ligerent must bear the chief responsibility for the outbreak. The
dialectical exercises of the German Chancellor and Mr. Asquith are so
futile that they remind us only of two naughty children who drag out
their squabble with stubborn outcries of "He began it." The first
consideration is to stop fighting. Such academic discussions are
necessarily endless, for the simple reason that every nation has its
faults, to which criminal motives can always be attached: every nation
has its fools, whom its enemies can describe as typical representatives.
The question of responsibility for the Great War must be left to the
historians of the future. I am quite confident (though even Viscount
Grey or Professor Gilbert Murray cannot prove) that they will hold
Germany responsible: but I am equally confident that the blame they
throw on the nation responsible for the war will be less pronounced than
the praise they will reserve for the nation which first has the courage
to speak of peace. My belief in Germany's responsibility is based
largely on German apologetics and strengthened by the evidence of
commercial conditions in Germany before the outbreak. Professor
Millioud, for instance, has shown that "German industry was built up on
a top-heavy system of credit, unable to keep solvent without expansion,
and unable to expand sufficiently without war."[65] Or if a good
working test of German responsibility were needed it would be sufficient
to point out that no nation innocent of aggressive intentions would have
drafted such an ultimatum as that which Austria, with German connivance,
sent to Serbia; and that no nation anxious for war would have drafted
such a conciliatory reply as that which Serbia returned to Austria by
Russia's instructions. It is in fact clear that as long ago as 1913
Austria had determined to crush Serbia, and that in 1913 that
determination was only postponed; and postponed not, as we thought at
the time, by the tact of Lord Grey at the Conference of London, but only
by Italy's refusal to join in the adventure, as we now know from the
revelations of San Giuliano and Salandra. Similarly, knowing as we do
that England is no exception to the rule that no imperial nation can be
wholly compact of righteousness, we might hesitate to accept _The
Times'_ version of British innocence, and we might hesitate to accept
Lord Bryce's report on the German atrocities in Belgium, knowing as we
do that it is based almost entirely on the