Professor Reiss, a Swiss, who saw the cruelties perpetrated by the Austrians and the Magyars in Serbia, and spoke in public of them in Switzerland and in Paris and London. His addresses and writings helped us and the Southern Slavs greatly.
Of a piece with this policy of violence were the untruths and positive lies systematically circulated by German and Austro-Hungarian propaganda; for what I say of Germans and Austrians applies equally to the Magyars. For instance, the lie that the French opened hostilities by crossing the frontier and by bombing German territory from aeroplanes, whereas in reality the French withdrew their army six miles behind the frontier in order to avoid “incidents.” I am persuaded that this action on the part of the French helped to win them sympathies and to overcome the reserve of England. I verified the untruth of this lying allegation; and though I admit that untruths about the Germans were spread by the Allies, it was done on a much smaller scale. English and American writers were besides, incomparably more decent and honourable than those of the enemy. For us, the character of German and Austrian propaganda was of especial importance because we were able to expose its methods in the United States. But of that I shall speak when I come to America.
The question of war guilt is being zealously debated everywhere, if only for the reason that at Versailles the Allies charged the Germans and their allies officially with aggression. I have gone through the whole literature of the question without finding any reason to change my view. In Germany and also in Austria it is now noticeable that their guilt begins to be more generally recognized than it was during the war and immediately after the peace; and I repeat that, while there may be differences of opinion upon all sorts of details, for example, whether the Russians or the Austrians mobilized a few hours sooner or later, the war of 1914 was a necessary consequence of the doctrines of militarism and of the right of the mailed fist which were most effectually formulated and propagated, philosophically and scientifically, in Prussia-Germany. Therefore the heaviest share of guilt for the war lies with Prussianism. It may be said that guilt should be ascribed in the first instance to States and to their Governments rather than to peoples. This I admit though I cannot deal here with the question how far a people is responsible for its State and, in this case, for Prussia, the leading German State. That is a problem to which I shall revert.
