Page:The guilt of William Hohenzollern.djvu/271

Rh indications had guessed the truth were cut off during the war from every possibility of criticizing events and of enlightening the masses.

But have no other Governments prepared misleading statements concerning the outbreak of the war?

It is not impossible that they have. In Bismarck's well-known phrase, never are so many lies told as before a war, during an election, and after a shoot. And the Tsarist régime has never been exactly regarded as fanatically devoted to the truth. But in 1914 the Governments of the Entente had no reason so to dupe the nations as had those of the Central Powers. For neither France, England, or Russia at that time wanted war, but dreaded it, and justly so, in view of their internal difficulties and inadequate armaments.

In addition, the period of war preparation, which might necessitate untruths and concealment, did not begin for Germany's opponents until July 24th, when they learned of the Austrian Ultimatum, which was the first indication of the danger of war. For the Central Powers the period of concealment, silence, misrepresentation, began already on July 5th. In the period from July 5th to July 23rd, they created, completely undisturbed by foreign countries and without any impelling reason, that groundwork of mendacity upon which the whole conduct of the war was built up.

One can render no greater service to the German people than to expose the lies that led them astray. By this means they are morally exculpated in every respect in the eyes of all the world.

The moral exculpation is, however, counterbalanced by political incrimination.

Misled by the statesmen of the Hohenzollerns and the Habsburgs, the German people were made the