not only violated the Imperial Constitution but he acted with an absolute disregard of the maxims of State which the creator of Modern Germany had laid down, and he cannot even plead that he was compelled to go into war because of the Austro-German Alliance. His contravention of the German Constitution may possibly in course of time assume an exceedingly serious aspect.

Prince Bismarck stated in his posthumous Memoirs': The Federal Council represents the governing power of the joint sovereignty of Germany.' According to the German Constitution, the consent of the Federal Council is necessary for the declaration of war in the name of the Empire, unless an attack on the territory or the coast of the Confederation has taken place.' The Emperor could constitutionally and legitimately attack Russia and France only after an attack on German territory had actually occurred. In order to make an aggression legitimate, a foreign attack upon Germany had either to be brought about or to be invented. Germany went to war because, according to the official version, war was forced upon her,' because German territory was attacked both by Russia and France. On August 4 the German Chancellor, von Bethmann-Hollweg, stated in the Reichstag:

The Emperor gave orders that the French frontier should be respected under all conditions. With one single exception that order was strictly obeyed. France, which mobilised at the same hour as Germany, declared to us that she would withdraw her troops to a distance of 10 kilometres from the frontier. But what happened in reality? Flying machines throwing bombs, cavalry patrols and companies of French infantry breaking into Alsace-Lorraine! By acting thus France has broken the peace and has actually attacked Germany although a state of war had not yet been declared.

As regards the exception mentioned I have received the following report from the Chief of the General Staff:

Of the French complaints regarding the violation of the frontier only a single one must be admitted. Against express orders a patrol of the XIV. Army Corps crossed the

frontier on the 2nd of August. Apparently it was commanded by an officer. It seems that they were shot, for only one man has returned. However, long before this single crossing of the frontier took place French flying machines have thrown bombs upon the German railway lines as far as the South of Germany, and French troops have attacked German troops protecting the frontier at the Schlucht Pass. In accordance with orders given the German troops have limited themselves entirely to the defensive.' This is the report of the General Staff.

Gentlemen, we are now in a state of necessity, and necessity knows no law! Our troops have occupied Luxemburg and perhaps have entered upon Belgian territory.

According to the Report of the Chief of the General Staff, von Moltke, the French began the war by attacking by means of flying machines, &c. Since August 4, when that mendacious statement was read in the German Reichstag, it has been repeated innumerable times by German officialdom and by leading private men. In the German White Book, which was published in English for the benefit of Americans, we read:

A few hours later, at 5 P.M., the mobilisation of the entire French army and navy was ordered. On the morning of the next day France opened hostilities.

In the book Truth about Germany-Facts about the War,' which was likewise issued for the benefit of Americans under the joint supervision of Prince Bülow and many other of the best-informed Germans, it is stated:

Before one German soldier had crossed the German frontier a large number of French aeroplanes came flying into our country across the neutral territory of Belgium and Luxemburg without a word of warning on the part of the Belgian Government. At the same time the German Government learned that the French were about to enter Belgium. Then our Government with great reluctance had to decide upon requesting the Belgian Government to allow our troops to march through its territory.

According to the celebrated legal authority, Professor Josef Kohler, France attacked Germany not from the air but by invasion across the frontier. He wrote in the book 'Die Vernichtung der englischen Weltmacht,' published in 1915:

You know that when we offered France neutrality the French replied to our offer by sending troops across the frontier, violating thus the Law of Nations established by the Hague Convention.

The German Declaration of War upon France stated:

M. le Président, the German administrative and military authorities have established a certain number of flagrantly hostile acts committed on German territory by French military aviators. Several of these have openly violated the neutrality of Belgium by flying over the territory of that country; one has attempted to destroy buildings near Wesel; others have been seen in the district of the Eifel; one has thrown bombs on the railway near Carlsruhe and Nuremberg.

I am instructed, and I have the honour, to inform your Excellency, that in the presence of these acts of aggression the German Empire considers itself in a state of war with France in consequence of the acts of this latter Power. SCHOEN.

