The pa.s.sage in the German Emperor's Speech from the Throne which refers to China is not calculated, it would seem, to appease Great Britain's irritation. "Germany's Colonies," said the Kaiser, "are in a state of prosperous development. At Kiao-chao steps have already been taken to improve the economic conditions of the protectorate. The frontier has been definitely settled by agreement with the Chinese Government. A free port has been opened and work upon it has begun. The construction of the railway which will link up the Protectorate with the Hinterland, will be commenced in the near future. Relying on the old treaties still in force, and on the new rights acquired under the treaty concluded with China on March 6, 1898, my Government will also endeavour in future, whilst carefully respecting the lawful rights acquired by other Powers, _to develop economic relations with China, which, year by year, will become more important, and to secure to German subjects their full share in the activities directed towards opening the Far East to Europe, from the economic point of view_."

Nor is the influence acquired by William II and his subjects in the Ottoman Empire, emphasised by this same Speech from the Throne, of a nature to rea.s.sure England with regard to her projects in the East. In the Near, as in the Far, East she sees herself being supplanted by Germany, and this by methods identical with her own, against which, therefore, she fights more disadvantageously than against France and Russia, more foolishly chivalrous.

William II, who had replied with insolent sharpness to a legitimate claim advanced by a certain princeling of the Confederated States--the Regent of Lippe-Detmold, Count Ernest von Lippe-Biesterfeld, has had occasion to see that public opinion severely condemns his unjustifiable action. The Confederated Sovereigns and Princes perceive therein a menace to themselves, and have rallied energetically in defence of one of their number. The ma.s.ses, seeing an insignificant princeling oppressed and threatened by the biggest of them, have sided with the weaker. On his return from Jerusalem, William found the situation extremely strained, and he endeavoured to relieve it by concessions of various kinds. None of them, however, were regarded as adequate.

Thereupon, with the suppleness which costs him so little when it is a question of sacrificing his most devoted and valuable servant, the Emperor, King of Prussia, sacrificed Herr von Luca.n.u.s, the head of his private household, an almost legendary personage who had had a hand in every important act of William's life. It was he who carried the Imperial ultimatum to Von Bismarck and escaped unhurt from the hands of the infuriated giant.

Herr von Luca.n.u.s had not been sacrificed to the violent sarcasms of the Chancellor after his reconciliation with William II; he seemed to be una.s.sailable until, simply for having addressed a few improper lines, at the Emperor's dictation, to a minor prince, he is removed from the anonymous post which was one of the occult powers of Potsdam. The august Confederates may consider themselves satisfied.

[1] _La Nouvelle Revue_, January 15, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[2] _La Nouvelle Revue_, February 16, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[3] _La Nouvelle Revue_, March 1, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[4] _La Nouvelle Revue_, March 16, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[5] _La Nouvelle Revue_, April 1, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[6] _La Nouvelle Revue_, June 16, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[7] _La Nouvelle Revue_, July 16, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[8] _La Nouvelle Revue_, August 1, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[9] _La Nouvelle Revue_, August 16, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[10] _La Nouvelle Revue_, September 15, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[11] _La Nouvelle Revue_, October 1, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[12] _La Nouvelle Revue_, November 1, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[13] _La Nouvelle Revue_, November 15, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[14] _La Nouvelle Revue_, December 1, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[15] _La Nouvelle Revue_, December 15, 1898, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

CHAPTER VII

1899

Our diplomatic situation in 1899--William II visits the _Iphigenie_--The Hague Conference--Germany the only obstacle to the fulfilment of the humanitarian plans of the Tzar.

