The French have never forgotten their defeat in 1870 and 1871. They
have always been thirsting for revenge.
2. We are at war because Russia thinks she has a mission on behalf of
the Slavic world; she feels that mission can only be fulfilled by
smashing Germany, the bulwark of Western idea.
3. We are at war because England has returned to her old political
ideals. She means to enforce anew the balance of power and she wants to
cut down Germany to that normal dead-level which alone, she thinks, is
consistent with her own security.
As far as our antagonism to France is concerned, we have always looked
upon it as a regrettable fact which time, perhaps, might do away with.
We are just enough to understand that a country like France, with a
glorious past, a gallant spirit and an undaunted courage, cannot forget
the blow we dealt her forty-three years ago.
We think we have been right in retaking from her Alsace-Lorraine,
belonging originally to the German Empire. But we look with a kind of
envy upon her who succeeded in denationalizing the people of those
provinces to such a degree that we have not yet been able to make them
Germans once more.
We have always regretted that the two most civilized nations in
Continental Europe should be rent asunder by an unforgotten past.
We hoped that the creation of a wonderful African empire might in the
long run soothe French national feeling.
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