s position, and with that resolution
already taken the Kaiser presented his photograph to a distinguished
Englishman with this significant remark written on it with his own hand:
"I bide my time!"

Although Britain drew the sword to defend Belgium, the supreme
issue--and the only one which occupies the German mind to-day--is
whether this country shall continue to hold the position allotted to her
by destiny and confirmed by history, or whether she is to be supplanted
by Germany. That is the one political thought which permeates German
intelligence at this moment, and no other considerations must be allowed
to darken this issue.

Professor Oncken reviews the events of the period 1900-1914 in
considerable detail, and to him the policy of _ententes_ appears to be
the main cause leading up to the world war. From this alone it is
obvious that, consciously or unconsciously, he is wrong; the _ententes_
in themselves are results, not prime causes. The prime causes leading to
these political agreements are to be found in Germany's attitude to the
rest of Europe. In a word they were defensive actions taken by the
Powers concerned, as a precaution against German aggression.

German aggression consisted in committing herself to unlimited
armaments, cherishing the irreconcilable determination to be the
strongest European power. According to her doctrine of might, everything
can be attained by the mightiest. British advances she answered with
battleships, simultaneously provoking France and Russia by increasing
her army corps. The balance of power in Europe, Germany declares to be
an out-of-date British fad, invented solely in the interests of these
islands.

In secret Germany has long been an apostate to the balance-of-power
theory; the war has caused her to drop the mask, and it was without
doubt her resolve never to submit to the chains of the balance in
Europe, which forced three other States to waive their differences and
form the Triple Entente. Simply stated this is cause and result. But
Professor Oncken maintains--and in doing so he voices German national
opinion--that the entire _entente_ policy was a huge scheme to bring
about Germany's downfall.

He goes further and proclaims that the Hague Conference (1907) was a
British trick to place the guilt of armaments on Germany's shoulders.
"England filled the world with disarmament projects so that afterwards,
full of unction, she could denounce Germany as the disturber of