Did not Lieutenant Forstner,
the notorious centre of the Zabern Affair, promise a reward to
the first one of his men who in case of trouble should shoot
one "of those damn Social Democrats"?
There is, therefore, no refuge at present politically, for the
reasonable men of liberal inclinations; and it is these liberal
men who must themselves create a liberal party: a party, membership
in which will not entail a loss of business, a loss of prospects
of promotion and social degradation.
There are many such men in Germany to-day; perhaps some of the
conservative Socialists will join such a party, and there are
men in the government itself whose habits of mind and thought
are not incompatible with membership in a liberal organisation.
The Chancellor himself is, perhaps, at heart a Liberal. He comes
of a banking family in Frankfort and while there stands before
his name the "von" which means nobility, and while he owns a
country estate, the whole turn of his thought is towards a
philosophical liberalism. Zimmermann, the Foreign Secretary,
although the mental excitement caused by his elevation to the
Foreign Office at a time of stress, made him go over to the advocates
of ruthless submarine war, lock, stock and barrel, is nevertheless
at heart a Liberal and violently opposed to a system which draws
the leaders of the country from only one aristocratic class.
Pages:
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435