Mohammed was earnest and sincere when he led his wild armies forward crying, "Death or conversion!" Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain were earnest and conscientious when they roasted the Moors of Spain in the name of the Holy Church and Jesus the Saviour of the world. Torquemada was earnest and conscientious as the Grand Inquisitor who burnt heretics who could not accept his doctrines. But that did not make this German menace any the less dangerous. Rather it increased the danger. The military caste, the ruling caste in Germany, they who had been planning and preparing for war, and looked upon it as a duty, had no moral standard to which a Christian could appeal. Their right was our wrong. It would be as easy to argue with a virus-toothed tiger as to argue with them. They had accepted the terrible religion of the duty of war as the faith of the nation, and nothing but equal or superior force would stop them in their onward march. This explained the terrible stories in which Bob had not hitherto been able to believe. The ghastly outrages at Louvain, the unspeakable deeds at Malines. They were all a part of the same ghastly creed. "A sacrifice made to an alien nation," said Treitschke, "is immoral. . . . "Among all political sins, the sin of feebleness is the most contemptible. It is the political sin against the Holy Ghost." It also explained their violation of the Belgian treaty. Bernhardi argued most earnestly, that if a treaty placed a difficulty in the way of a great nation's realising its purposes, then it was not only justifiable, but the duty of that nation to break that treaty. "We must not hold back in the hard struggle for the sovereignty of the world," he argued. Every nation that stood in their way must be swept aside. For that Germany had been for years building up her "invincible army," and filling her war chests. Protection was no part of her policy; it was for ever and always, aggression, aggression. How can Germany obtain the sovereignty of the world? Again Bob found that these Germans regarded England as their greatest hindrance to the fulfilment of their dreams. Therefore the question arose as to how England could be swept aside. It was all a matter of calculation. Laying down the basic principles that war was a necessity and a duty, and that Germany must dominate the world, all the rest followed as a natural consequence. The nations of Europe were like so many pieces on a chessboard. They must be made strong, or destroyed just as the occasion fitted in with Germany's plans. Thus for the present Italy must be strengthened, and Turkey must be supported, but the power of France must be destroyed. Why? What harm was France doing? That was not the question. France stood in the way of Germany's ambitions, therefore France must be crushed.