We thus arrive at "the real crime against Germany," which explains
everything but the thing it set out to explain. It leaves unexplained
the real crime against Europe.

To explain the causes of the war we must find the causes of the
alliances of England, France and Russia against Germany.

For the cause of the war is that alliance--that and nothing else. The
defence of the _Entente Cordiale_ is that it is an innocent pact of
friendship, designed only to meet the threat of the Triple Alliance.
But the answer to that is that whereas the Triple Alliance was formed
thirty years ago, it has never declared war on anyone, while the
_Triple Entente_ before it is eight years old has involved Europe,
America, Africa, and Asia in a world conflict. We must find the motive
for England allying herself with France and Russia in an admittedly
anti-German "understanding" if we would understand the causes of the
present war and why it is that many besides Bernard Shaw hold that
"after having done all in our power to render war inevitable" it was
idle for the British Government to assume a death-bed solicitude
for peace, having already dug its grave and cast aside the shovel
for the gun. When that motive is apparent we shall realise who it
was preferred war to peace and how impossible it is to hope for any
certain peace ensuing from the victory of those who ensured an appeal
to arms.

The _Entente Cordiale_, to begin with, is unnatural. There is nothing
in common between the parties to it, save antagonism to someone
else. It is wrongly named. It is founded not on predilections but on
prejudices--not on affection but on animosity. To put it crudely it is
a bond of hate not of love. None of the parties to it like or admire