onquered you, but in the interests of the
Empire."

For more than forty years Prussia has employed every means but
kindness to Germanise the conquered territory. But though she has
hushed every syllable of French in the elementary schools and
forced the children to learn the German language and history only;
though freedom of speech, liberty of the Press, rights of public
meeting, have been things unknown; though even the little children
playing at sand castles have been arrested and fined if in their
enthusiasm they raised a tiny French flag, or in the excitement of
their mock contest cried "Vive la France!"; though men and women
have been fined and thrown into prison for the most trifling
manifestations that they had not become enthusiastic for their
rulers across the Rhine; and though most of the men filling
Government positions--and they are legion--are Prussians, the
Alsatians preserve their individuality and remain uncowed.

Having failed in two score of years to absorb them by force,
Prussia during the war has sought by scientific methods carried to
any extreme to blot out for ever themselves and their spirit.

To do the German credit, I believe that he is sincere when he
believes that his rule would be a benefit to others and that he is
genuinely perplexed when he discovers that other people do not like
his regulations. The attitude which I have found in Germany
towards other nationalities was expressed by Treitschke when he
said, "We Germans know better what is good for Alsace than the
unhappy people themselves."

The German idea of how she should govern other people is an
anachronism. This idea, which I have heard voiced all over
Germany, was aptly set forth before the war by a speaker on "The
Decadence of the British Empire," when he sought to prove such
decadence by citing the fact that there was only one British
soldier to every 4,000 of the people of India. "Why," he
concluded, "Germany has more soldiers in Alsace-Lorraine alone than
Great Britain has in all India."

That is a bad spirit for the world, and it is a bad spirit for
Germany. She herself will receive one great blessing from the war
if it is hammered out of her.

CHAPTER XIX

THE WOMAN IN THE SHADOW

The handling of the always difficult question of the eternal
feminine was firmly tackled by the German Government almost
immediately after the outbreak of war.

To understand the differences between, the situation here and i