The nationalities of Europe must be liberated from the Prussian yoke.
But, as we have proved, the accomplishment of the “Hamburg to the Persian Gulf” scheme has two essential objects:—
A formidable extension of Prussian militarism, which would have at its disposal an army of 15 to 21 million men (see p. 91);
The enslavement to Germany of all the non-German nationalities lying between the south of Saxony and the Persian Gulf.
The objects of the war pursued by the Allies and those of the government of William II. are therefore fundamentally opposed to each other. This opposition has been by implication excellently stated by M. Marcel Cachin, Socialist deputy, in an article which appeared in L’Humanité, of May 9th, 1916, under the title “Central Europe.”
“The general plan of our enemies can be clearly defined. In case they were victorious, they would establish in the heart of Europe a formidable power under the supremacy of Germany, a power which, with the annexations avowedly aimed at, would comprise more than 130 millions of inhabitants.
“It needs no big words to show the danger which the whole of Europe would run were such a design executed. It would be an eternal menace to our country. No one can for a moment doubt that so long as the existing political systems of Germany and Austria endure, such a monstrous combination would be a permanent danger against which we should constantly be obliged to be on our guard. And as for the Slav populations reduced again to slavery, as for the Czechs, the Poles, the Yougo-Slavs, the Serbians, they would naturally think of nothing but of revenge in order to escape from serfdom and recover their national rights, which had been trampled under foot. Were such a brutal unification as is summed up in Mitteleuropa to be unfortunately accomplished by fire and sword, we might talk of peace after the storm, but it would be talk in vain; it would be war again, fatal war.”
There spoke sound sense. It is clear that to have done once for all with Prussian militarism is the only way open to the Allies to procure a reasonable guarantee that so atrocious a war shall never be waged again, and that millions of men shall not once more be sacrificed to the Moloch of Pangermanism. Hence the official declarations of the Allies, quoted above, are not the product of blind obduracy, as the German propaganda would make some neutrals believe. In view of the formidable plan of universal domination which the Germans still cling to, the seeming obduracy of the Allies is on their part the highest wisdom.
VII.
The question of Austria-Hungary, being the crucial point of the whole problem to be solved after the war, may become the common ground on which all common efforts should be concentrated, not only by the present Allies, but also by the still neutral States which are virtually threatened by the accomplishment of the “Hamburg to the Persian Gulf” scheme.