We asked him whether Germany looked for a long peace after the war, and whether it would be on the grounds of great military strength and strong boundaries, or on the basis of an international conciliatory body, or a treaty?
He answered that nothing short of a United States of Europe would amount to anything, and seemed to possess the usual German skepticism of treaties.
"We will have to have a United States of Europe some day, to enable us to compete economically with America. That may come in eighty or one hundred years, but not in our lifetime. If you would really develop your natural resources, we in Europe would be helpless...."
IX—TEA WITH BARONESS VON BISSING
June 27th.
I went to Baroness von Bissing's to tea. Oh, welcome was the hour and her comfortable chair! She is small, with finely chiselled features; her movements are quick, like those of a highly bred animal, and she is rather excitable.
We sat down to tea and cherry tarts and I asked her when she was next going to Belgium. She can, of course, go whenever she likes, but is never there officially, as no German officer may take his wife to Belgium. The General, being so strict a gentleman, will not break the rule even for himself, and so Baroness von Bissing and her children must live alone in Germany, and he with his 150 aides-de-camp in his palace in Brussels.
"It is very hard to be without my husband and my eldest son," she said.
"Where is your boy?" I asked.