Evening star., 1921-10-17
CHAPTER !.
GERMAN AGGRESSION.

Never was an international crime
more faErant than Germany's attack
on France on August >, 1914: never
one more deliberately planned.
can still see Baron Won. Schoen.
the kaiser's ambassador. standing on
the steps of the Quai d'Orsay, as with
feigned regret he takes leave Of NJ. de
Margerie, now French ambassador at
BRUSSELS. but then political director
III the ministry Of foreign affairs. The
German representative bows deprecat-
ingly He seems to say, as his master
said a few weeks later. II did not will
All this" Yet at that very moment
and without any declaration of war.
German troops had already (thirty-
four hours previously crossed our
frontier and invaded our soil. This
very invasion had been planned for
half century.
In 1871 Germany had torn from US
.Alsace-Lorraine. the flesh Of our flesh.
two of the most French Of the French
provinces bound by every tie to all our
past; two provinces which for centuries
had given US, had given France-the
oldest, most closely knit and most re-
sponsiye Of nations-generals and
statesmen, men Of science and Of let
tiers. Germany refused to heed the cry
of despair raised at Bordeaux by their
representatives.
Annexation q Neces.ity..
BY blood and iron," to quote Bis
marck, she had sealed her victory and
welded her unity with the rape of our
provinces OF which she made the bull
wark Of. her power at our very door.
Five and twenty years later, Bismarck
cynical1y boasted: I'VE did not conquer
Alsace and Lorraine because their
people loved US. or turned their thought
10 Germany. That did not matter to
us. Their annexation was a yeograph-
ical necessity. 1t is quite presumptuous
TO ask US to worry whether the AlSa-
clans and Lorrainers want or do not
want to be German. That Is none Of
our business" Neither hesitation be-
fore. nor repentance after.
This unhaliowed gain. won by sheer
might, does not suffice to Germany, or
rather. to retain it she has to have
something more. Hence the policy
which forty-three years later led to
the very logic of which is it's most
crushing condemnation. Germany
seeks not only to keep the territory
stolen from France. but to make Sc
cure by arms her domination Of the
continent rendered possible by the
treaty Of Frankfort. For this it Is not
enough that France shall be conquer
cd and despoiled: she must be isolated
and paralyZed as we'll. 1t is not
enough that Alsace-Lorraine. the
piety Of whose popular attachment for
France was unconquerable. shall live
beneath the. Prussian yoke: the po-
litical structure Of Europe must be
such that never in any manner or at
any time shall German domination be
challenged. To build up this domi-
nation as we'll as to defend it in case
it were ever threatened. every means
will be employed--not excepting war.
Half a century of history has here
its source.
Recovering Too Rapidly.
As early as 1875 this settled de-
termination reveals itself by the
threat of fresh aggression. France
is recovering too rapidly. To COM
plete her ruin is duty to Germany
and to mankind. The awakening of
Russia and Great Britain, conscious
TOO late-of the mistake they made
in 1870. foils Bismarck. who vents his
disappointment in bitter jests. but
sets to work at once to prevent it's