s, the subtle peoples
of the East. These peoples did not wish to be
united. They ardently desired to direct their own
affairs, would be satisfied only by undisputed
independence. They could be kept quiet only by the
presence of the constant threat of armed men. They
would live under a common power only by sheer
compulsion and await the day of revolution. But
the German military statesmen had reckoned with
all that and were ready to deal with it in their
own way.

THE PRESENT CONDITION

And they have actually carried the greater part of
that amazing plan into execution. Look how things
stand. Austria is at their mercy. It has acted,
not upon its own initiative nor upon the choice of
its own people, but at Berlin's dictation ever
since the war began. Its people now desire peace,
but cannot have it until leave is granted from
Berlin. The so-called Central Powers are in fact
but a single power. Serbia is at its mercy, should
its hands be but for a moment freed; Bulgaria has
consented to its will and Rumania is overrun. The
Turkish armies, which Germans trained, are serving
Germany, certainly not themselves, and the guns of
German warships lying in the harbor at
Constantinople remind Turkish statesmen every day
that they have no choice but to take their orders
from Berlin. From Hamburg to the Persian Gulf the
net is spread.

A FALSE CRY FOR PEACE

Is it not easy to understand the eagerness for
peace that has been manifested from Berlin ever
since the snare was set and sprung? Peace, peace,
peace has been the talk of her Foreign Office now
for a year or more; not peace upon her own
initiative, but upon the initiative of the nations
over which she now deems herself to hold the
advantage. A little of the talk has been public,
but most of it has been private. Through all sorts
of channels it has come to me, and in all sorts of
guises, but never with the terms disclosed which
the German Government would be willing to accept.
That Government has other valuable pawns in its
hands besid