Germany is wholly alive; but she is alive for evil. We whose purpose is good, whose cause is justice and whose triumph is indispensable if honest industry and human right are not to disappear from mankind, are as yet not fully alive to the immensity and necessity of our task. We must awaken, or be awakened, ere it be too late.

Germany is living in the present and in the future. It is a present of determined effort, of unlimited sacrifice, of colossal hope. The future for which she strives and suffers is a future incompatible with those ideals which our race cherishes and reveres. Either our philosophy, our religion and code prevail, or they fade into decay, and Germany’s aims remain. The choice is definite.

There can be no parley, no compromise with the evil thing for which Germany fights. There is not room for both. One must go down.

We must win outright. And we can and shall win—if we bend every thought, our whole will, our every energy, our utmost intensity of determination to the great work. Failing this, we shall secure only a victory equivalent to defeat. We chose the part of free men, and, when purified by complete self-sacrifice, shall emerge from the ordeal a great and regenerated people.

W. M. Hughes.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE
INTRODUCTION BY THE HON. W. M. HUGHES[vii]
[I]THE CHARACTER OF GERMANY[1]
[II]THE GERMAN SYSTEM OF PREPARATION[7]
[III]GERMANY AND ITALIAN FINANCE[27]
[IV]THE ANNEXATION MANIA[37]
[V]GERMANY AND RUSSIA[53]
[VI]THE STATESMANSHIP OF THE ENTENTE[81]
[VII]TEUTON POLITICS[88]
[VIII]A MACHIAVELLIAN TRICK BY WHICH RUSSIA’S HAND WAS FORCED[99]
[IX]GERMAN PROPAGANDA IN SCANDINAVIA[108]
[X]GERMANY AND THE BALKANS[116]
[XI]THE RIVAL POLICIES[136]
[XII]PROBLEMS OF LEADERSHIP[146]
[XIII]PROBLEMS OF FINANCE[161]
[XIV]READJUSTMENTS[175]
[XV]THE POSITION OF ITALY[192]
[XVI]ROUMANIA AND GREECE[214]
[XVII]GERMANY’S RESOURCEFULNESS[227]
[XVIII]THE PERILS OF PARTY POLITICS[236]
[XIX]PAST AND PRESENT[246]
[XX]PROBLEMS OF THE FUTURE[272]
[XXI]THE FINAL ISSUE[296]

OURSELVES AND GERMANY

CHAPTER I

THE CHARACTER OF GERMANY