_November_, 1914. With every wish to do justice to Germany, to whose literature I feel I owe such a debt, and among whose people I have so many personal friends; allowing also the utmost for the general causes in Europe which have been for years leading up towards war--and some of which I have indicated already in the pages above--I still feel it is impossible not to throw on her the _immediate_ blame for the present catastrophe. However we distribute the indictment and the charges among the various parties concerned, whether we accuse mainly the sway of Prussian Militarism or the rise of German Commercialism, or the long tradition and growth of a _Welt-politik_ philosophy, or the general political ignorance which gave to these influences such rash and uncritical acceptance; or whether we accuse the somewhat difficult and variable personal equation of the Kaiser himself--the fact still remains that for years and years this war has been by the German Government most deliberately and systematically prepared for. The fact remains that Britain--though for a long period she had foreseen danger and had on the naval side slowly braced herself to meet it--was on the military side caught at the last moment unprepared; that France was so little intending war that a large portion of the nation was actually still protesting against an increase in the size of the standing army; and that Russia--whatever plans she may have had, or not had, in mind--was confessedly at the same period two years or so behind in the organization and completion of her military establishment.