nslated by the British Legation in
Stockholm--this is the official English translation--and sent
by the legation to Sir Edward Grey. THE NEW YORK TIMES CURRENT
HISTORY is informed from a trustworthy source that the article
is interpreted in London as expressing the real aims of
Germany at the end of the war, should that power be
successful. The founding of a commercial United States of
Europe by means of an economical organization with new
"buffer" States to be created between the German Empire and
Russia, and with the other smaller European States, would be,
according to this interpretation, the purpose of Germany at
the conclusion of a victorious war. The passage in the Berlin
correspondent's letter declaring that only such an enormous
central European customs union, in the opinion of leading
German statesmen, "could hold the United States of North
America at bay" in order that, after this present war, the
"world would only have to take into account two first-class
powers, viz., Germany and the United States of America," is of
peculiar interest to Americans.

BERLIN, Oct. 21.

Counting one's chickens before they are hatched is a pardonable failing
with nations carrying on war with the feeling that their all is at
stake. When sorrow is a guest of every household, when monetary losses
cause depression, and the cry arises time after time, "What will be the
outcome of all this?" then only the fairest illusions and the wildest
flights of fancy can sustain the courage of the masses.

These illusions are not only egotistical but, curiously enough,
altruistic, since mankind, even when bayoneting their fellow-creatures,
want to persuade themselves and others that this is done merely for the
benefit of their adversary. In accordance with this idea, in the opinion
of all parties, the war will be brought to an end with an increase of
power for their native country, as also a new Eden prevail throughout
the whole civilized world.

The enemies of Germany, though they have hitherto suffered an almost
unbroken series of reverses in the war, have already thoroughly thrashed
out the subject as to what the world will look like when Germany is
conquered. In German quarters the press has likewise painted the future,
but the following lines are not intended to increase the row of fancy
portraits, but merely to throw light on what is new in the de