plainly indicated. “He said that the step taken by His Majesty's Government was terrible to a degree, just for a word—'neutrality,' a word which in war-time had so often been disregarded—just for a scrap of paper Great Britain was going to make war." When the chancellor's “scrap of paper” became the subject of grim jest, Von Bethmann-Hollweg tried to volatilize from his acknowledged phrase the opprobrious connotations. But the excuses had much the same effect as Germany's accusations against Belgium after the violation.*

Time is the great corrector of history. It sets detail into perspective, and we are only now beginning to see how these acts fit into the drama of Germany's militaristic madness. They seemed to us at first impossible grotesques, but as time wore on and our knowledge of German purpose became clearer, it became evident that they were no exceptions, no gargoyles, but the keystones of the arch. When, after illegal and inhumane acts had been committed, the inquiries and protests of neutral governments failed to bring the punishment of offenders, or even excuses, we came painfully to realize that such acts were the result of a settled policy and

a in accordance with Prussian ideals. For just as the German conception held that the state was something absolute, that there was no judge above it, so war, the state in action, was also absolute and could be checked by no laws or principles of humanity and justice. Germany had, to be sure, signed the Conventions of The Hague, and by doing so had led us to believe that she, with other nations, would make some attempt to follow them. But that this was not the case becomes clear when we read the Kriegsbrauch im Landkriege,* the official publication of the General Staff, destined to instruct officers on the usages of war. Here we find not only a different set of principles, but the frank admission that The Hague Conferences had been signed merely for the purpose of disarming neutral suspicion.

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“Attempts of this kind (to mitigate the horrors of war) will also not be wanting in the fu

ture, the more so as these agitations have found a kind of moral recognition in some provisions of the Geneva Convention and the Brussels and Hague Conferences. . The danger that in this way he (the officer) will arrive at false views about the essential character of war must not be lost sight of. . . By steeping himself in military history an officer will be able to guard himself against excessive humanitarian notions; it will teach him that certain severities are indispensable to war, nay more, that the only true humanity very often lies in a ruthless application of them. .

“Every means of war without which the object of the war cannot be obtained is permissible... It follows from these universally valid principles that wide limits are set to the subjective freedom and arbitrary judgment of the commanding officer.” *

At the very first, then, we were given clear indications of the truth which was to dawn upon us slowly, and which the President was to express nearly four years later when he announced that we could not take “the word of the present rulers of Germany as a guarantee of anything that is to endure,” and that they were "incapable of making a covenanted peace. After Germany's violations of the treaties we were to be further disillusioned about her methods of making war. How, we asked, will Germany treat these people whom she has wronged? The question was all the more pertinent since neutrals who have defended their neutrality are, according to The Hague Conventions, not guilty of any hostile act. We were not willing to hurry to conclusions. When President Poincaré called President Wilson's attention to what was happening, the latter refused at the time to act as judge, and, speaking for “a nation which abhors inhuman practices in the conduct of a war,” replied on September 19, 1914:

“The time will come when this great conflict is over and when the truth can be impartially determined. When that time arrives those responsible for violations of the rules of civilized warfare, if such violations have occurred, and for false charges against their adversaries, must of course bear the burden of the judgment of the world.”

Most of us did not imagine then that the war could last more than some months, but several years have now passed and the time has come

British official photograph. Copyright by Underwood & Underwood.

British soldiers conducting Belgian refugees to a place of safety. “Germany had in that country instituted for a time at least a reign of terror.'

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