However all this be, and it must be admitted that it is to a
degree speculative, there were in 1914 conditions existing that
appeared to render the time a suitable one for the seemingly
inevitable continental war. Revelations pointing to defects in
the French army, deficiencies of equipment and weaknesses in
artillery, had been made in the French Parliament. The debate
that occurred was fully dwelt upon in the German papers. And on
July 16th the organ of Berlin radicalism, the VOSSICHE ZEITUNG,
published a leading article to show that Russia was not prepared
for war, and never had been. As for France, it said: "A Gallic
cock with a lame wing is not the ideal set up by the Russians.
And when the Russian eagle boasts of being in the best of health
who is to believe him? Why should the French place greater
confidence in the inveterate Russian disorganization than in
their own defective organization?"

As regards the Kaiser's own estimate of his preparedness for war,
and the views of national polity he entertained, we shall let him
speak for himself in the following extracts from former
utterances:

"We will be everywhere victorious even if we are surrounded by
enemies on all sides and even if we have to fight superior
numbers, for our most powerful ally is God above, who, since the
time of the Great Elector and Great King, has always been on our
side." - At Berlin, March 29, 1901.

"I vowed never to strike for world mastery. The world empire that
I then dreamed of was to create for the German empire on all