This "calm consciousness" does not seem to have been disturbed by the reflection that in the spring of 1913, when Europe appeared to be settling down to a period of peace and prosperity after the Tripoli and Balkan wars, the German Government suddenly startled the whole world by imposing a special war levy of £50,000,000, and by increasing the peace strength of the German army to 870,000 men. Under the Quinquennial Army Law of 1905, the peace footing of the German army was largely increased and reached a total of 505,839 men in 1911. A new Quinquennial Law was voted by the Reichstag in 1911, and if it had been carried into effect the army would have had the strength of 515,221 in 1915-6. This, one would have thought, was surely a sufficient peace establishment; but in 1912 a still further Army Law provided for new units and also for increases in the peace effective. Hardly were the provisions of this law being applied when the special measure of 1913 was passed. The German army, in other words, rose from a peace strength of 505,000 men (excluding the one-year volunteers) in 1911 to a peace strength of about 512,000 in 1912, and a peace strength of 870,000 in the spring of 1914. There were no corresponding increases in any European army to call for this drastic strengthening of the German forces. Indeed, the French army had rather become reduced in numbers in consequence of the two years' service; and the Balkan States were exhausted. The Servia which had advanced against Turkey in the autumn of 1912 was a very much more powerful country than the Servia with which Austria picked a quarrel in 1914. We were never told why this great increase in the German army was rendered necessary; nor did we learn why, at almost the same time, the Austrian Government voted huge sums for enlarging its land and sea forces. There was a vague reference in the Reichstag to the balance of military power. But, if the Balkan war had altered the military power of Europe, it had altered that power to the advantage of the Triple Alliance. The Balkan States, the perpetual menace of the Danube Monarchy, if we are to credit the statements made at Vienna, were exhausted after their campaigns, first against Turkey and then against one another. Austria herself had had her way with regard to Albania, and Russia had given up her project of securing an outlet on the Adriatic for Servia. Italy, the third partner in the Triplice, was beginning to recover from the effects of the Tripoli war; and France and England wished for nothing better than to be let alone.