[Footnote 63: "Protokoll über die Verhandlungen des Parteitags der Soz. Dem. Partei Deutschlands zu Erfurt, 1891."] This is an instance of what Germans call _Rückversicherung_, or a covering insurance. Having pledged themselves never to leave the Fatherland in the lurch--and the pledge was repeated on many occasions--they were free to babble to French, English and Italian Socialists about the blessings of internationalism, general strikes, and eternal peace. But there is no single instance on record to show that German Socialists considered any other benefits of internationalism, except those which served the purposes of their own nationalism. At Halle, 1890, Liebknecht said: "These ideas are indisputably correct. Nobody,[64] no matter how enthusiastic he may be for the international cause, will dare to maintain that we have no national duties. National and international are not opposing principles. The word 'national' must be rightly understood. It includes only a certain, limited portion of international humanity. The part belongs to the whole, and international merely means going beyond the boundary-posts of the nation, the narrower limits of the native land; to extend one's horizon to include the whole; to consider humanity as one family and the world as a home." [Footnote 64: Liebknecht was wrong. There are dupes who hold that their international obligations come before their national duties, and unfortunately in the ranks of these traitors, English M.P.'s may be found, who receive £400 per annum from the British State, presumably to aid them in injuring the British cause.] The error into which British Socialists have fallen--or been led--is their attitude towards militarism. German Democrats have never denounced the bearing of arms; they have admitted that arms will always be necessary, pre-supposing that the world continues along the same lines of development as heretofore. They have only objected to the existing _form_[65] of militarism, but otherwise they have always been unanimous that military training should be compulsory and universal. Their British _Genossen_ (comrades) have either misunderstood or wilfully perverted these teachings. German Socialists have unswervingly insisted upon every man learning the use of arms, while their British followers have preached absolute disarmament and done their utmost to betray this country into weakening herself below the minimum necessary to guard the land, and to maintain the country's pledges to the world.