Before the War | Page 7

what I myself
heard and saw, and that in consequence most of what follows is, for the
sake of accuracy, largely transcribed from my personal diaries and
records made at the time when the events to which they related took
place. So frequent an employment of the personal pronoun as has been
made in these pages would ordinarily be a blemish in taste, if not in
style also, but in this case it seemed safer not to try to avoid it.
Many things that happened in the years just before 1914, as well as the
events of the great war itself, are still too close to permit of our
studying them in their full context. But before much time has passed

the historians will have accumulated material that will overflow their
libraries, and their hands will remain occupied for generations to come.
At this moment all that safely can be attempted is that actual observers
should set down what they have themselves observed. For there has
rarely been a time when the juridical maxim that "hearsay is not
evidence" ought to be more sternly insisted on.
If I now venture to set down what follows in these pages, it is because I
had certain opportunities for forming a judgment at first hand for
myself. I am not referring to the circumstance that for a brief period I
once, long ago, lived the life of a student at a German University, or
that I was frequently in Germany in the years that followed. Nor do I
mean that I have tried to explore German habits of reflection, as they
may be studied in the literature of Germany. Other people have done all
these things more thoroughly and more extensively than I have. What I
do mean is that from the end of 1905 to the summer of 1912 I had
special chances for direct observation of quite another kind. During that
period I was Secretary of State for War in Great Britain, and from the
latter year to April, 1915, I was the holder of another office and a
member of the British Cabinet.
During the first of the above periods it fell to me to work out the
military organization that would be required to insure, as far as was
practicable, against risk, should those strenuous efforts fail into which
Sir Edward Grey, as he then was, had thrown his strength. He was
endeavoring with all his might to guard the peace of Europe from
danger. As he and I had for many years been on terms of close intimacy,
it was not unnatural that he should ask me to do what I could by
helping in some of the diplomatic work which was his, as well as by
engaging in my own special task. Indeed, the two phases of activity
could hardly be separable.
I was not in Germany after May, 1912, for the duties of Lord
Chancellor, on which office I then entered, made it unconstitutional for
me to leave the United Kingdom, save under such exceptional
conditions as were conceded by the King and the Cabinet when, in the
autumn of 1913, I made a brief yet memorable visit to the United States

and Canada. But in 1906, while War Minister, I paid, on the invitation
of the German Emperor, a visit to him at Berlin, to which city I went on
after previously staying with King Edward at Marienbad, where he and
the then Prime Minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, were resting.
While at Berlin I saw much of the Emperor, and I also saw certain of
his Ministers, notably Prince von Bülow, Herr von Tschirsky and
General von Einem, the first being at that time Chancellor, and the last
two being respectively the Foreign and War Ministers. I was invited to
examine for myself the organization of the German War Office, which
I wished to study for purposes of reform at home; and this I did in some
detail, in company with an expert adviser from my personal staff,
Colonel Ellison, my military private secretary, who accompanied me
on this journey.[1] There the authorities explained to us the general
nature of the organization for rapid mobilization which had been
developed under the great von Moltke, and subsequently carried farther.
The character of this organization was, in its general features, no secret
in Germany, altho it was somewhat unfamiliar in Anglo-Saxon
countries; and it interested my adviser and myself intensely.
At that time there was an active militarist party in Germany, which, of
course, was not wholly pleased at the friendly reception with which we
met from the Emperor and from crowds in the streets of Berlin. We
were well aware of the activity of this party. But it stood then
unmistakably for a minority, and I formed the