What does Russia, so jealous for the Holy Places, think of the intrusion into them of the German Kaiser? He is master there. Here is one of the most striking proofs of the fact: the Mussulmans have a perfect horror of bells, but the new German Church erected at Jerusalem is equipped with a fine peal of them. That which neither Christian kings, nor even Tzars, were able to obtain, William II has achieved. And such is the idea of force with which the German Emperor is associated in their minds, that even the most fanatical Mussulmans have bent the knee in submission to this sacrilege. July 12, 1898. [7] The unseverable unity of Pan-Germanism is the ruling formula with the Germans of Austria. Are they not continually threatening the Hapsburgs that they will secede if the supremacy of their German minority over the Slav majority is not maintained? They do not even take the trouble to lower their voices when they cry to the neighbouring Empire: "Before very long we shall be yours." Since the defeat of France, Germany's ambitions have grown to a height out of all proportion even to the importance of her conquest. On all sides she has cast covetous eyes, stretched out her grasping hand in all directions. For only France, while still intact, possessed the courage to protect other nations from the all-consuming German appetite. That Germany should have captured the monstrous friendship of a French Minister for the Christian-slaying Sultan! Can any one possibly find any absolution, any excuses, for such a deplorable mismanagement of our material and moral interests in the East? Gradually, unless something can be done to check these unfortunate tendencies of our diplomacy, William II will announce that the time has come for the apotheosis, _a la turque,_ of a Protestant Emperor. And then, all of a sudden after this gradual preparation, the Catholics and the Holy Places of the Orthodox will be delivered over to one of the only forces of Christianity, to that which gives absolution for murder and protects the slayer of Christians. Race, nationality, politics, trade, influence and guarantees, all may be summed up in Oriental countries in a single word: Religion! Must, then, a government seek to advance the cause of its State religion, not from religious conviction, but in the spirit which seeks to retain the privileges and wealth it has acquired and its powers of self-defence?