al air of
Prussia, "Heil Dir im Sieger Kranz" (Hail, thou, in the
conqueror's wreath). (The music is familiar to us because we sing
it to the words of "America." The British sing the air to the
words of "God Save the King." This music was originally written
for Louis XIV.) The health of the Emperor is proposed and drunk
with "Hurrahs" and again "Hurrahs," and then comes a telegram
from Berlin announcing the promotions and decorations granted to
some of the officers of the regiment: the most envied of all is
that younger officer, perhaps the student among them, who
receives the laconic despatch telling him that he is detailed to
the Great General Staff!

Then commences for the young officer a life of almost monastic
devotion. No amusements, no social obligations or entertainments
must interfere in the slightest with his earnest work in that
plain building of mystery which so calmly, and with such mock
modesty, faces the garish home of the Reichstag on the Koenigs-Platz,
in Berlin.

Who decided on the break with America? It was not the Chancellor,
notoriously opposed; it was not the Foreign Office, nor the
Reichstag, nor the Princes of Germany who decided to brave the
consequences of a rupture with the United States on the submarine
question. It was not the Emperor; but a personality of great
power of persuasion. It was Ludendorff, Quartermaster General,
chief aid and brains to Hindenburg, Chief of the Great General
Staff, who decided upon this step.

Unquestionably a party in the navy, undoubtedly von Tirpitz
himself, backed by the navy and by many naval officers and the
Naval League, advocated the policy and promised all Germany peace
within three months after it was adopted; unquestionably public
opinion made by the Krupps and the League of Six (the great iron
and steel companies), desiring annexation of the coal and iron
lands of France, demanded this as a quick road to peace. But it
was the deciding vote of the Great General Staff that finally
embarked the German nation on this dangerous course.

I do not think the Emperor himself, unless backed by the whole
public opinion of Germany, would dare to withstand the Great
General Staff which he himself creates. They are so much his
devotees that they would overrule him in what they consider his
interest.

Whatever thinking the Emperor does nowadays is more or less on
his own account. There is to-day no shining favourite who has his
ear to the exclusion of other