so long as the German
Government gives us no provocation. If we refrain from going to Kiel,
it is in order to maintain the peaceful condition of our relations.
Germany's chief interest is to lead Europe to believe that we have come
to accept the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, and to make the people of those
provinces believe that we have forgotten them.

The King of Prussia, German Emperor, just to keep his hand in,
stimulates the military virtues of his recruits, and for the hundredth
time presides over the taking of the oath of fidelity. He teaches the
recruits that the eagle is a noble bird, which soars aloft into the
skies and fears no danger; also, that it is the business of the said
recruits to imitate the eagle. He adds that the German navy is the
only real one, that all others are spurious imitations, and he
concludes by saying that "the German Navy will achieve prosperity and
greatness along paths of peace, for the good of the Fatherland, as it
will in war, so as to be able, if God will, to crush the enemy."
William II never speaks of conquering the enemy or being superior to
him; it is always "crush." It is this crushing German navy that our
sailors are to go and salute at Kiel.

It looks as if our artists were lending a hand to William, and
gratifying this passion of his for crushing people. An Alsatian friend
of mine, who knows his Germany well, said to me the other day that, in
sending their pictures for exhibition at Berlin, our painters are
likely to ruin their own market. For a long time the King of Prussia
has wanted to have a _salon_ at Berlin, and he looks to French painters
to give it brilliancy and to attract those foreign artists who are
accustomed to French exhibitions. Once it has become the fashion to go
to Berlin, French artists will find that they have helped to ruin their
own business. How can anybody suppose that William II really wishes to
do honour to French art? Do not let us forget that Frederick III said
"France must have her industrial Sedan, as she has had her military
Sedan."

March 28, 1895. [10]

It seems then, that Germany's proudest ambitions are about to be
realised at the fetes at Kiel. That patriotic hymn of theirs, which up
to the present has been a dead letter for those peoples who have not
yet been incorporated in the Prussianised Empire, will now become a
living thing. Henceforward all Europe must hear and accept the
offensive utterance which the Germans sho