es of the Federal States, as
well as of the Federal Diets, has been duly consulted. I may add that
also the party leaders of the Reichstag, which could not be convoked
earlier than two days after the declaration of the war, have been
continuously informed and consulted.

Against the next paragraph, where Prof. Eliot complains of the secrecy
of European diplomacy and of international treaties and understandings,
the same objection must be made. The state described here as particular
to Germany prevails in all European countries, and neither the treaty of
the Russian-French alliance, nor the arrangements of the Triple Entente
have ever been submitted to the French or British Parliaments. As
regards the American attitude toward armaments, I purposely refrain from
adducing the American example into my argument, much as I could show
that with a very large part of the American Nation the idea of defending
the American coast against any invader and the maintenance of a strong
Pan-American policy, if need be by arms, is just as fixed a tenet as the
German idea that the Fatherland should be held safe from invasion or
destruction by the will and the strength of its people. England has
always held the same, if not through her army so through her navy, and
so did the rest of Europe; and there is no argument to be gotten from
that for an anti-German feeling.

No Seizure of Schleswig-Holstein.

Americans object to the extension of territory by force. Germany has
never done that, even if one goes back as far as Prof. Eliot wishes to
go. Mr. Eliot is absolutely mistaken as to the history of the
incorporation of Schleswig-Holstein into Prussia. Schleswig-Holstein was
a Dual-Dukedom that never belonged to Denmark, but having as its Duke
the King of Denmark as long as he belonged to the elder line of the
House of Oldenburg. This elder line was extinct when King Christian
VIII. died without male issue. His successor wanted to incorporate the
two German Dukedoms into Denmark. Then the people stood up and expressed
the desire to remain with the German Federation, to which it had always
belonged, and there it is now, of its own free will. The natural
dividing line between Denmark and Germany, however, is the River Eider.
There are about 30,000 Danes south of the Eider, who have been absorbed
against their will, a thing that can never be avoided, and that has
sometimes given Prussia a little trouble.

Alsace-Lorraine Originally German.