The German glories in being a realist. He thinks only
of political power and colonial expansion. Might is the supreme test
of right. He constantly emphasizes the indelible character of the
German race. Germans are suffering from "acute megalomania." They
think the English decadent, the French doomed to premature extinction,
the Russians "rotten." Germany is the "reactionary force in
international politics."

England believes the building of the German Navy is mainly directed
against her, though Germany says she is building to protect her
colonies and commerce. Yet it is not reasonably possible so to account
for the German fleet.

The greatest danger to England is not invasion of the British Isles,
but invasion of Belgium and France. These countries are the "Achilles
heel of the British Empire." The German strategic railways on the
Belgian frontiers show that Germany is far more likely to invade
Belgium than England, Belgium again becoming the cockpit of Europe.

Germany feels that she has grievances against England; thus her
hatred. She thinks England has checked her commercial expansion. But
this is not true, for English Free Trade has been one of the most
important contributory causes of German prosperity.

Germany thinks England has arrested her colonial expansion; Germany
says every other great nation but herself has been permitted to build
up a colonial empire; thus she is prevented from attaining her natural
growth. But this is not true. England could not have checked her
colonial aspirations, because Germany had no colonial aspirations
until recently. When Germany did start to seek colonies, she met
everywhere conflicting claims of England, but this was because England
was already in possession, having begun her colonial policy years
before Germany entered the race. Bismarck was largely responsible for
Germany's now having so small a colonial territory.

Germany thinks she has another grievance--that England has hemmed her
in with a ring of enemies. But Germany is friendless because of her
mistakes. Bismarck alienated the Russians for ever in 1878 at the
Treaty of Berlin, making a Franco-Russian understanding unavoidable.
The Kruger telegram of 1896, the outburst of anti-British feeling
during the Boer War, the German naval programme, opened England's eyes
to her danger; thus was England forced to seek France and Russia.

The Kaiser is intensely religious, claiming to be "the anointed of the
Lord." Yet he