January 11, 1899. [1]

Impelled by a simplicity of mind that suggests vacuity, a great many French patriots imagine that our country cannot be equally hated by two nations at once. Seeing England threatening France every day in every way and by all the means at her disposal, these hypnotised patriots with fixed and staring eyes, see only England and nothing else! No matter what misdeeds Germany may commit, they scarcely trouble to turn towards her their inattentive gaze. Some of them, even, whose lips are tightened with anger when they think of London, smile with a vague feeling of good-will at the thought of Berlin. And yet the other enemy, the German, emboldened by our absorption, is more ready to oppress the weak, reveals himself as bolder and greedier, more cynical and exclusive, more violent in denying to others their rights. German influence may spread all over the world, but refuses to allow any other influence whatsoever to penetrate Germany. Prussia introduced the law of force because she was strong; she is now inaugurating a new system of human rights to the exclusive advantage of Germany. One newspaper, the _Vossische Zeitung_, has dared to say: "This system is unworthy of a civilised state and must lead to our being morally humiliated before the whole world." But that is all.

When Germany perpetrates some particularly monstrous act, she is only "a civilising power spreading the greatest of all languages."

Moreover, Germany is the only nation that possesses a secular history; other nations have nothing more than a succession of irregular proceedings, tolerated by German generosity or indifference.

The German Emperor, King of Prussia, wages a victorious war against everything that is not German. He has just put to the sword the French terms in the Prussian military vocabulary. In vain these poor words pleaded the authority of the great Frederick, who introduced them into Prussia. In spite of his fondness for imitating Frederick the Great, William II has slaughtered the French expressions "_officier aspirant_," "_porte epee_," "_premier lieutenant_," "_general_," etc., etc. The ma.s.sacre is complete, their exclusion wholesale; he leaves no trace of the enemy's tongue. William II follows with marked satisfaction the anti-French movement of opinion in England. "England will chastise France," he said to his Officers' Club, "and then she will come and beg me to protect her." Germany hates us with all her own hatred, added to that of England. She hopes for our defeat, but if we should win, she would come hypocritically to claim from us her vulture share of the spoil for her so-called neutrality.

February 9, 1899.

Bismarck's interest in things was never keenly aroused unless they were worth lying about. When he said "the Eastern question is not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier," he was formulating in his mind the programme of the "Drang nach Osten," the great push towards the East. The Russo-Turkish war; the humbling of the victorious Slav colossus by the Congress of Berlin; the diabolical treachery contained in the Resolutions of the said Congress (not one of which but contains the germ of some revolt or movement on the part of the races of the Turkish Empire); the separation of Bulgaria and Roumelia, united by the Treaty of San Stefano; the subsequent reunion, directed against Russia, of these two countries; the handing over of Bulgaria to a Coburg, bound by ties to Austria--all these things were brought about by the treachery and guile of the super-liar who ruled at Berlin. And since then, William II has done everything possible to advance this "Drang nach Osten," Prussia's favourite scheme.

And whilst the menace of this "push towards the East" is steadily growing, whilst he who directs it from Berlin holds in his hand all the strings of the puppets who can help to advance it or pretend (as part of the conspiracy) to oppose it, what is great Russia doing, the mighty Tzar, and France?

They tell us that Russia is abandoning her interests in the East and that the Tzar is dreaming of giving Europe a lasting peace--a peace chiefly favourable to the economic and commercial development of Germany and to the increase of her influence.

Russia and France seem scarcely to realise that the only force which can drive back the tide of Germanic invasion is the Slav power, organised and firmly established in Europe. A Balkan league including Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro, a southern Slav kingdom, a Bohemia-Moravia, these might hold the German power in check and give to Europe the necessary equilibrium. France has an interest as great as Russia's in the organisation of this opposing force, but she does not realise the fact. Just as the Athenians stretched out their hands towards the power of Rome, deadly in its fascination, even so there are culpably blind patriots among us who dream the monstrous dream of an _entente_ with Germanism. As well might one, to escape the flood, throw oneself into the rising ravening torrent. Before long, Germany will be the ruler of Austria, of Hungary, Turkey and Holland, and we shall have prepared no counterpoise to this encroachment, we, the Allies of the great Russian people, who, even though they may eventually succ.u.mb to the fatal attraction of Asia, might first help us to secure our racial psychology and to establish bonds between our Gallo-Latin soul and the soul of the Slavs.

