hopes for the abolition of war as the questions of diplomatic method already mentioned.[67] Equally irrelevant, in any discussion of the possibility of substituting "compulsory arbitration" for war, is the attempt to distinguish between aggressive and defensive war, or to throw all the blame of aggression on either of the two belligerents; for the simple reason that each belligerent will perhaps never believe and will quite certainly never admit that his own intentions were anything but defensive or altruistic.[68] The _locus classicus_ for such protestations of innocence occurs in the Italian Green Book, where Austrian diplomats may be found declaring, _with every appearance of sincerity_, that the invasion of Serbia was a purely defensive measure. And in a sense, in such a well-armed continent, every aggression is indeed a fore-arming against the future. It might also be suggested that the crime of aggression is an offence not against an individual but against the peace of the community: and until the European community is constituted the guilt of such a crime cannot be brought home to either of the belligerents. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 65: _The Ruling Caste and Frenzied Trade in Germany_, by Maurice Millioud, Professor of Sociology in the University of Lausanne. (1915.) Reviewed in the _Manchester Guardian_ by R. C. K. E.] [Footnote 66: All that we need know, for instance, of German military conduct in Belgium is contained in the following communication made to the _Koelnische Zeitung_ by Captain Walter Brum, adjutant to the Governor-General of Belgium, who may be presumed to know the inner history of these appalling transactions:-- "The principle according to which the whole community must be punished for the fault of a single individual is justified by the theory of _terrorisation_. The innocent must suffer with the guilty; if the latter are unknown the innocent must even be punished in their place, and note that the punishment is applied not _because_ a misdeed has been committed, but _in order that_ no more shall be committed. To burn a neighbourhood, shoot hostages, decimate a population which has taken up arms against the army--all this is far less a reprisal than the sounding of a _note of warning_ for the territory not yet occupied. Do not doubt it; it was as a note of warning that Baltin, Herve, Louvain, and Dinant were burned. The burnings and bloodshed at the opening of the war showed the great cities of Belgium how perilous it was for them ..." etc.] [Footnote 67: Chapter I, Sec.Sec. 9-11.] [Footnote 68: See below, note on p. 113; and compare Brailsford, _The War of Steel and Gold_, p. 22, on "preparations which are always supposed to be defensive," and p. 264, on the methods used to support the plea that large navies are purely "defensive."] Sec. 3 The Value of German Culture