Great Falls tribune., 1921-10-21

er than she is, it must be that she
desires war;
| How Ludendorff Reported
| Ludendorff. then a colonel, draws
up a report on the methods to be pur-
sued in arousing national enthusiasm
and shifting the responsibilities. He
writes:
The people must be made to be-
! lieve that our ornaments are an
answer to the ornaments and to the
policy of France. They must be ac-
customed to the thought that an ag-
gressive war by us is necessary to
I 4 ct the provocations of our enemies.
we must act with prudence to awaken
no suspicion
Moltke, assuming humanitarian aris
| deplores the reigning spirit Of unrest
| and says to the king Of the Belgians
| that ''it must be put an end to. -
Put an end to And this is how ac-
cording to Ludendorffs reportt:
In the next European war, the
| small nations must be forced to follow
| us or they must be crushed.
Under certain conditions their arm
les and their iorrresses can be rapidly
reduced or neutralized-which would
| probably be the case with Belgium and
/
in the west from territories which could
be used as base for operations against
our flank.
This will be a vital question for
us. Our aim must always be to take
the offensive with greatly superior
forces from the very start.
I'm order to do so. we shall have to
concentrate a great army, followed by
strong formations of landwehr which
would force the armies of the small ma
tiOns to follow us or remain inactive in
the theater Of war--or would crush
them is case of armed resistance"
Others Are in Secret
not alone in the secret of this agrees
sive plan. The governments of the
German states are informed that
France is to be attacked through Bel
GUM. The Bavarian legation at fer-
lin, in a report which Kurt Eisner
made public, wrote:
Germany cannot respect Belgian
neutrality. The chief of the general
staff has declared that even English
neutrality would be too high a price to
pay for respecting that of Belgium
For an offensive war against France
is possible only through Belgium
The plan decided upon and the sword
ready. there remains only an oppor-
tunity to find. The assassination of the
Archduke Franz Ferdinand furnishes
it; and less than five weeks will suf-
flee to bring about the explosion.
Everything is ready and in it's place:
everything is prepared so that no pos
sibility of nverting war remains. Here
again we have German proofs to pre-
sent in the opening pages of this book
on France and peace. Not forgetting
the kaiser's letter to his chancellor of
July %, 1914, in which William II de-
mands the occupation of Belgrade by
Austria Hungary-war with Russia in
other words-here is Holl-
wegs note of August 3 in which he
says:
HolIweg's Confession.
I'VE were aware that the eventual
acts of hostility by Austria against
Serbia might bring Russia ON the scene
and drag us into a war in conjunction
with our ally.
But we could not, knowing that the
vital interests of Austria were at
stake. either advise our ally to con-
descension incompatible with her dig
nifty, or refuse her our support at this
difficult juncture."
The confession in full: it was need
less. For events speak for themselves
and in the fatal week show Germany az
eager to avoid the maintenance of peace
as her future adversaries were to safe
guard it. Not only Germany does moth
ing that. as Count Brockdorff- Rantzau
expresses it in his memorandum of May
30, 1915, would have prevented the
Austro-Hungarian government from
taking irrecovablc decisions" but she
Systematically neglects every oppor-
tunity of avoiding war which France,