The Germans are establishing themselves comfortably and permanently in China. There lies before me an extract from the first number of a newspaper published by the Germans in China under the t.i.tle of _The German Asiatic Sentinel_. This official organ of the Kiao-chao territory appears every week with six pages of articles and advertis.e.m.e.nts. It is strange to find in it advertis.e.m.e.nts of the most diverse description, from that which commends brown Kulmback beer, to that in which two young German merchants seek to correspond, with a view to marriage, with good-looking young German girls of good family.

When one remembers the solemn invest.i.ture at Kiel of Prince Henry of Prussia, as leader of the crusade which was to spread the sacred words of Christianity amongst the barbarian followers of Confucius, and when one sees this invest.i.ture finding its expression in the initiation of the Chinese into the mysteries of Kulmback beer and the search for exportable Gretchens, the a.s.sociation of the two pictures reminds one somehow of tight-rope dancing. But ridicule is unknown in Germany.

It seems to me that the Kaiser's latest speech, at the banquet of the provincial Landtag of Brandenburg, is in somewhat doubtful taste. On this occasion, he spoke first of the divine right and responsabilities of the Hohenzollerns on a footing of familiarity with G.o.d, and next he compared the functions of a sovereign with those of a gardener, who stirs up the earth, smokes the roots and hunts out noxious insects.

True, the German Emperor has got to cultivate the tree of 1870-71 and to destroy "hostile animals," which I take to mean our good simple-minded Frenchmen!

The campaign in favour of a _rapprochement_ between France and Germany continues to be cleverly managed and directed in our midst. There is talk of a visit of the Tzar, who would come to Antibes and who would there receive William II at the same time as M. Felix Faure. The formula with which this arrangement is commended to us is "we have sulked long enough." In other words, they would convert a great, strengthening and enduring hatred into a trivial grudge. That, since Fashoda they should regard Sedan as a peccadillo is strange, to say the least of it.

The _Kolnische Zeitung_, which opened the discussion with regard to a _rapprochement_ with France, now closes it by observing--

"That if ever the French should feel impelled to seek a reconciliation with Germany, it could only be sincerely effected on the condition that they abandon once and for all the idea of a reckoning to be settled between the two countries for the war of 1870-71."

When we have estimated the nature and extent of Germany's greed, calculated the number of her demands and ambitions, reflected by the light of history and German exaggerations, on the character of the German race and its unbridled l.u.s.t of domination, then the National, Colonial and Continental interests of France (considered dispa.s.sionately and without hatred for the conqueror or resentment for the cruel and humiliating past) do not lie in the direction of a _rapprochement_ with Germany. They lie in the establishment and combination of the Slav States in Europe, in a more effective alliance with Russia, and a _rapprochement_ between the Latin nations.

March 27, 1899. [2]

By our resistance, since the national defeat of 1871, we have pledged ourselves not to accept it. Our moral position and the dignity of our claims to rest.i.tution have been worthy of our history because we inveterate Frenchmen have never ceased to maintain that our power over Alsace-Lorraine has been overthrown by force, but that our rights remain undiminished. Austria, to Germany, and Italy, to Austria, have sacrificed this moral position and the dignity of their respective claims, in return for an alliance which, besides being treacherously false, has brought them neither wealth nor honour.

But alas! even whilst our rights became strengthened by our very faithfulness and constancy, our rulers were yielding to the insidious counsels of the enemy. M. Ferry listened to Bismarck and slowly, drop by drop, we wasted the blood with which we should have reconquered Alsace-Lorraine. Bismarck, seeing us regaining our strength too quickly for his liking, and becoming a danger to Germany, and prevented by the Tzar from stopping our recovery by striking at us again, played his hand so as to throw us headlong into a policy of colonial adventures. But the Great Iron Chancellor, the would-be genial fellow, had not foreseen that his pupil William II would be inspired by ambitions entirely different from his own: that of a relentless colonial policy, that of commercial and industrial development, on broad lines of encroachment, and that of a navy. All these things however, followed logically, one from the other; for profitable colonisation one must have a market for one's produce, and to protect a mercantile marine one must have a navy. Therefore, under these conditions, which Bismarck did not foresee, the danger to France became an immediate and equal danger to Germany, for England would be free to sweep the seas of Germany's merchantmen as well as those of France.