Page:The New Europe, volume 1.pdf/166

 it necessary to apologise for the apparent faults of Austrianism, and that his sense of those faults should lead him to a violent diatribe against the typical Viennese, as a hybrid person without nationality and without character. With regard to the "Great Austrian" movement, the reader may consult the writings of Richard von Kralik, the literary spokesman of Austrian Catholicism, whose "History of Austria" gives a fair outline of Austrian Imperialism.

Author:Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. 



past week has brought two patent manifestations of the persistent "peace" intrigue in which Germany is now engaged. One is the speech by the German Imperial Chancellor to the Main Committee of the Reichstag. The other is the publication in the Daily News of a long contribution made to the New York World by Mr. Herbert Bayard Swope. Of the two, Mr. Swope's effort is probably the more insidious.

It should never be forgotten that, when Germany speaks of "peace," she means a German peace, or in other words an Allied defeat. The chief purpose of her "peace" manifestations is to convince the Allies, or, rather, Allied public opinion, that she cannot be beaten, and to gain currency for the idea—which M. Chéradame rightly terms the "redoubtable German trap"—of a drawn war. When Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg discusses in detail the question whether or not the "premature " announcement of German mobilisation by a semi-official Berlin newspaper was contradicted by the Russian Ambassador in Berlin before it could affect Russian decisions, he is striving to deflect Allied attention from the main question of German responsibility for the war. His aim is to entangle Allied statesmen in a controversy to which there can be no convincing end. Germany will always be in a position to deny or to distort the facts or, on occasion, to invent new “ facts ” to suit her immediate purpose.

The real responsibility of Germany for the war lies not so much in her refusal to accept a European conference at