The Schemes of the Kaiser Part 13

What say you, men of Alsace-Lorraine, heroes all? (No matter whether, like some, you have sacrificed situation, home and your little fatherland, so as not to forsake the greater, or, like others, you have consented to become Prussians in order that the land you worship may remain in hands that are still French.) What say you, when our dreadful defeat, our piled-up ruin, and the spoliation of a portion of France, become for a German official organ our _former differences_?

What words are these in which to speak of 1870-71, of that unforgettable and tragic invasion, of the terrible anguish of our ravished provinces, and what a proof they afford of the great gulf which separates the mind of Germany from that of France!

September 26, 1894.

The German Emperor does not forget that he is before all things a Prussian. Having administered a reprimand to the n.o.bility, he proceeds to give to the five new fortresses at Konigsberg, the five greatest family names of the Prussian n.o.bility.

At Thorn he declared--

"Only they can count upon my royal favour who shall regard themselves as absolutely and entirely Prussian subjects." The Germans have not yet realised that the German Empire will be Prussian, before ever Prussia consents to lose herself in a united Germany.

October 28, 1894.

The German Emperor, King of Prussia, with that love of peace for which even Frenchmen are pleased to praise him, is now chiefly occupied in displaying his pa.s.sion for militarism. In the case of William II, it will be necessary to modify a hallowed phrase, and to say to him: "Seeing you in uniform, I guessed that you were no soldier."

The Emperor, King of Prussia, insists on continually reminding the German peoples that he is the commander-in-chief of the armies of the Empire, and he never misses an opportunity of emphasising the fact. At the presentation of flags to the 132 new battalions created by the new military law, (and doubtless with a view to peace, as usual) the Emperor with his own hand hammered 132 nails, fixing the standards to their flag-staffs. This sort of thing fills me with admiration, and if it were not for my stupid obstinacy, it might convert me to share the opinion of M. Jules Simon, who holds that we should entertain the King of Prussia at the Exhibition in 1900, and welcome him as the great _clou_[6] on that occasion. But I should not jest about those feelings which transcend all others in the heart of the French people. Germany owes us Alsace-Lorraine; she has every interest in trying to make us forget the debt. What would one think of a creditor who allowed the debtor to persuade him that the debt no longer existed? A nation which reserves its rights against the victor, and maintains its claims to conquered territory, may be despoiled but is not vanquished. Would Italy have recovered Lombardy and Venice had she not unceasingly protested against the Austrian occupation? Excessive politeness towards those who have inflicted upon us the unforgettable outrage of defeat is not a sign of good manners, but of culpable weakness, for it inflicts suffering upon those who have to put up with the material consequences of Germany's conquest, and might end in separating them from their old and unforgotten mother country.

When William II conducted the Prince of Naples to Metz he was only acting in accordance with his usual ideas as an insolent conqueror.

But if we were to receive the German Emperor at the Exhibition of 1900--if at that time he is still master of Alsace-Lorraine--we should be committing the base act of a people defeated beyond all hope of recovery.

December 12, 1894. [7]

As day by day one follows the proceedings of William II, one gradually experiences a feeling of weariness and of numbness, such as one gets from watching the spectacle of waves in motion.

Before his speech from the throne, and in order to prepare his public for a surprise, William II had directed the King of Saxony, on the occasion of a presentation of standards, to tell France to her face that she had better behave, that the Saxon heroes of 1870 had sons worthy of them, and that the glorious, triumphant march from Metz to Paris might very easily begin all over again. Whereupon, general alarm and feverish expectation of the speech of William II, which of course, turned out to be pacific. The following sentence should suffice to prove it:

"Our confidence in the maintenance of peace has again been strengthened. Faithful to the spirit of our alliances, we maintain good and friendly relations with all the powers."

One can discern, however, a little trumpet note (of which he would not lose the habit), in the speech which he made at the opening of the new Reichstag building, whose construction was begun at the time of the Prussian victories: "May this building remind them (the deputies) that it is their duty to watch over that which their fathers have conquered." But this is a pure and simple melody compared to the war-march of the Saxons.

January 12, 1885. [8]

William II, in search of a social position, has become lecturer. At his first lecture, he announced to the whole world that our commercial marine no longer holds the second place, that this second place belongs to Germany, and it is now necessary that Germany's Navy should also take our place. And in his usual chameleon way, the German Emperor, who until quite recently refused to admit that there lay any merit whatsoever in the Bismarckian policy, now adds: "And Prince Bismarck may rejoice, for the policy which he introduced has triumphed."

March 12, 1895. [9]

On a certain day, in 1871, the defenders of Paris and its patriotic inhabitants learned from the silence of our guns, that the Prussian enemy's victory over them was complete. And now it seems we are going to Kiel, to take part in the triumphant procession of H.M. William II, King of Prussia, and to add the glory of our flag to the brilliant inauguration of his strategic waterway. Why should we go to Kiel? Who wanted our government to go there? n.o.body, either in France or Russia.

