ibution levied on capital. Small fortunes
would be exempted and those above 20,000 marks would be subject
to a progressive tax. Presented in this guise the war tax would
not be objected to by the Socialists, who will be able, in
accordance with their usual tactics, to reject the principle of
the military law and at the same time to pass the votes which
assure its being carried into effect."

The attache then discusses a subject already mentioned--the
persuasion of the rich and bourgeois classes by the Government to
submit to the increased taxation by "noisy celebrations of the
centenary of the War of Independence" in order to convince them of
the necessity of sacrifice, and to remind them that France is
to-day, as 100 years ago, their hereditary enemy.

"If it is established that the German Government are doing their
utmost to secure that the payment of this enormous tax should be
made in full, and not by way of installment, and if, as some of
the newspapers say, the whole payment is to be complete before
July 1, 1914, these facts have a formidable significance for us,
for nothing can explain such haste on the part of the military
authorities to obtain war treasure in cash to the amount of a
milliard."

On April 2, 1913, M. Etienne, French Minister of War, wrote to M.
Jonnart, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, enclosing a German
official secret report concerning strengthening of the army. This
report is interesting in that it mentions knowledge that, as a
result of her entente with France and Russia, Great Britain was
prepared to send an expeditionary force of 100,000 to the Continent,
and confesses that Germany refrained from declaring war on France at
the time of the Agadir incident because of "the progress made by the
French army, the moral recovery of the nation, and the technical
advance in the realm of aviation and of machine guns."

"Public opinion is being prepared for a new increase in the
active army, which would ensure Germany an honorable peace and
the possibility of properly ensuring her influence in the affairs
of the world. The new army law and the supplementary law which
should follow will enable her almost completely to attain this
end....

"Neither ridiculous shriekings for revenge by French chauvinists,
nor the Englishmen's gnashing of teeth, nor the wild gestures of
the Slavs wi