So England, directly from the first, took sides with Servia in a matter that concerned only Servia and Austria. She “could not see how Russia could be urged to suspend preparations” and would not, even for the sake of Belgium, state the terms on which she would agree to remain neutral in the new German-Russian mobilization dispute. Why Germany finally did violate Belgian neutrality is explained by a telegram from the German foreign office to the German ambassador in London, Prince Lichnowsky, on August four. … “Please impress upon Sir E. Grey that German army could not be exposed to French attack across Belgium, which was planned according to absolutely unimpeachable information. Germany had consequently to disregard Belgian neutrality, it being for her a question of life or death to prevent French advance.” All eyes then are likely for the next few months to be fixed on the German army and it has seemed worth while to me hastily to collect and publish all the items concerning the land, naval and aerial forces that will be of general interest in America. No one will look, I hope, for much originality in a work of this kind. My information is taken from Major von Schreibershofen’s excellent book _Das deutsche Heer_, from Colonel von Bremen’s _Das deutsche Heer nach der Neuordnung von 1913_; from Lieutenant Neumann’s _Luftschiffe_ and his _Flugzeuge_; from Count Reventlow’s interesting _Deutschland zur See_; Troetsch’s _Deutschland’s Flotte im Entscheidungskampf_ and Toeche-Mittler: _Die deutsche Kriegsflotte_. The three last mentioned works, and also Von Bremen’s, are absolutely new, having been published in 1914; Schreibershofen’s dates from 1913. The two others have no date but one can see that they have appeared very recently. The large new works _Das Jahr 1913_, _Deutschland unter Kaiser Wilhelm II_, and the _Handbuch der Politik_ have also been of use to me. For the last six months I have followed very carefully in the _Zeitungs-Archiv_ all the newspaper extracts bearing on our subject. The war has doubtless interrupted the publication of the _Archiv_, so that I shall remain “up to date” for some little time to come. PART II THE ARMY The great military authority, Bernhardi, in an article in _Das Jahr 1913_, points out various ways in which military science has developed since the Franco-Prussian War and shows how completely we have had to abandon many of the conceptions gained by a study of earlier campaigns. Responsible in the main for the changes are the increased size of the armies and the new technical inventions of our age. [Illustration: Bird’s-eye View Berlin Parade Grounds]