Count von Billow's criticisms on the German Socialists in the
Reichstag have elicited a striking retort from M. Jaures. Writing in the Humanite of Monday, he condemns the German Chancellor for his senseless concessions to the growing exigencies of militarism, and in particular for fastening on the German Socialists a charge of fostering war by their attacks on the Czar's Government. War between Russia and Germany was the very last thing the German Social Democracy wanted, since, if Russia won, the Cossacks would crush the germs of liberty and democracy in Germany, while if Germany prevailed, the prestige of the Hohenzollern would be enhanced. As for the insinuation that France has an arriere pensie of war, M. Jaures replies that, with the exception of a few excited groups and uninfluential agitators, all France desires peace, with Germany as with the rest of the world. " The Govern- ment or the Parliament suspected of wanting to launch the country into an adventure of revenge would be swept away by a formidable movement of opinion." He believed that Germany, like France, was resolutely pacific. What was wanting in the two peoples was not the desire to maintain peace, but the courage to effect to their mutual deter- mination, and to make all their acts and words square with their sentiments.
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