V.
In order to demonstrate the really extraordinary importance of the scheme “from Hamburg to the Persian Gulf,” we have still to show how its achievement would not only make Germany mistress in Europe and preponderant in Asia, but would carry with it the accomplishment of the Pangerman plan in its world-wide form. The world-wide elements of this plan, graphically shown on the map herewith, have been set forth in the book of Otto Richard Tannenberg, The Greater Germany, the Work of the 20th Century,[3] which appeared at Leipsic in 1911. As this book, which bearing date 1911, contains the exact programme of the seizures to be effected in Europe and Turkey, nine-tenths of which the German General Staff has already carried out to the letter, the exceptional importance of Tannenberg’s book is indisputable. It is demonstrated, in fact, that the annexations and seizures which he advocated in 1911 correspond as completely as possible with the execrable ambitions of the government of Berlin.
WORLD-WIDE CONSEQUENCES OF THE “HAMBURG TO THE PERSIAN GULF” SCHEME, AS PROVIDED FOR BY THE PLAN OF 1911.
As for the territorial acquisitions which Tannenberg advocates in Asia, in Africa, in Oceania, and in America, they would be the perfectly logical consequences of the accomplishment of the “Hamburg to the Persian Gulf” project. If that project became a reality, it would be because the European Allies, through their blunders in the management of the war, would have had to forego the notion of beating Germany and to leave the German General Staff to command an army of from 15 to 21 millions of men (see p. 91). Therefore, it is obvious that on this hypothesis the Allied peoples, after a treacherous peace, morally and financially exhausted, having to face the formidable armies of Pangermany, would be unable to oppose the accomplishment of those colonial schemes, which the success of the “Hamburg to the Persian Gulf” plan would afford to Great Germany the means of carrying out, since, always on the assumption in question, they would have given way on an issue much more vital for them—that of the independence of Europe.
Once grant this supposition, and we shall be convinced that Tannenberg’s world-wide plan of Pangerman annexations is quite stripped of that chimerical character which at first sight we might be disposed to ascribe to it.
Besides, we must add that the programme, which is fully described below, was drawn up by Tannenberg on the supposition, on which the Berlin Government also reckoned, that England would not take part in the war. In order to purchase her neutrality, Tannenberg advocated dividing the colonies of the other European powers between London and Berlin. But now that England has thrown herself into the struggle, it is clear that, assuming Germany to be victorious, she would take possession also of those colonies which Tannenberg proposed to assign to Great Britain, since Britain would be incapable of resisting. It follows that the world-wide acquisitions of Pangermany, sketched in the plan of 1911 and summarized below, are in fact less than Germany would be able to effect, since having presumably accomplished the scheme of domination “from Hamburg to the Persian Gulf,” no organized force on earth would be powerful enough to curb the boundless ambition of Berlin.
We have proved above that if the Allies allowed Germany to secure her hold on Austria-Hungary, the predominant and exclusive influence of Berlin over all the Balkans and Turkey would be inevitable. Tannenberg (op. cit., p. 323) explains that finally Asia Minor, Syria, and Mesopotamia, Palestine, Western Persia, and the larger part of Arabia would pass under the absolute protectorate of the German Empire, making a total of, say, 3,200,000 square kilometres and 16,500,000 inhabitants.
Once masters of the coasts of the Adriatic, the Ægean, the Dardanelles, and Aden, helped by the Panislamic propaganda, the Turco-German seizure of Egypt, and therefore the Suez Canal, would necessarily follow. Germany, if she commanded these essential strategical points, would then obviously be able to retake her colonies in Africa and Oceania.
| Square Kilometres. | Native Population. | |
|---|---|---|
| Togo | 87,000 | 1,003,000 |
| Kameroon | 790,000 | 2,540,000 |
| South-West Africa | 835,000 | 87,000 |
| Eastern Africa | 995,000 | 7,510,000 |
| Kaiser Wilhelm Land, Bismarck Archipelago, Caroline Islands, Marshall Islands, the Marianes, Samoa | 245,000 | 647,000 |
| Making a total of | 2,952,000 | 11,787,000 |
Always on the assumption which we have made, the Allies, having given way in Europe, could not prevent Great-Germany from snatching, according to Tannenberg’s programme, the Belgian, Portuguese, and Dutch Colonies, namely:
| Square Kilometres. | Native Population. | |
|---|---|---|
| Belgian Congo | 2,365,000 | 15,000,000 |
| Portuguese Angola | 1,270,000 | 4,200,000 |
| Dutch East Indies | 2,045,000 | 38,106,000 |
| Total | 5,680,000 | 57,306,000 |
Next would come the turn of those French colonies, the cession of which to Great Germany was foreshadowed by Tannenberg, op. cit., p. 313.
