iumph it must be
for this grandson of William I (who defeated us but left us our honour)
thus to bring us to dishonour: us, the descendants of the France of
1789, republicans in the service of a Prussian Caesar!

June 10, 1897. [11]

It should have been to the interest of France and, of Russia, and a
policy of skilful strategy, to oppose Turkey when supported by the
Triple Alliance, and to create around and about her, in Greece as in
the Balkans, such a force of resistance as would have put a stop to her
schemes of expansion, resulting from those of the Powers of the Triple
Alliance. By so doing, France and Russia might have taken them in the
rear and upset their plans. We were already in a position of
considerable advantage, in that we could leave to the King of Prussia,
the German Emperor, all the responsibility for the crimes of the
Sultan, observing at the same time all those principles which would
have maintained, in their integrity, the moral and Christian traditions
of France and Russia. But our policy has been that of children
building castles in the sand. Confronted by a triumphant Turkey,
leaning on the Triple Alliance, and by a Sultan suffering from the
dementia of blood-lust, certain of the faithful friendship of William
II, and confident in his victorious army (already 720,000 strong, and
commanded by a German General Staff); confronted by such fears and
threats, we have chosen to place all our hopes upon the balanced mind
of William II, the generosity of the Sultan, and the loyalty of
oriental statecraft! I have said it so repeatedly that I may have
wearied my readers, but I say it again; "_To their undoing, France and
Russia have sacrificed their policy to Turkey, protected by Germany_."
They are now confronted by German policy, evasive and at the same time
triumphant, that is to say, in full command of the situation which it
has brought about. William II is at last revealed, even to the
blindest eyes, as the instigator and sole director of everything that
has taken place in the East since his visit to Constantinople. He
takes pleasure in advising the Sultan day by day, for he makes him do
everything that he himself is prevented from doing, and he enjoys the
satisfaction of being a tyrant in imagination when he cannot be one
actually.

June 25, 1897. [12]

The Sultan's million of armed men, organised under a German General
Staff, in a country where Germany is making every effort to pos