Page:The guilt of William Hohenzollern.djvu/52

 CHAPTER VII MATERIALS RELATING TO THE ORIGIN OF THE WAR

advocates of the German war-policy constantly lay stress on the point that the “Question of Guilt” ought not to be judged by the events that occurred immediately before the war, and that a “scientific” conception of the situation must reach farther back.

We have seen that by this argument nothing is gained for the German cause. This endeavour to divert investigation from the last weeks before the war, and direct it to earlier periods, merely implies that the events of those last weeks are even more incriminating than those which went before.

Then, however, the advocates of the late German Government, as a happy thought, hit upon a new scientific consideration. Where at first the scientific historian was told to look at things only in their wide connections, now he was told that all one-sided evidence was faulty. So long as all the secret archives of all nations were not laid open, and all the statesmen concerned were not heard as witnesses, it was impossible to form an opinion as to the origin of the war.

Yet those who allege considerations of this kind bear witness to their futility by their own practice, for immediately after the outbreak of the war they exerted themselves to prove that the Central Powers were attacked—nay, were taken by surprise by the Entente. Rh