| Square Kilometres. | Native Population. | |
|---|---|---|
| Morocco | 416,000 | 3,000,000 |
| French Congo | 1,439,000 | 9,800,000 |
| Madagascar | 585,000 | 3,232,000 |
| Mayotta and the Comoros Islands | 2,000 | 97,000 |
| Reunion | 2,000 | 173,000 |
| Obok and dependencies (East Africa) | 120,000 | 208,000 |
| Indo-China | 803,000 | 16,990,000 |
| French Islands of Oceania | 24,000 | 88,000 |
| Making a total of | 3,391,000 | 33,588,000 |
The combination of Panislamism and the so-called Chinophile movement would prepare for the German seizures in Asia. As we have seen (p. 99), the Berlin plan consists first in arming China powerfully enough under the orders of German officers, to expel the Japanese from Kiao-Chau and from the province of Shantung. Germany would thus inflict a first and striking vengeance on the Empire of the Rising Sun. But that would not be all. The policy which Berlin foreshadows with regard to China is identical with the one which it is now pursuing in Turkey. If Germany armed China, it would be under conditions such that the Celestial Empire would have to submit to the strict influence of Pangermany. Tannenberg (op. cit., p. 321) tells us that the outcome of these tactics would be the establishment of a vast zone of special German influence on the whole lower course of the Yangtse-Kiang and the Hoangho, that is to say, over that vast portion of China which forms the hinterland of Kiao-Chau, making a total of about 750,000 square kilometres and 50 millions of inhabitants.
Tannenberg finally gives an exact enumeration of the various German protectorates which would be established in the southern part of South America, where dwell many German colonists, whose aggressive tendencies are already plain enough. “Germany,” says Tannenberg literally, “takes under her protection the republics of Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, the southern third of Bolivia, so far as it belongs to the basin of the Rio de la Plata, together with that part of southern Brazil, in which German culture is dominant” (op. cit., p. 321).
| Square Kilometres. | Population. | |
|---|---|---|
| Argentina | 2,950,000 | 7,091,000 |
| Chili | 757,000 | 3,415,000 |
| Uruguay | 187,000 | 1,225,000 |
| Paraguay | 253,000 | 800,000 |
| ⅓ Bolivia | 500,000 | 666,000 |
| ⅕ Brazil | 1,700,000 | 5,000,000 |
| Making a total of | 6,347,000 | 18,197,000 |
“German South America,” concludes Tannenberg, “will provide for us in the temperate zone a colonial region where our emigrants will be able to settle as farmers. Chili and Argentina will preserve their language and their autonomy. But we shall require that in the schools German shall be taught as a second language. Southern Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay are countries of German culture. German will there be the national tongue” (op. cit., p. 337).
Even during the war, Germany has laid the train for some of these explosions. The Chicago Tribune has learned that the Committee of Foreign Affairs for the Senate of the United States possesses the proofs of German intrigues carried on in the American hemisphere in defiance of the Monroe doctrine (Le Temps, 16th February, 1916). These official Pangerman machinations, proved up to the hilt and entirely in harmony with Tannenberg’s American plan of campaign, demonstrate the identity of his colonial views with those of the government of Berlin.
To sum up, the result of the Pangerman programme for countries outside of Europe would be to assure to Germany, under the form of colonies, protectorates, or zones of special influence:
| Square Kilometres. | Population. | |
|---|---|---|
| In Asia | 4,753,000 | 83,490,000 |
| In Africa | 8,906,000 | 46,850,000 |
| In Oceania | 2,314,000 | 38,841,000 |
| In America | 6,347,000 | 18,197,000 |
| Making a total of | 22,320,000 | 187,378,000 |
Germany, which occupied or controlled, at the beginning of 1916, in Europe, 3,576,237 square kilometres, including the Empire, and more than 160 millions of inhabitants, would then have a universal domain of influence reaching over 25,896,237 square kilometres and 347 millions of inhabitants. This figure includes at the utmost 90 millions of Germans; therefore, these will exercise their supremacy over 257 millions of non-Germans.
It must be clearly understood also that the enormous possessions of Pangermany in both hemispheres would be thoroughly under the domination of Berlin; indeed, a glance at the map (p. 101) will show that the universal Pangerman plan aims at seizing all the essential strategic points which command the seas of the world, especially, in addition to those already mentioned, the Straits of Gibraltar from the side of Morocco, Cape Horn, Madagascar, and all the naval bases of Oceania.
To sum up, the complete Pangerman plan aims at procuring for Germany all the means of domination by land and sea, which would enable Pangermany to hold the entire world in the dreadful hug of Prussian militarism screwed up to its highest degree of power.
Not for a moment do the Pangermans pause to reflect how criminal is this programme of universal slavery. “War,” says Tannenberg, with his monstrous cynicism, “must leave nothing to the vanquished but their eyes to weep with. Modesty on our part would be purely madness” (op. cit., p. 304). Now, it is a fundamental truth, of which I should like to convince my readers, that the universal Pangerman plan is solely and wholly based on the achievement of the scheme “from Hamburg to the Persian Gulf,” which forms its backbone. If this is broken, the whole of the Pangerman plan falls to the ground, and the projects of Prussian domination are destroyed for ever. The principal problem which the Allies have to solve, if they wish to ensure their liberty and that of the whole world, is to make impossible the achievement of the plan “from Hamburg to the Persian Gulf.”
CHAPTER VI.
THE CRUCIAL POINT OF THE WHOLE PROBLEM.
I. The obligation which the threat of the scheme “from Hamburg to the Persian Gulf” imposes on the Allies.
II. The capital importance of the question of Austria-Hungary.
III. All the racial elements necessary for the destruction of the Pangerman plan exist in Central Europe.