Page:The guilt of William Hohenzollern.djvu/259

Rh statement that was neither interesting nor even intelligible in Morocco to some other dog of an unbeliever; but the Germans formed that conclusion and spent money on it.”

Unfortunately, they lost thereby not only money, but also their good name, for they did not confine themselves to circulating leaflets among the enemy; they also utilized the protection of the ex-territorial privilege of their diplomatic and consular representatives with the neutrals, to instigate outrages of the most varied description on the lives and property of the enemy civilian population.

Success they had none, except in the East. As the German policy of involving her adversaries in her own ruin attained the desired aim only in Russia, so it was there alone they attained their purpose of bringing about a revolution. Both aims were very closely connected, and the downfall of Tsarism would have followed the Russian military collapse even without the promotion of Bolshevism by the German Government.

The narrowness of the German policy again appears in this, that in the endeavour to burn down its neighbour's house it did not observe that it was setting fire to its own.

It cherished the superstition which, to be sure, it had in common with many adherents of world-revolution, that revolutions could be called forth, as desired, by skilful and stirring emissaries who had the necessary funds at disposal. To this it added the further superstition that the spirits one invoked might be commanded at pleasure, and put back in the corner after they had done their duty.

It was incredibly shortsighted of a German