9. _Opinion about Germany_.


After the crisis of Agadir, M. Georges Bourdon visited Germany to make an
inquiry for the _Figaro_ newspaper into the state of opinion there. His
mission belongs to the period between Agadir and the outbreak of the first
Balkan war. He interviewed a large number of people, statesmen, publicists,
professors, politicians. He does not sum up his impressions, and such
summary as I can give here is no doubt affected by the emphasis of my
own mind. His book,[1] however, is now translated into English, and the
reader has the opportunity of correcting the impression I give him.

Let us begin with Pangermanism, on which M. Bourdon has a very interesting
chapter. He feels for the propaganda of that sect the repulsion that must
be felt by every sane and liberal-minded man:--

Wretched, choleric Pangermans, exasperated and unbalanced, brothers
of all the exasperated, wretched windbags whose tirades, in all
countries, answer to yours, and whom you are wrong to count your
enemies! Pangermans of the Spree and the Main, who, on the other side
of the frontier, receive the fraternal effusions of Russian Pan-Slavism,
Italian irredentism, English imperialism, French nationalism! What is it
that you want?

They want, he replies, part of Austria, Switzerland, Flanders, Luxemburg,
Denmark, Holland, for all these are "Germanic" countries! They want
colonies. They want a bigger army and a bigger navy. "An execrable race,
these Pangermans!" "They have the yellow skin, the dry mouth, the green
complexion of the bilious. They do not live under the sky, they avoid the
light. Hidden in their cellars, they pore over treaties, cite newspaper