We need only glance at the map to realize that a really free Russian republic could never range itself on the side of Pan-Germany. It is self-evident that, if Pan-Germany were to succeed in splitting Europe in two, her economic and military pressure toward the East would be irresistible. The countless agents whom Berlin already maintains in the immense territory of Russia would find their work becoming easier and easier. Following up the hypothesis, then, Russia, succumbing to insoluble financial problems and unending internal difficulties, would break up, from the Baltic to the Pacific, into a series of anarchistic republics—all of which is according to the plans of Lenine, who is a creature of Berlin. After that there would be nothing to prevent German influence from becoming the controlling force in the economic exploitation of the immense natural riches of European and Asiatic Russia. We are well within the bounds of reason in predicting such a possibility. The fact that German agents have already succeeded in stirring up most serious trouble throughout the length and breadth of Russia—that they have provoked separatist movements in Finland, Ukrainia, and the Caucasus, and that all China is seething with disturbances which react on Asiatic Russia—proves to the satisfaction of the most skeptical that the break-up of Russia into little states inevitably subject to the political and economic influence of Berlin would be an inevitable consequence of a successful Pan-Germany. It is plain, therefore, that the huge profits which the Germans would stand to gain by such a state of affairs—a direct result of military Pan-Germany—form an element of advantage worthy of being considered by itself. VII _The seventh element of German advantage: the transfer to Germany of at least twenty-one billion francs of French credit_ The creation of military and economic Pan-Germany makes possible a method of securing war-booty planned in advance by the Pan-Germanists, which may be stated as follows: _The transfer to Germany of funds owed to one of her enemies by another enemy, or by one of her own allies_. In order to understand this method of extortion one need only read a passage from Tannenberg’s book, _Greater Germany_, published in French translation in 1916 by the firm of Payot. This work possesses exceptional interest for two reasons: first, it appeared in Germany in 1911; its publication, therefore, was evidently inspired, as in many other cases, by the ruling class at Berlin, in order to prepare the German people for war by promises of colossal booty; second, the facts of the case show that the German General Staff, ever since the outbreak of hostilities, has been modeling the political conduct of the war on the exact lines laid down by Tannenberg, who may be said to have officially declared the Pan-German scheme of 1911.