CHAPTER IV
MILITARISM IN GERMANY AND THE ZABERN AFFAIR
In 1913-1914 occurred a series of events known as the "Zabern
Affair," which to my mind decided the "system"--the military
autocracy--for a speedy war. In this affair the German people
appeared at last to be opening their eyes, to recover in some
degree from the panic fear of their neighbours which had made them
submit to the arrogance and exactions of the military caste and to
be almost ready to demilitarise themselves, a thing abhorrent to
the upholders of caste, the system, the army and the Hohenzollerns.
This writing on the wall--these letters forming the word
"Zabern"--the actions of the Social Democrats and their growing
boldness, all were warnings to the autocracy of its waning power,
and impelled that autocracy towards war as a bloodletting cure
for popular discontent.
Prussia, which has imposed its will, as well as its methods of
thought and life on all the rest of Germany, is undoubtedly a
military nation.
More than one hundred and twenty-five years ago Mirabeau, the great
French orator at the commencement of the Revolution, said, "War is
the national industry of Prussia.
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