General von Heeringen
It was an unheard-of ultimatum—that much an Austrian friend acknowledged to me at the time. But, he added, the whole situation was equally unheard of. In Germany, except in the ranks of the social democrats, who glory in having no national sentiments, Austria’s act met with the most complete approval. Truth to tell, no one had expected such firmness and decision. The seriousness of the matter was not for a moment overlooked. In my own immediate neighborhood and, I imagine, from end to end of Germany, the first impulse on hearing the news was to sing national hymns. One heard them throughout that whole night—especially the solemn “Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser” and “Deutschland, Deutschland über alles.” There was a resigned feeling, too, a feeling that Servia had been such a menace since 1908 that the time had come when something must be done. My Austrian friend believed that the powers would sympathize with his country’s desire to chastise a band of assassins; that the Russian czar especially would never take sides with regicides; that England would see fair play.
General von Eichhorn
To blame the German emperor for what followed is the attitude of the uninformed. Germany has foreseen the struggle, as our extracts from the newspapers show, but her one idea has been self-defense. The worst that can be said of her is that her wonderful prosperity has made her a little boastful and that she has talked too much about her share in world politics and her own “place in the sun.” That indeed was an unfortunate remark of his imperial majesty. In general, however, he has honestly tried to keep the peace, and that Germany, with her blooming trade, her model educational system and her splendid fleet and army should have a larger voice in the affairs of nations was not an unreasonable aim. Those who accuse her of greed for territory should look at the history of their own country and see if they are entitled to throw stones. Nor should they attribute her recent army-increase to a mere spirit of aggression. So hemmed in is Germany, so exposed are her frontiers in every direction, that she can not help taking alarm at the movements of her neighbors. Actually touching her borders are nations with a total population more than doubling her own, not to speak of England with her enormous fleet.
General von Bülow
England of late has stood for the restriction of armaments provided her own naval superiority be preserved in the present proportions. Germans believe, probably falsely, that before making such a proposition England hastily ordered the laying of the keels of three new battle-ships which in the ordinary course of events would not have been begun until later. At any rate England leads in the matter of supplying other countries with deadly instruments of war and her attitude is not unlike that of her own rich beer-brewing families to the temperance question. They preach against the use of alcohol, but go on deriving their income from it. The largest factory of Whitehead torpedoes is at Fiume, in Austria; Armstrong and Vickers have branches in Italy and supply that government with naval guns; while the British Engineers’ Association, with a capital of $350,000,000, is endeavoring to corner the trade of the world in firearms. England introduced dreadnaughts and not only builds them for herself but also furnishes them on demand to Japan and South America. With a cannon factory on the Volga and an arsenal equipped by Armstrong and Vickers on the Golden Horn, England has fairly fattened of late on war. By building the first dreadnaught, indeed, she did herself a poor service. Previously Germany was out of the running as regards the number of ships; now, where only dreadnaughts count, she is becoming a good second. Was there not something more than naïvete in Sir Edward Grey’s serious proposal that Germany and England should restrict the number of their battle-ships but always preserve the proportion of ten to six in England’s favor? We have here, I think, the whole gist of the differences between the two countries. England has steadily preserved her attitude of superiority everywhere its basis was disappearing. She has been jealous of Germany’s commerce, of her colonial progress. These Germans are to England upstarts who need to be kept in their place and are not to be allowed to have a word in the larger world-policies. Almost every Englishman feels that a German is his social inferior. Such assumptions provoke bumptiousness and self-assertion, which, I do not deny, have at times been evidenced. Just before this war broke out, indeed, the feeling of mutual antagonism seemed to be lessening. The English fleet was welcomed at Kiel, the English trade delegation in Berlin. The press of both countries had softened and sweetened.
General von Prittwitz