I am one of those French people who have hoped, up to the very last moment, for a continuation of good commercial relations (which means good political relations) with Italy; I am one of those who first believed in the possibility of re-establishing a good understanding under both these headings; but for this very reason I retain a certain susceptibility and pride which others, less sincere in the pursuit of a definite reconciliation, certainly do not possess. Sadly I have followed the cavalcade of the Prince of Naples to Metz. I can find no joy in the words of King Humbert, which M. Gaston Calmette has reproduced so wittily and with such good nature, in the _Figaro_. From my point of view, both these actions of the King of Italy were inspired by William II; and both had the same object in view, viz. to prove at Metz that he could wound us cruelly through his ally, and to prove at Venice that the good-will of Humbert I was subject to his control, dictated in his own good time, and sanctioned at his pleasure. The Emperor of Germany has inaugurated in Europe the policy of right-about-face, a policy which bewilders diplomacy, astonishes the _bourgeoisie_ and fills the nations with fear. April 27, 1894. [3] The revelations published by Mr. Valentin, Comptroller of Stores in the Cameroons, deserve to be quoted in their entirety. In the _Neue Deutsche Rundschau_ he has described the atrocities committed by governors of German colonies, or by their representatives. Wholesale butcheries, slow and horrible tortures, a new and ingenious method of scalping, the imprisonment of wives snatched from their husbands and of young girls taken from their mothers (to minister to the debaucheries of these governors and their officers) and then brought back to tell the terrible story to other unfortunate creatures destined to the same fate; the horrible brutality of sentences, by virtue of which the flesh of the victims was reduced to pulp under the eyes of the judges--the revelation of all these things leaves one's mind possessed with feelings of terror and horror, sufficient in themselves to justify any reprisals that negro races might inflict upon white people. July 23, 1894. [4] One of these days I shall tell how the house of Krupp (in which William II has so large a personal interest over and above his public interest) is about to create for itself a formidable position in China, which is likely to overthrow many calculations and may end in turning Asia upside down. The great commercial houses of Hamburg, encouraged and supported by the government at Berlin, are in telegraphic communication with every market in China. Germany's economic life is developing with frightful rapidity in Asia. September 11, 1894. [5]