Ten Years Near the German Frontier: A Retrospect and a Warning

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Egan Maurice Francis. Ten Years Near the German Frontier: A Retrospect and a Warning

PREFACE

CHAPTER I. A SCRAP OF PAPER AND THE DANES

CHAPTER II. THE MENACE OF 'OUR NEIGHBOUR TO THE SOUTH'

CHAPTER III. THE KAISER AND THE KING OF ENGLAND

CHAPTER IV. SOME DETAILS THE GERMANS KNEW

CHAPTER V. GLIMPSES OF THE GERMAN POINT OF VIEW IN RELATION TO THE UNITED STATES

CHAPTER VI. GERMAN DESIGNS IN SWEDEN AND NORWAY

CHAPTER VII. THE RELIGIOUS PROPAGANDA

CHAPTER VIII. THE PRUSSIAN HOLY GHOST

CHAPTER IX. 1910-1911-1912

CHAPTER X. A PORTENT IN THE AIR

CHAPTER XI. THE PRELIMINARIES TO THE PURCHASE OF THE DANISH ANTILLES

CHAPTER XII. THE BEGINNING OF 1917 AND THE END

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Let us trace deliberately, with as much calmness as possible, the beginning of that policy, of 'blood and iron' which made the German Empire, as we knew it yesterday, possible. It began with the tearing up of 'a scrap of paper' in 1864. It began in perfidy, treachery, and the forcible suppression of the rights of a free people. It began in Denmark; and nothing could make a normal American more in love with freedom, as we know it, than to live under the shadow of a tyrannical power, cynically opposed to the legitimate desire of a little nation to develop its own capabilities in its own way.

The Hanoverian on the throne of England in '76, – that 'snuffy old drone from a German hive' – never dared to suggest that the colonies should be crushed out of all semblance of freedom; but, suppose our language had been different from that which his environment compelled him to speak, and that he had resolved to force his tongue on our own English-speaking people; suppose that he and his counsellors had resolved that German should be the language spoken in sermons and prayers from Washington's old church in Alexandria to Faneuil Hall; suppose that all the colleges and schools of the country, as well as the law courts, were forced to use this alien tongue; that a German-speaking Empire existed to the south of us, and the minority in this German domain, arrogant, closely connected with the Hanoverian régime, ruled us with the mailed fist, would we submit without constant efforts to obtain justice?

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No number of royal alliances counts as against a bad geographical place in the world and the evil disposition of a strong neighbour. A change of heart has come over the world since Germany induced Austria to be her catspaw in 1914. The example of a country which deliberately asserted that might makes right, and followed this assertion with deeds that make the angels weep, has shocked the world, and forced other nations to examine their consciences. After all, we are a long time after Machiavelli. After the great breakdown in Russia there was a feeling among some of the conservatives in Denmark that the cousin of the Tsar of Russia, King George of England, might have laid a restraining hand on the Russian parties that forced the Tsar to abdicate. But the very mention of this seemed utterly futile. The King of Spain, though married to an English princess, could expect little help in any difficulty, were the interests of the English Ministry not entirely his. The contemplation of these alliances offers much material for the man who thinks in the terms of history.

When President Fallières visited Copenhagen in 1908, there was a gala concert given at the Palace of Amalieborg in his honour. The President was accompanied by a 'bloc' of black-coated gentlemen, some of them journalists of distinction.

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