liberate preparation, are
being carried into effect in the present war. Germany's plans of
military aggression have compelled other countries to prepare, however
inadequately, to defend themselves.

Mr. Shaw gives support to the Germans' contention that they are not the
aggressors but are menaced by Russia. Yet he does not explain why, if
that is so, Germany took French gold and territory in 1870 and has since
continued to alienate France; nor why Germany has chosen Britain as her
enemy of enemies to be supplanted and surpassed in power.

If Germany is simply on the defensive against Russia and has no desire
to attack and cripple France and Britain, then why has she antagonized
these countries and driven one after the other into a Russian alliance?

When he affects to criticise Germany for not having "entrusted the
security of her western frontier to the public opinion of Western Europe
and to America and fought Russia, if attacked, with her rear not
otherwise defended," Mr. Shaw burkes the fact that Germany's object is
to seize Belgium and to make it part of the German Empire, also to seize
at least the northern coast of France and to make this seizure the means
of dominating Britain.

Indeed, the point at which German ambition for conquest ceases would be
hard to fix. And yet Mr. Shaw pictures for us an injured-innocent,
mild-gazelle Germany on the defensive! Quite in this picture is his
assertion that "the ultimatum to Servia was the escapade of a dotard,"
whereas, everybody knows that the ultimatum was dictated at Berlin. It
is plain as a pikestaff that in order to bring on the Great War of
conquest for which her rulers thought The Day had arrived. Germany
dictated the issue and terms of the ultimatum to Servia and then urged
Austria to refuse any compromise and arbitration which might have
averted war.

Mr. Shaw has assumed the impossible task of trying to blind the American
public to these and other facts that prove Germany to be the aggressor
in this war, but he will fail in his attempt at white-washing German
policy because it is one of the characteristics of the American people
that they have a strong feeling for reality and that no twisting and
combining of words can prevent them from getting at the facts beneath.

Bernhardi's writings are generally believed to be an inspiration, and in
part a statement of German policy. But Mr. Shaw differs. In trying to
prove that Bernhardism has nothing to do with the