Page:The Manifesto of the Moscow International - tr. Henry James Stenning (1919).djvu/3

 leaders of all countries, at the Basle Congress, branded Imperialism as the author of the future war, and threatened the bourgeoisie with the Socialist Revolution as the retribution which the proletariat would visit on it for the crimes of Imperialism. Now, after the experience of five years, after history has discovered the robbery-lust of Germany, no less than it has revealed the criminal actions of the Entente countries, the State Socialists of the Entente countries continue, together with their Governments, to unmask the fallen German Emperor. And the social patriots of Germany, who in August, 1914, declared the White Book of the Hohenzollerns to be the holiest gospel of the people, now in vulgar flattery, together with the Socialists of the Entente countries, blame the fallen German monarchy, which formerly they served like slaves, as the chief culprit. In this way they hope to cause their own guilt to be forgotten, and to deserve the good will of the victors. But by the side of the fallen dynasties of the Romanoffs, the Hohenzollerns, and the Hapsburgs, and the capitalist cliques of these countries, the Governments of France, England, Italy and the United States appear, in the light of the unfolding events and the diplomatic revelations, in all their immeasurable vileness.

Up to the very outbreak of war, British diplomacy preserved a mysterious secrecy. Civil authorities were careful not to make it known that they intended to take part in the war on the side of the Entente, doubtless so as not to alarm the Berlin Government and put off the war. London wanted war; hence their action to make Berlin and Vienna build their hopes on England's neutrality, while Paris and Petrograd were sure of England's intervention.

The war, which had been prepared for decades, broke out through direct and conscious provocation on the part of Great Britain. The British Government reckoned on giving support to Russia and France until they were exhausted and at the same time had crushed Germany, their mortal enemy. But the strength of the German military machine proved too formidable, and called forth not only an apparent but an actual intervention in the war on the part of England. It was the military superiority of Germany that caused the Government at Washington to give up their apparent neutrality. The United States assumed, as regards Europe, the same part that England had played in former wars, and has tried to play to the last, namely, the plan of weakening the one side with the help of the