The Daily News. FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1915. GERMANY'S TRAGEDY OF PRIDE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 192, 22 January 1915, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1915. GERMANY'S TRAGEDY OF PRIDE.

The recent publication of a French Yellow Book throws additional light on the events which led up to the declaration of Avar. Like the British White Paper, it presents the case against Germany, and a very formidable case it is; but it is also a survey of the European situation in which the elements of the tragedy—personal, economic, national, racial —appear in tlieir sequence and relationships, and with the ultimate meaning that their author attaches to them. It is made perfectly clear in this reliable document that France, with greater direct influence on Russia, was a strenuous and persistent advocate at Petrograd for methods of appeasement, while recommending Servia counsels of prudence. Russia was even asked to take no steps giving Germany a pretext for mobilisation, and the request was honorably observed. It is worthy of note that Russia mobilised after Austria, and even then did not mobilise on the German frontier, but consented to maintain a waiting attitude, while the Rus-so-Austrian "conversations" proceeded. But in the hour when the Kaiser broke in 011 those conversations of his ally, and on Russia's acceptance of them, with <m ultimatum to the Tiar to disarm or go to war within twelve hours, lie also turned on France, with whom he had no direct dispute and alleged none, but on whose frontier German troops had been massed for some time. It is impossible to glean from the Yellow Bookthat Germany made a single positive contribution to the settlement of the Austro-Servian quarrel, nor was it hor intention to do so for she was really for war, and only awaiting the best moment to strike. It is on the moral preparation made in Germany for the opening of a period of offensive war th'it the French compilation lays stress. Apparently the first glimpse of the coming storm was afforded in March, 1913, when an anonymous military document was sent to Paris, apparently from Germany. Fully envisaging war with the Triple Entente, the author advises a wide countervailing scheme of world embroilment. Troubles and disturbances were to be incited in Egypt, Morocco, and Russia. The small European States were to be forced, and if recalcitrant, absorbed, and the guarantee of Belgian security withdrawn. Fear of Russia, the pride of wealth, and exaggerated anger at the small rebuff of 11)11, swelled the tide of German militarism into an irresistible torrent, incidentally drawing the Kaiser along with it. The Universities created a warlike ideology. The economists stressed the need for a new colonial and commercial dominion. The apostles of German "culture" dreamed of forcing on the world the specifically German way of feeling and thinking, and the exaltation of the German spirit inevitably bred contempt for its rivals. France was to be thrust aside and done with;. Russia was accounted as alow and devoid of energy, and though there ivas a dread of the British fleet, it was not considered that it could avert a great German victory on land. That was wlien Germany made her one great and irretrievable error for which to-day, now that her eyes have been opened by a painful and costly process, she must bitterly lament, with the almost certain prospect of having to bite the dust. It is, therefore, only fair to conclude that from such wayward elements as these was shaped the German tragedy of pride. Autocratic Germany has become the enemy of European civilisation. Her boundless (!elf-confidcnce, and belief in the supreme virtues of her military power, while giving her immense force from within, has alarmed and estranged the rival European strains of race and polity. To them it appears incompatible W'ith the- existence of small peoples and with the gradual building up of a rule of pesce, toleration and mutual sustenance among the great.