The book sets out to prove that the war had long been planned and prepared by Germany and Austria, not only from the military but from the political point of view. That it had long been determined to represent this aggressive war to the German people as a war of liberation, since it was known that only thus could the needful enthusiasm be aroused. That the object of this war is the establishment of German hegemony on the Continent, and in due course the conquest of England's position as a world power on the principle "_Ote-toi de là que je m'y mette_." [Illustration] _THE FALABA_ "_We have better luck with passenger boats than with war ships, for they cannot shoot_" On March 28, 1915, the British steamer _Falaba_ was torpedoed by a German submarine. The torpedoes were fired while the crew and passengers were entering the small boats. More than 100 persons, including Mr. Thrasher, an American citizen, perished with the ship. While some of the boats were still on their davits the submarine fired a torpedo at short range. This action made it absolutely certain that there must be great loss of life and it must have been committed knowingly with the intention of producing that result. BRITISH OFFICIAL PRESS BUREAU. _April 8, 1915._ [Illustration] _THE GAS FIEND_ At some time between 4 and 5 P.M. (22d April) the Germans started operations by releasing gases with the result that a cloud of poisonous vapor rolled swiftly before the wind from their trenches toward those of the French west of Langemarck, held by a portion of the French Colonial Division. Allowing sufficient time for the fumes to take full effect on the troops facing them, the Germans charged forward over the practically unresisting enemy in their immediate front, and, penetrating through the gap thus created, pressed on silently and swiftly to the south and west. BRITISH OFFICIAL EYEWITNESS. _April 27, 1915._ "We shall not allow these wonderful weapons, which German intelligence invented, to grow rusty." _The Cologne Gazette._ Germany was a signatory to the declaration at the Hague Conference of 1899, and an article in that Declaration ran as follows: "The contracting Powers agree to abstain from the use of projectiles the sole object of which is the diffusion of asphyxiating or deleterious gases." [Illustration] _SLOW ASPHYXIATION_ These men were lying struggling for breath and blue in the face. On examining the blood with the spectroscope and by other means, I ascertained that the blueness was not due to the presence of any abnormal pigment. There was nothing to account for the blueness (cyanosis) and struggle for air but the one fact that they were suffering from acute bronchitis, such as is caused by inhalation of an irritant gas. Their statements were that when in the trenches they had been overwhelmed by an irritant gas produced in front of the German trenches and carried toward them by a gentle breeze.