Page:Diplomacy and the War (Andrassy 1921).djvu/146

 of England, the desire for revenge in France, and the ambition of the Slavonic world, had combined in order to rend the German Empire to pieces. The German people believed themselves to be the victims of a Macchiavellian plot which had been hatched a long time ago. They believed that they were face to face with a plot the contemptibility of which could only be rivalled by the hypocrisy and intrigues of the members of the Entente. And in believing the above, the German nation was, of course, revolted to see that so dastardly an attack made use of the cruel weapon of the blockade. Those, however, who did not judge the intentions of the enemy so hardly found in this general opinion the justification of a reckless means of pursuing the war, because they did not want a war against the Entente. The Kaiser and the Chancellor, who were appalled by the idea of a European war, and who believed that they had gone to the very limit of their power to prevent this war, compatible with the interests of the nation, and having condemned the motives of the Entente strongly, were prepared to use the most powerful means in order to save the nation that had been committed to their charge. Englishmen and Frenchmen, who saw the psychological result of the destruction wrought by German airmen and who were influenced by the sufferings of their innocent brothers, from whom they could discover what mental condition is produced by the use of brutality against defenceless men, could understand what an immeasurable revolt was created by the wholesale murder of the blockade