. Both nations, however, were merely hoping to get the best of each, other and to carry off the lion's share."

"Peace is not a blessing; on the contrary, peace- means the triumph of materialism. A protracted period of peace means the development of all the small traits in a nation; selfish interests press themselves to the fore; money acquires an exaggerated importance and character no longer receives the recognition it deserves. On the other hand war develops idealism and awakens all the slumbering life energies."

"The right of conquest either by peaceful means, for instance by immigration, or by warlike means is justified and recognised all over the world. Furthermore, war may become a duty. When a statesman sees that a recourse to? arms will be. unavoidable it becomes his duty to precipitate a war if to his mind the occasion is especially favorable. Temporising would- simply mean imposing a heavier sacrifice on his country if the* war should hav^ to be waged finally under awkward circumstances."

"History teaches us that hostilities! begun at the right moment with man- ; ly decision have always had the hap-! piest results politically and socially; political weakness, on the other hand, has always caused trouble, for it; meant that a statesman didn't have* the courage to shoulder th© responsibilities of an unavoidable war, tried' ••'■ vainly to adjust diplomatically clif- ; ferences which could not be settled in ,' such a way, and deceived himself as to the seriousness of the situation." ! "The calm and conscious strength ■ with which William I. and Bismarck directed the destinies of Germany very soon brought valuable fruit. How miserable the development of Germany would have been hadn't Bismarck precipitated the war which tightened the bonds of all the German nations." "To an impartial judge the attitude of Japan in her war with Russia appears perfectly, justified not only on political grounds but on moral grounds as well." ; "Germany finds herself at present in an embarrassing situation. While the nation that was beaten in 1870-71 Has built for herself the second largest oolonial empire and takes rank with, the great Powers, the victor of Gravelotte and Sedan has lagged far be- • hind his. competitors and quit© recent^ '; ly, at the time of the Morocco affair, has seen his demands rejected in a way which is insulting to German; pride." j "Germany needs more land and the " increase in her population will soon compel her to take decisive steps to-i wards securing territories where her ' emigrants can earn a living for them-1 selves." / "At every step we are taking, how- j ever, we encounter England's opposi- • tion. The English may not have de- i cided as yet to wage war upon us, but' they have firmly decided to hinder by every means at their disposal the growth of German influence on land and of German power on the seas. We i can be sure also that as soon as we! are entangled in a conflict with Eng- I land France' will avail herself of the opportunity to attack us. Italy, J paralysed by the necessity of defend- i , ing her Mediterranean coast, couldn't! give us much help and Austria would i ; have her hands full holding back the! /Russian advance.** j

"Such is t*L© situation. War is unavoidable, and we must see the thing tßrough. cost what it may. We have succeeded by diplomatic means in putting it off at the expense of our prestige a,nd influence, but we must not be t blind to the fact that we are now living in the midst of a terrible though latent world crisis."

"In our last war we .fought to conquer our unity- and the rank of European power. Our next war will be fought to conquer for Germany the rank.of world power, which has thus far been denied her."

"Our first duty must be to remove definitely the constant danger of French nrrpr«Mif>ion which .would +hreatfi" us as soon as our hands became

tied by some conflict. We> must settle the French question some way or other before we can. think with perfect freedom of our world policy. As the enmity of France cannot be appeased iby peaceful means warlike means must be resorted to. France will have to be so ■ completely crushed that never again -will she be able to stand in our, way." "We can do nothing, however, until ,the .end of the Jtalo-Turkish hostilities besides preventing " war from spreading to the Balkan Peninsula.'* "The next thing to do is to destroy absolutely . the European equilibrium which has been considered since the Congress of Vienna as a sacred thing.; "The idea of equilibrium has grown out of the conviction that nations were not created to destroy one another but to work in accord for the advancement of civilisation. When we peruse books of history, However, we become convinced that Germany has been a leader in thought and in science. The leadership imposes :upon us duties we cannot very well shirk. We must remain the leaders in a struggle waged for the highest prize towards which human effort may be directed. .

"No nation on earth can assimilate as perfectly as the German nation all the elements of civilisation, develop them, thanks to the, depth of its mind, and give back to mankind much more than, it has received from mankind. We observe in some other nations a certain i capacity along special lines, but nowhere do we find the encyclopaedic aptitude and the depth- characteristic of the German race. It is this trait which has ;made us leaders in the domain of the intellect and makes it imperative for us to retain this position. ' "Germans, however j cannot manage their own affairs themselves; one has only to think of how little parliamentary activity has accomplished in Germany to realise that that nation had beter entrust its destinies to leaders who will do what should be done."

"The German army," the General tells us, "can very well hold its own against a French-English-Russian coalition. The German fleet, however, would be practically useless as an instrument of aggression. "The five ships of vthe Kaiser type are absolutely out of date. The ships of the Wtttelsbach type carry guns which in a sea encounter would be useless. _ The cruisers are worse. The five cruisers of the Hansa type have no fighting value, the Adalbert, Friedricti-Karl and Heinrich have neither speed, nor range, nor armor; nor do the fire armoured cruisers answer to the demand of modern warfare. The German fleet should therefore confine itself to striking a sudden blow, destroying and sinking all the merchantmen it could and retiring within the area of protection of the seaports, beyond a line of floating mines. The German commerce of export and import could be carried on over Dutch, and Belgium railroad lines and then by Dutch a.nd Belgium ships." "In the meantime the German armies would invade France, fight their way to the Atlantic coast, occupy all the seaports and destroy the basis of supplies of the French fleet. After annihilating France Germany could easily deal with England, whose army would be an insignificant element in a European war." "Past experience has told us that England is in the habit of opening hostilities in a sudden and unexpected way; in September, 1807, England bombarded Copenhagen without any notice, seized the Danish, fleet, burned 400 houses and killed: 3000 non-com-batants. ( In July, 1882, Alexandria was bombarded in the same way, and Egypt occupied militarily under the slim pretext that Arabi Pasha had' ordered a massacre of Europeans."

"There have been more recent examples of wars which began very suddenly: the Russian-Japanese war and the Italo-Turkish war. We know therefore what to expect." And the General concludes with the following threat: "The day is near when we Germans will have either to assert by the sword our claim to the rank of a world power or renounce it for ever. We shouldn't wait, howr ever, until our enemies have completed their armaments and see that the time has come for them to strike first."' '■ ' ■■'.: ,■■ .... '■. ■. * .■;: