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THE CRIME

PART III

WAR-AIMS

INTRODUCTION

I PROPOSE to treat the question of war-aims in a series of memoirs, composed at various times immediately after the crises on this subject. These essays closely follow the events in question, like a critical shadow, and in this way clearly indicate all the halting places on the pathway to the peace of the future.1

This method of treatment, which was in the first place imposed by the manner in which the articles came into being, has the advantage, in my opinion a very considerable one, that it reproduces the vivid impression which the events produced on the writer at the moment, and not a dry historical report written at a distance. Such a method enlivens the account and, as I believe, makes it more attractive to the reader by presenting him with a kind of diary of war-aims, which with light pencil chronicles the decisive events on the world theatre, and, if we may transfer Zola's famous definition from art to politics, reveals "chaque coin des événements à travers un tempérament."

On the other hand, the chronological method of treatment had certainly this drawback, that it could only consider the

Of the essays contained in this section "Bethmann the Pacifist" alone has hitherto been published (in Wissen und Leben, Orell Füssli, December, 1916, January, 1917). The remaining essays have not previously appeared in their present form.

events existing at any one time, not those which may have followed at a later date. I have endeavoured to overcome this disadvantage by adding to the essays a number of amplifications, bearing on later events, and in this way I was able to sketch a complete view of the situation, as it existed about the spring of 1917, on the conclusion of this last section of my work.

I have not considered it necessary on each occasion to emphasise these additions as such, since the reader can at once distinguish the addition from the original text by reference to the events discussed.

THE QUESTION OF GUILT-FIRM GROUND
WAR-AIMS-UNCERTAIN GROUND

The discussion of war-aims is differentiated from the discussion of the question of guilt in the fundamental point that the question of guilt, that is to say the question: "Who bears the responsibility for the European War?" was decided on August 4th, 1914, and indeed on August 1st, with Germany's declaration of war against Russia. All the considerations necessary to form an opinion on the responsibility for the European War, which was bound almost automatically to develop out of the German-Russian War, were already furnished on that day. All the later diplomatic publications had no other end in view, and had no other effect, than to illuminate those considerations of guilt which already existed in the first days of August, 1914.

In the investigation of the question of guilt we thus move on ground that is clearly marked off, and it is only the judgment passed on, and the value attached to, the various considerations of guilt, that vary according to the standpoint of the critic. Moreover, even in remote times it will be on the basis of the same material as is accessible to us to-day-perhaps with the addition of certain later revelations, of no importance so far as the main question is concerned-that inquiry will be made into the great historical question: "Who provoked the European War of 1914?"

The position is quite different with regard to the question of war-aims. Here we do not stand on firm ground, but on very uncertain ground. The war-aims are most intimately connected, not merely with the causes of the waron which I have fully expressed my views elsewhere-but also with the success achieved in the war, that is to say, they are related to the constantly varying military situation, which in the nature of things involves a constant rise and fall in the aims of the belligerent parties. Their wishes may no doubt remain the same, but the prospects of their realisation vary. Thus the parties may find themselves compelled to moderate their wishes temporarily, or at any rate to place them in the background so long as matters are going badly from a military point of view; whereas on the other hand, when things go better, they are in a position to come forward once more with their earlier wishes and perhaps even to place them still higher. Not even the most rabid annexationist can fail to repress his expansionist aims, if he is convinced from the war situation that they cannot be attained, or at any rate cannot be attained in their full extent. He will, however, once more emerge with his annexationist desires as soon as the military situation appears to permit their accomplishment.

THE BASIC LINES OF THE WAR-AIMS ON BOTH SIDES

As it is not, and cannot be, my task to enumerate here all these temporary oscillations, which have no relation to the purpose and the aim of my work, I am in this place compelled to restrict myself to indicating the basic lines of the waraims of the two groups of Powers, without following the parties along all the side-paths which they may choose to open. The basic lines are plain and clearly perceptible; the sidepaths are often confused, often lead into copsewood and thicket, and obscure rather than illuminate the points of con

trast.

By basic lines I understand those general and original tendencies which on the outbreak of war in August, 1914, governed those Powers immediately concerned. As we have seen

in the second section of this book, and as we shall find confirmed in the third section which follows, these were on the German side tendencies of imperialistic extension of power; on the side of the Entente it was primarily the tendency to defence against a criminal act of aggression, and secondarily that of protection against future disturbances of the peace.

The war-aim of the Entente Powers was thus in its original tendency nothing more than the repulse of the German attack from their own frontiers as well as from the frontiers of Serbia and Belgium, the liberation of the territories occupied by Germany, the creation between States, or rather above States, of a condition of law which would render the present disturber of the peace innocuous for the future and would once for all establish the standards of law in place of violence. The longer the war has lasted, the more has this latter waraim of the Entente Powers emerged with distinctness and precision as the main object of the Allied Powers. In the following chapters we shall find collected the utterances of English and French statesmen who from the beginning of the war until to-day have proclaimed that the most important waraim of the allied nations is the creation of a league of nations to secure the establishment and the enduring maintenance of the peace of the world.

The accession of America to the group of the Entente Powers has completely confirmed this war-aim as the cardinal point in the world-struggle, and has thus imparted to the sanguinary contest an unparalleled world-historical importance. A few weeks after its success the Russian Revolution on its side also inexorably swept away the aims of conquest proclaimed by the Tsar's Government, and set in their place a Socialist-Pacifist programme, which in every word is in agreement with President Wilson's noble ideas of peace..

TERRITORIAL QUESTIONS

It is true that on the side of the Entente Powers there was also a period in the peace-discussions-before the adhesion of America and before the outbreak of the Russian Revolu

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