The great Tzars are too jealous of the integrity of their own splendid territory, to refuse to allow that a nation should remember its lost provinces. We were indignant when the Prince Royal of Italy, the ally of Germany, went to take part in the German military cavalcades, and now we ourselves, whom Prussia defeated, are going, in the train of the despoiler of Schleswig-Holstein, to a.s.sist at the opening of a ca.n.a.l, which penetrates and bleeds Danish provinces, annexed by the same conqueror who took from us Alsace-Lorraine. Will Denmark, whom William II has had the audacity to invite, go to Kiel? No, a thousand times no! and neither should we go there ourselves, to applaud this taking possession of Danish waters. Denmark, though invited, will not go to Kiel; yet we know what are the ties which bind her Sovereigns to Russia. It has been said, in order to rea.s.sure consciences that are easily quieted, that our war-ships will go to Kiel sheltered by those of Russia, and, so to speak, hidden beneath their shadow. Our dignity is at stake, as much in the truth as in the falsehood of this news.

The French Government is not a monarchy. By declining this invitation of our conquerors, it would have placed the whole question on its proper footing, which should be that of the situation created by the Treaty of Frankfort. We should have said to Germany, France desires peace. Our Chauvinists will remain quiet, 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 n.o.ble 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 G.o.d 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 pa.s.sion 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 shout: "Deutschland uber Alles!"

Yes, Germany over all things.

That her Emperor should have willed it, is enough to bring together in his triumphant procession all the following--

Russia, despoiled of her triumph at Constantinople by the Congress of Berlin, and exposed on her flank by the Baltic Ca.n.a.l.

England, tricked at Heligoland and at Zanzibar, and whose power is threatened by the very fleet which she is going to salute.

Spain, threatened in the Carolines, who has only been protected from Prussian presumption by her own indomitable pride.

Denmark, cynically robbed of Schleswig-Holstein.

Italy, from whom the German navy, when it has become the equal of the German army and fulfilled the dream of William II, will take Trieste.

It is true that, to make up for Trieste, diplomacy at Berlin is putting Salonika in pickle with a good deal of English pepper, intending to offer it as a _hors d'oeuvre_ to Austria, Germany's advanced and submissive sentinel in the East.

France, the most deeply injured and despoiled, whom the German conquest has plundered to the utmost, she also will take part in the procession, and in order that our humiliation be the more complete, so that the French army may be unable to forgive the French navy for it, our Flag, our beloved colours, will doubtless salute one of those Prussian vessels which carry the name of one of our defeats, for instance, the _Worth_!

After that, William II, King of Prussia, will be unable to descry a single cloud on the German horizon. And Germany, Germany will be above and over all! The glory and the splendour of the Hohenzollerns will shine upon the entire universe, and the German Emperor, Emperor of Emperors, like the King of Kings, will have nothing to fear until the Heavens fall.

And we, who have forgotten nothing of the Terrible Year and what it took from us, we, who can see under the left breast of our beloved France, her bleeding heart, ravished Alsace-Lorraine, we shall lift our eyes unto Heaven, our last hope, beseeching it to strike down the presumptuous one, since men are afraid of him.

April 10, 1895. [11]

It has always been a dream of mine to see a newspaper founded under the t.i.tle _Foreign Opinion_, a sheet confined to information, in which would be presented, clearly, simply, and held together by an intelligent sequence of ideas, quotations from the princ.i.p.al organs of those countries in which we have interests, either identical or opposed. Statesmen and Members of Parliament would be compelled to read such a paper. A knowledge of foreign opinion would render the greatest services to public opinion in this country, for it would compel our somewhat self-centred mind to take into consideration the judgment of others, to determine the justice or the harshness of the criticism directed against us, and to draw, from the study of these things, warnings and rules of conduct.

To take an immediate instance, let me give my readers an extract from the _Munchner Nachtrichten_, a newspaper, which as a rule does not share the brutal harshness of the Berlin Press with regard to our feelings and their expression in French newspapers--

"These foolishly vain Frenchmen, sitting in their meagre little thicket of laurels, contemplate with evident displeasure the stirring of the winds in the great forest of German oaks, and their discontent finds expression in ways that are frequently comical. The _Figaro_ for example, has expressed it in an article which is particularly silly (with a kind of foolishness not often found even in a French newspaper, which is saying a good deal). It denies to Germans the right to remember the glorious years of 1870 and '71, for the reason that French people might thereby be hurt. Does it mean to say that the French would threaten us with war if we continue to celebrate our victories over them? Well, if these gentlemen are of that opinion, we will answer them that Germany is peacefully inclined, but that, if the French are not satisfied with the severe lesson that we gave them in 1870-71, we are quite prepared to begin it all over again."

And these are the people, mind you, who would have said that we were trying to provoke them if, faithful to the memory of our defeat, as they are to the memory of their victory, we had abstained from going to Kiel to sing the glories of the conqueror. Like William II, their Sovereign and Lord, Germany will never admit that our actions should be a counterpart to their own, even though such actions should include recognition of their former victories. They wish to impose upon us, not only the acceptance of defeat, but a definite recognition of their conquest, a final sacrifice of our ancient rights, together with unlimited scope for their new ambitions. The German Emperor, King of Prussia, has never made two consecutive speeches in which one did not contain some threat for us, long or short-dated. If one were to add together all the words of peace which William has spoken and all his war-like utterances, the ma.s.s of the latter would irretrievably swamp all the rest.