influential writers as
Nietzsche, von Treitschke, von Buelow, and von Bernhardi, and has
received widespread support from the press and from public opinion in
Germany. This has not occurred, and in our judgment would scarcely be
possible, in any other civilized country. We must also remark that it is
German armies alone which have, at the present time, deliberately
destroyed or bombarded such monuments of human culture as the Library at
Louvain and the Cathedrals at Rheims and Malines.

*The Diplomatic Papers.*

No doubt it is hard for human beings to weigh justly their country's
quarrels; perhaps particularly hard for Germans, who have been reared in
an atmosphere of devotion to their Kaiser and his army; who are feeling
acutely at the present hour, and who live under a Government which, we
believe, does not allow them to know the truth. Yet it is the duty of
learned men to make sure of their facts. The German "White Book"
contains only some scanty and carefully explained selections from the
diplomatic correspondence which preceded this war. And we venture to
hope that our German colleagues will sooner or later do their best to
get access to the full correspondence, and will form therefrom an
independent judgment.

They will then see that, from the issue of the Austrian note to Servia
onward, Great Britain, whom they accuse of causing this war, strove
incessantly for peace, Her successive proposals were supported by
France, Russia, and Italy, but, unfortunately, not by the one power
which could by a single word at Vienna have made peace certain. Germany,
in her own official defense--incomplete as that document is--does not
pretend that she strove for peace; she only strove for "the localization
of the conflict." She claimed that Austria should be left free to
"chastise" Servia in whatever way she chose. At most she proposed that
Austria should not annex a portion of Servian territory--a futile
provision, since the execution of Austria's demand would have made the
whole of Servia subject to her will.

Great Britain, like the rest of Europe, recognized that, whatever just
grounds of complaint Austria may have had, the unprecedented terms of
her note to Servia constituted a challenge to Russia and a provocation
to war. The Austrian Emperor in his proclamation admitted that war was
likely to ensue. The German "White Book" states in so many words: "We
were perfectly aware that a possible warlike attitude of Austria-Hu