natic, speaking of the three years'
service in France, went so far as to say: 'It is a provocation;
we will not allow it.' More moderate persons, military and civil,
glibly voice the opinion that France with her 40,000,000
inhabitants has no right to compete in this way with Germany.

"To sum up, people are angry, and this anger is not caused by the
shrieking of certain French papers, to which sober-minded people
pay little attention. It is a case of vexation. People are angry
at realizing that in spite of the enormous effort made last year,
continued and even increased this year, it will probably not be
possible this time to outrun France completely.

"To outdistance us, since we neither will nor can be allied with
her, is Germany's real aim....

"At the moment when German military strength is on the point of
acquiring that final superiority which, should the occasion
arise, would force us to submit to humiliation or destruction,
France suddenly refuses to abdicate, and shows, as Renan said:
'her eternal power of renaissance and resurrection.' The disgust
of Germany can well be understood.

"Of course the Government points to the general situation in
Europe and speaks of the 'Slav Peril.' As far as I can see,
however, public opinion really seems indifferent to this
'Peril,' and yet it has accepted with a good grace, if not with
welcome, the enormous burdens of these two successive laws....

"To sum up, if public opinion does not actually point at France,
as does the 'Koelnische Zeitung,' we are in fact, and shall long
remain the nation aimed at. Germany considers that for our
40,000,000 of inhabitants our place in the sun is really too
large.

"Germans wish for peace--so they keep on proclaiming, and the
emperor more than anyone--but they do not understand peace as
involving either mutual concessions or a balance of armaments.
They want to be feared and they are at present engaged in making
the necessary sacrifices. If on some occasion their national
vanity is wounded, the confidence which the country will feel in
the enormous superiority of its army will be favorable to an
explosion of national anger, in the face of which the moderation
of the Imperial Government will perhaps be powerless.

"It must be emphasized again that