14 DECEMBER 1918, Page 3

Professor Hans Delbeick, the well-known Professor of History at Berlin

and editor of the Preu.ssische Jahrbilther, the chief German monthly review, confesses in the December issue, according to the Times, that, like Grote, he has outlived his faith. He had deceived himself, he says, and had been deceived by the Supreme Command into thinking that Germany could force us to make a peace without victory, and thus gain time to transform her system without a revolution. "Our hope has deceived us ; our pride is broken." lie declares that the Supreme Command forbade him to publish the numbers of American troops sent to France by June on the ground that the official figures were "American bluff." When Prince Max of Baden became Chancellor on October 1st all was lost, but he tried, Professor Delbriick admits, to persuade the Allies that Germany was not beaten but had undergone a change of heart. Our few credulous Pacificists who took Prince Max to their bosoms should note this cynical avowal. If Professor Delbrack, an able man and a Court favourite, who was in the secrets of the Government, allowed himself to be deceived, we can imagine the profound disillusionment of the ordinary German.