THE EMS TELEGRAM AND THE FRANCO. GERMAN WAR.
[To THE EDITOR or TEE "9rrcTATOR.'1 SIR,—I notice that in the recent Navy debate Mr. H. Backe is reported to have said that though be was profoundly con- vinced that the power of North Germany was grossly exaggerated by the publicists, and even by the statesmen, of this country, he did not think they could exaggerate the offensive purpose of the German Government. He did not mean with regard to ourselves alone. The evil or peril which they could not exaggerate was the now nearly two- hundred-year-old tradition of the Prussian Government that contract or bond did not count between Christian men, and that when the occasion came you might by any means in your power strike and destroy the enemy. " There would never," he said, " have been a war in 1870 had not a document been deliberately falsified for the purpose " (Daily News, July 15th). Will you allow me to point out that this last statement is wholly untrue ? If any one who wishes to know the facts will refer to Mr. Charles Lowe's article in the Contemporary Review for July, 1909, the famous Ems despatch and its alleged falsification will be found placed in parallel columns. According to this, there is not the slightest foundation for
Mr. Belloc's assertion. Those who refer to the article I have named will, however, understand who were the real aggressors, and under what sinister influence they acted. It shows considerable hardihood for a Roman Catholic to make a charge of disregarding " contract and bond" against a Protestant nation, when one remembers how subjects were absolved from their oaths of allegiance to " heretic " Kings
Previous page
