s ready._

"As I said, this demands qualities of secrecy, discipline and of
persistence; enthusiasm alone is not sufficient. This lesson may
form a useful subject of meditation when the Government of the
[French] Republic ask Parliament for the means of strengthening
the defenses of the country."

On July 30, 1913, M. Pichon, French Minister for Foreign Affairs,
made an official report on the state of German public opinion, as
derived from French diplomatic and consular agents. It said that:

"1. The treaty of November 4, 1912, is considered a
disappointment for Germany.

"2. France--a new France--undreamed of prior to the summer of
1911, is considered ... to want war.

"Members of all the parties in the Reichstag, from the
Conservatives to the Socialists [and of all classes of the
people] are unanimous on these two points, with very slight
differences corresponding to their position in society or their
political party. Here is a synthesis of all these opinions:

"The treaty of November 4 is a diplomatic defeat, a proof of the
incapacity of German diplomacy and the carelessness of the
Government (so often denounced), a proof that the future of the
empire is not safe without a new Bismarck; it is a national
humiliation, a lowering in the eyes of Europe, a blow to German
prestige, all the more serious because up to 1911 the military
supremacy of Germany was unchallenged, and French anarchy and the
powerlessness of the Republic were a sort of German dogma....

"And the attitude of France, her calmness, her reborn spiritual
unity, her resolution to make good her rights right up to the
end, the fact that she has the audacity not to be afraid of war,
these things are the most persistent and the gravest cause of
anxiety and bad temper on the part of German public opinion....

"German public opinion is divided into two currents on the
question of the possibility and proximity of war.

"There are in the country forces making for peace, but they are
unorganized and have no popular leaders. They consider that war
would be a social misfortune for Germany, and that caste pride,
Prussian domination, and the manufacturers of guns and armor
plate would get the greatest benefit, but above all that war
would profit Great Britain.

"The forces consis