Page:The guilt of William Hohenzollern.djvu/16

12 for the most part, less opportunity than I to work carefully through the huge mass of material.

Thus it was that the present volume took shape. In its essential features it has been ready for months. I have, however, continually delayed its publication, a proceeding also demanded by the constant necessity for working-in and dealing with new materials which cropped up, especially in the German White Book of June, and the publications of Dr. Gooss.

It cost me much self-denial not to bring out my work in view of the flood of revelations about the war which were poured forth during the past few months. It was not easy to be silent where I had so much to say.

In view of the constant delays of the Government, I should have felt myself justified in letting my book appear even before the publication of the documents, the collection of which had been so long completed.

Since I laid down my post as Collateral Secretary, I had not worked in the archives of the Foreign Office as one of its officials, but as an independent historian. As proof of this, I may observe that since that date I have received no salary or remuneration of any kind.

An historian who makes use of archives owes no account to any superior authority of the use he may make of the fruits of his labours.

If, in spite of all this, I kept silence, it was not due to any juristic but rather to political considerations. The whole political advantage which might accrue to the German people in the eyes of its former enemies through the publication of these documents was only to be looked for if they were published by, not against, the Government. No doubt, in the last resort, the publication would have had to take place, even in the latter case. The situation of our internal politics would