en
committed, but _in order that_ no more shall be committed. To burn a
neighbourhood, shoot hostages, decimate a population which has taken up
arms against the army--all this is far less a reprisal than the sounding
of a _note of warning_ for the territory not yet occupied. Do not doubt
it; it was as a note of warning that Baltin, Herve, Louvain, and Dinant
were burned. The burnings and bloodshed at the opening of the war showed
the great cities of Belgium how perilous it was for them ..." etc.]

[Footnote 67: Chapter I, Sec.Sec. 9-11.]

[Footnote 68: See below, note on p. 113; and compare Brailsford, _The
War of Steel and Gold_, p. 22, on "preparations which are always
supposed to be defensive," and p. 264, on the methods used to support
the plea that large navies are purely "defensive."]

Sec. 3

The Value of German Culture

The question whether Germany is actually attempting or would be
justified in attempting to impose her culture on the rest of Europe; or
whether England has good reasons for the limitation or suppression of
German culture, is another side-issue. German culture (in Matthew
Arnold's correct use of the word, meaning, that is, the average of
intellectual and social civilisation), has not on a general inspection
much to be proud of. The modern literature of Germany is largely a
transcription of Russian, French and English authors, and it is
significant that among foreign authors the widest success is reserved
for purveyors of _le faux bon_, writers whose work is distinguished by
its spirited failure quite to attain the first-class.[69] The most
promising of modern authors writing in the German language, Schnitzler,
is an Austrian Jew. Hauptmann, the most distinguished and original of
German dramatists, has for thirty years been writing plays which would
pass for imitations of Mr. John Galsworthy's failures. Sudermann's style
reminds one of a snail crawling over the Indian lilies which he
describes.... Germany, it is true, has reason to be proud of her
theatres, but that is a matter of State enterprise, rather than an
indication of national culture. The German State has been efficient
enough to perceive that good theatres are a fundamental necessity of
national education, and that good theatres, owing to the excessive rents
they have to pay, can never be kept going without a State subsidy. But
these admirable theatres can hardly be called the vehicles of a high
native culture. Their famous Reinh