d the question of neutral countries, for there was
no need for him to have recourse to the proverb, 'Necessity knows no
law.' With that proverb I cannot convince these who behold in the
existence of neutral States a triumph of the rights of man. That is why
it is a pity--for which it is hard indeed to make reparation--that the
German Empire should not have abstained altogether, at the very outset,
from the sin ... which it has committed against Belgium. Whoever accuses
my view of being unpatriotic I challenge, by whatever test he likes, to
show that he loves his Fatherland better than I do." (From a letter in
the _Nation_, November 28, 1914.)

Again, as early as December, 1914, at a meeting of the Socialist Party
in the Reichstag a resolution was proposed in favour of (_a_) the
evacuation of Belgium, and (_b_) the setting up of plebiscites in
Schleswig and Alsace-Lorraine to determine the future government of
those districts. It was defeated, but twenty four members voted for it.
(_Nation_, January 23, 1915.) To estimate the full value of this we
must try to envisage the state of mind of a nation at war. This is
notoriously difficult. We cannot picture our _own_ state of mind,
because it is obviously impossible at one and the same time to be
intensely moved and to picture this emotion without emotional bias. And
our bias renders us perhaps equally incapable of envisaging the mind of
the enemy. It will be necessary therefore somewhat wilfully to
exaggerate an analogy in order to see how Germans may feel. Let us
conceive, then, twenty-four members of the House of Commons proposing
(in the midst of the war) (_a_) the raising of all blockade restrictions
against neutrals, the evacuation of all neutral territories (whether
Grecian or Persian), and (_b_) the setting up of plebiscites in Ireland,
India and Egypt, to determine the future governments of those districts.
I can imagine somewhat heated or contemptuous treatment of this
comparison. Just so: the Germans are heated too, and they no longer see
clearly. And we must never forget that they have had long training in
obedience to government. There are not wanting English politicians who
would like to see similar training introduced here. It leads however to
the hypnotic response of which Colonel Maude has written interestingly
in his "War and the World's Life." The Government in Germany called for
the defence of the Fatherland, the Government declared the invasion of
Belgiu