As a matter of fact, Germany can no longer carry on the war against the Entente save by virtue of the troops and resources which are placed at her disposal by Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey. If the Allies wish to conquer Germany, their chief adversary, it is necessary that they understand that they must first of all deprive Prussian militarism of the support—apparently secondary, but really essential—which it receives from its allied vassals. It is, furthermore, eminently desirable that it should be recognized in the United States that Turkish, Bulgar, Magyar, and Austrian imperialism are bases of Prussian imperialism, and that in order to establish a lasting peace, the disappearance of these secondary imperialisms is as necessary as that of Prussian imperialism itself. Moreover, the fact that Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey are not officially at war with the United States enables Berlin to maintain connections in America of which we may be sure that she avails herself to the utmost.
This situation is propitious also for that German manœuvre which consists in making people think that a separate peace is possible between Turkey, or Bulgaria, or Austria-Hungary on the one side and the powers of the Entente on the other. However, as the game to be played is complicated and difficult, good sense suggests that we proceed from the simple to the complex, and hence that we strike the enemy first of all in his most vulnerable part. Now, as we shall see, it is mainly in the territory of the three vassals of Germany that the new plan which I am about to set forth can be carried out in the first instance, without, however, causing any prejudice—far, far from it,—to the invaluable assistance which the Americans are preparing to bring to the Allies on the Western front. For all these reasons, it seems desirable that American public opinion should admit the imperious necessity of a situation absolutely unequivocal with regard to the governments of Constantinople, Sofia, Vienna, and Budapest, which are vassals of Berlin and by that same token substantial pillars of Pan-Germany.
II
DESTRUCTION OF PAN-GERMANY BY INTERNAL EXPLOSION
I believe that I have demonstrated, in earlier chapters of this book that, because of the advantages, economic and military, which the existence of Central Pan-Germany guarantees to Germany for both present and future, the essential, vital problem that the Allies have to solve—a problem which sums up all the others—is, how to destroy this Central Pan-Germany.
It is infinitely easier to destroy than is generally supposed among the Allies, because it contains potent sources of dissolution. The Allied leaders seem not to have bestowed upon this situation the extremely careful attention which it deserves. In any event, down to the present time they have not sought to take advantage of a state of affairs which is eminently favorable to them.
To understand this situation, and how it may be utilized at once, we must set out from the following starting-point. Of about 176,000,000 inhabitants of Pan-Germany in 1917, about 73,000,000 Germans, with the backing of only 21,000,000 vassals—Magyars, Bulgars, Turks,—have to-day reduced to slavery the immense number of 82,000,000 allied subjects—Slavs, Latins, or Semites, belonging to thirteen different nationalities, all of whom desire the victory of the Entente, since that alone will assure their liberation. In addition, a considerable portion of Germany’s vassals would, under certain conditions, gladly throw off the yoke of Berlin.
Among the 176,000,000 people of Pan-Germany we distinguish the following three groups.
Group 1. Slaves of the Germans or of their vassals capable of immediate action favorable to the Entente—say, 63,000,000, made up as follows:—
(a) In Turkey,—