and their duty. They tell us that the German army, is in good order, that
the Russian army has not completed its organization, that it would be a
good moment ... but for twenty years they have been saying the same thing,"
The passage is significant. It shows us exactly what it is we have to dread
in "militarism." The danger in a military State is always that when a
crisis comes the soldiers will get control, as they seem to have done on
this occasion. From their point of view there was good reason. They knew
that France and Russia, on a common understanding, were making enormous
military preparations; they knew that these preparations would mature by
the beginning of 1917; they knew that Germany would fight then at a less
advantage; they believed she would then have to fight, and they said,
"Better fight now." The following dispatch of Baron Beyens, dated July
26th, may probably be taken as fairly representing their attitude:--

To justify these conclusions I must remind you of the opinion which
prevails in the German General Staff, that war with France and Russia is
unavoidable and near, an _opinion which the Emperor has been induced to
share_. Such a war, ardently desired by the military and Pangerman party,
might be undertaken to-day, as this party think, in circumstances which
are extremely favourable to Germany, and which probably will not again
present themselves for some time. Germany has finished the strengthening
of her army which was decreed by the law of 1912, and, on the other hand,
she feels that she cannot carry on indefinitely a race in armaments
with Russia and France which would end by her ruin. The Wehrbeitrag
has been a disappointment for the Imperial Government, to whom it has
demonstrated the limits of the national wealth. Russia has made the
mistake of making a display of her strength before having finished her
military reorganization. That strength will not be formidable for several
years: at the present moment it lacks the railway lines necessary for its
deployment. As to France, M. Charles Humbert has revealed her deficiency