The PanGerman Plot Unmasked: Berlin's formidable peace-trap of "the drawn war"Chéradame, André
History
The PanGerman Plot Unmasked: Berlin's formidable peace-trap of "the drawn war"
Chéradame, André
Europe -- Politics and government -- 1871-1918; Pangermanism; World War, 1914-1918
The Allies did not go to Greece to take possession of the country, as
the Germans did to Belgium. The Allies went to Greece to assist their
ally Serbia, which, moreover, was the ally of Greece, and to oppose the
spoliation of Austria-Hungary, the Balkans, and Turkey, by Germany.
The treaties which give Turkey, France, England, and Russia the right
of protecting the Hellenic constitution, greatly endangered by German
influences at Athens, are sufficient to justify, on the ground of
international law, the presence of the Allies in Greece. But it is
necessary, further, to state clearly that they are there in virtue of a
still higher right, that of safeguarding the collective liberty of the
nations. A comparison will enable us to appreciate this point of view,
the statement of which is perhaps novel. According to the civil law,
private property is inviolable. But if any man, passing a garden which
the right of private property forbids him to enter, sees on the other
side of the garden a ruffian in the act of murdering a person for the
purpose of robbing him, he not only has a moral right, but is in duty
bound to cross the garden to help his fellow who is in danger of his
life. There is not a court of justice in the world that would blame the
worthy and courageous citizen for having violated the rights of private
property in succouring his fellow man. But the Allies went to Salonika
with exactly the same intention. They have passed through Greece in order
to seize by the throat the Pangerman ruffian who is violently robbing
Austria-Hungary, the Balkans, and Turkey; who is destroying by millions
in these countries the Antigermanic civil populations; who, shrinking
from no crimes, however heinous, claims to lay hands on riches untold,
and to secure his illgotten gains by capturing the whole region from
Vienna to the Persian Gulf, which would furnish Germany with the means of
maintaining her world-wide dominion (see p. 106).
Now, as my readers have been able to see for themselves, there is, by
reason of the temporary success of the Pangerman plot, abundance of
unimpeachable arguments, numerical, geographical, ethnographical, in
support of these conclusions. These irrefragable arguments are therefore
calculated to make the greatest impression on neutrals, because they
are of a nature to appeal to their higher feelings and at the same
time to show how their own interests are jeopardized. If the Allied
propaganda is once co-ordinated and fortified by these arguments, set
forth methodically, the moral, economic, and military effects, which
the German propaganda has undoubtedly produced to the advantage of
Germany, would soon be annulled, and the Allies would justly reap similar
advantages, which would hasten the victory.
III.
_Henceforth the Allies and the neutral states must bear constantly in
mind not only Germany’s present gains on the East and on the West, but
also her Pangerman gains as a whole._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account