According to Herr von Below Saleske, the German Minister in Brussels, Germany was attacked by France, neither by aeroplanes, nor by an ordinary attack across the frontier, but by an attack from airships. In an interview which he asked for at 1.30 A.M. on August 3, 1914, Herr von Below Saleske made that statement, according to a Memorandum published in the Diplomatic Correspondence issued by the Belgian Government. The Memorandum runs as follows:

A l'heure et demie de la nuit, le Ministre d'Allemagne a demandé à voir le Baron van der Elst. Il lui a dit qu'il était chargé par son Gouvernement de nous informer que des dirigeables français avaient jeté des bombes et qu'une patrouille de cavalerie française, violant le droit des gens,

attendu que la guerre n'était pas déclarée, avait traversé la frontière.

Lately the assertion that France began the war upon Germany, by an attack either by land or from the air, has been less frequently heard. The insistent inquiries made by German politicians at the military headquarters in Berlin and in South German towns have failed to discover the place where, according to the statement of the Chief of the General Staff which was read by the German Chancellor in the Reichstag, French flying machines have thrown bombs upon the German railway lines as far as the South of Germany.' When the question of responsibility for the War is judicially investigated, it will, perhaps, appear who it was that created a colourable pretext for Germany's aggression by pretending that France had been the first to strike at Germany. It will then appear whether the untrue statement of the General Staff was made by order of the Emperor, or whether it originated in the General Staff itself; whether the Emperor demanded that a pretext should be created, or whether the military leaders, especially von Moltke, who were notoriously anxious for war, invented the French attack in order to force the Emperor's hands. My impression has been for a long time that the latter was the case, as I endeavoured to show in an article published in The Nineteenth Century and After.1 Very likely Herr von Jagow and the Imperial Chancellor acted perfectly bond fide when they explained at the critical moment that they had been unacquainted with the text of the Austrian ultimatum to Serbia. The surmise that the military leaders first brought about the diplomatic crisis, and then forced the hands of the Emperor and of the Imperial Chancellor by inventing a French attack upon Germany, is strengthened by the admission of the Secretary of State, von Jagow, and of his Under-Secretary, Herr Zimmermann, in their conversation with the French Ambassador and the Belgian Minister

1 How the Army has ruined Germany,' The Nineteenth Century and After, April 1916.

in Berlin, that they were powerless, that the control of the diplomatic situation was in the hands of the military leaders.

Future investigation will probably show that the military party, by a false report, engineered a deliberate and carefully planned violation of the German Constitution, that they made the Emperor their tool. However, if the war was brought about by the pressure of the military firebrands, and by the deliberate concoction of a French attack, the Emperor cannot plead irresponsibility for his action. Qui facit per alium facit per se. The principal is responsible for the actions of his agents. A surgeon cannot plead that he is not responsible for a fatal operation, that he acted against his conviction, that he was forced into it by the demands of his dresser. A lawyer cannot plead immunity because he acted against his conviction, owing to the urgent advice of his clerk. If the War should end in Germany's defeat, the German Emperor may be held responsible by the German people and he cannot then shift his responsibility on to the military leaders, nor will it suffice if he should explain that he had punished the late von Moltke for his intrigue by dismissing him at the earliest opportunity.

The German Constitution is on the one hand a charter of popular liberties which grants to the German nation certain rights, such as Parliamentary representation with a democratic franchise. It is, on the other hand, a pact concluded between Prussia and the German States whereby their relations are regulated, and whereby Prussia's authority and competence as the presiding State of the Confederation are carefully determined and limited. The German Constitution delimits punctiliously the functions and powers of the Emperor-President. In accepting the Imperial Crown and in promising to observe the Constitution, the King of Prussia, as German Emperor, bound himself to observe the fundamental regulations of the Empire, which were devised not only in the interest of the dynasties or of the individual States, apart from Prussia, but in the interest of the German nation as a whole.