and stupid Germany’s so-called Statecraft had become before the War. We had not the slightest conception of the nature of the forces which could lead men to their death of their own free will and volition.
As long as the German people continued to think in 1914 that they were fighting for ideals, they stood their ground ; but the moment it became evident that they were merely fighting for their daily bread, they were glad to throw up the sponge.
Our intelligent “Statesmen”, however, were amazed at this change of temper.
The pre-war belief that it was possible to lay the world open for the German nation, or indeed conquer it, by the peaceful method of a policy of trade and colonization, was a classic sign that the genuine virtues which make and maintain States, and all the resulting insight, will-power and determination to accomplish great things, were gone. By the law of Nature, the immediate result of this was the World War with all its consequences.