Armageddon--And After | Page 6

the cruiser
Berlin, had been sent to Agadir. Clearly Berlin intended to reopen the
whole Moroccan question, and the tension between the Powers was for
some time acute. Nor did Mr. Lloyd George make it much better by a
fiery speech at the Mansion House on July 21, which considerably
fluttered the Continental dovecots. The immediate problem, however,
was solved by the cession of about one hundred thousand square miles
of territory in the Congo basin by France to Germany in compensation
for German acquiescence in the French protectorate over Morocco. I
need not, perhaps, refer to other more recent events. One point,
however, must not be omitted. The issue of the Balkan wars in 1912
caused a distinct disappointment to both Germany and Austria.
Turkey's defeat lessened the importance of the Ottoman Empire as an
ally. Austria had to curb her desires in the direction of Salonica. And
the enemies who had prevented the realisation of wide Teutonic
schemes were Servia and her protector, Russia. From this time onwards
Austria waited for an opportunity to avenge herself on Servia, while
Germany, in close union with her ally, began to study the situation in
relation to the Great Northern Empire in an eminently bellicose spirit.
MILITARISM
Now that we have the proper standpoint from which to watch the
general tendency of events like these, we can form some estimate of the
nature of German ambition and the results of the personal ascendancy
of the Kaiser. We speak vaguely of militarism. Fortunately, we have a
very valuable document to enable us to understand what precisely
German militarism signifies. General von Bernhardi's Germany and the
Next War is one of the most interesting, as well as most suggestive, of
books, intended to illustrate the spirit of German ambition. Bernhardi

writes like a soldier. Such philosophy as he possesses he has taken
from Nietzsche. His applications of history come from Treitschke. He
has persuaded himself that the main object of human life is war, and the
higher the nation the more persistently must it pursue preparations for
war. Hence the best men in the State are the fighting men. Ethics and
religion, so far as they deprecate fighting and plead for peace, are
absolutely pernicious. Culture does not mean, as we hoped and thought,
the best development of scientific and artistic enlightenment, but
merely an all-absorbing will-power, an all-devouring ambition to be on
the top and to crush every one else. The assumption throughout is that
the German is the highest specimen of humanity. Germany is especially
qualified to be the leader, and the only way in which it can become the
leader is to have such overwhelming military power that no one has any
chance of resisting. Moreover, all methods are justified in the sacred
cause of German culture--duplicity, violence, the deliberate sowing of
dissensions between possible rivals, incitements of Asiatics to rise
against Europeans. All means are to be adopted to win the ultimate
great victory, and, of course, when the struggle comes there must be no
misplaced leniency to any of the inferior races who interpose between
Germany and her legitimate place in the sun.[3] The ideal is almost too
naïve and too ferocious to be conceived by ordinary minds. Yet here it
all stands in black and white. According to Bernhardi's volume German
militarism means at least two things. First the suppression of every
other nationality except the German; second the suppression of the
whole civilian element in the population under the heel of the German
drill-sergeant. Is it any wonder that the recent war has been conducted
by Berlin with such appalling barbarism and ferocity?
[3] Germany and the Next War, by F. von Bernhardi. See especially
Chap. V, "World-Power or Downfall." Other works which may be
consulted are Professor J.A. Cramb's Germany and England (esp. pp.
111-112) and Professor Usher's _Pan-Germanism_.
THE EVILS OF AUTOCRACY
Our inquiry so far has led to two conclusions. We have discovered by
bitter experience that a personal ascendancy, such as the German

Emperor wields, is in the highest degree perilous to the interests of
peace: and that a militarism such as that which holds in its thrall the
German Empire is an open menace to intellectual culture and to
Christian ethics. But we must not suppose that these conclusions are
only true so far as they apply to the Teutonic race, and that the same
phenomena observed elsewhere are comparatively innocuous. Alas!
autocracy in any and every country seems to be inimical to the best and
highest of social needs, and militarism, wherever found, is the enemy
of pacific social development. Let us take a few instances at haphazard
of the danger of the personal factor in European politics. There is
hardly a person to be found nowadays who defends the Crimean war,