Page:The guilt of William Hohenzollern.djvu/42

38 allowed no doubt to prevail that Germany was determined under all circumstances to hold with Nibelung-faith to her alliance with Austria. The German sword was flung into the scales of European judgment, directly for the sake of our Austro-Hungarian ally, indirectly for the maintenance of European peace, and first of all and above all for the prestige of Germany and her position in the world.” (Page 60.)

So these were the methods by which the old régime sought to preserve peace: it never thought of restraining its ally from frivolous provocations, but only of throwing its sword into the scales. And by this, as well as by its sanction of a breach of treaty, it believed itself to be working for the prestige of Germany before the world!

Hashagen, in his little book “Outlines of World-Policy,” which appeared in the same year as Bülow's, writes in even more enthusiastic language:

"“For the confirmation of the alliance on both sides it is an inestimable advantage that the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina soon gave rise to so intense an international resentment, not only against Austria, but against Germany too. It was precisely this resentment which made the bond of relation of the two allies wholly indissoluble.” (II., p. 6.)"

Truly an ingenious policy, which saw, in the kindling of an intense international resentment against oneself, an inestimable advantage, for the precise reason that it bound Germany fast to the inwardly bankrupt State of Austria!