Page:Paul Samuel Reinsch - Secret Diplomacy, How Far Can It Be Eliminated? - 1922.djvu/112



this great catastrophe; for they stood in the way of dealing with great public affairs in a sounder manner, that is, with more regard of the actual public interest and of the underlying racial and popular factors.

Those British critics who have attacked this method as practised in their own country before and during the war, do not thereby mean to im- pute to British statesmen a major share in the responsibility for the war. The high-mindedness and public spirit of the responsible statesmen is recognized by all fair critics, and most of them imply that Great Britain has far less to fear from this system than have nations with less responsi- ble governments and a less sound tradition of statesmanship. They attack the system as a whole as it exists throughout European diplo- macy, and as it has been used by the British Gov- ernment.

From the point of view of historic evidence, and of strict reasoning from cause to effect, a great deal of doubt still remains as to how far secret diplomacy in itself, that is, the failure to publish to parliament and the people, details of the situation as it developed, could properly be considered the specific cause of the war; no mat- ter how definite may be our judgment