Count von Moltke made a speech in the German Parliament
on April 24 which has given rise to unreasonable apprehension. He was asking for 105 extra captaincies, and stated that he did not believe in peace ; that this was a period of distrust among nations ; that France was organising her army with great zeal and intelligence ; that her peace force was greater than the German and her army expenditure one-fourth larger ; and that her troops were concentrated towards the borders, a fact which would necessi- tate a similar arrangement in Germany. All this sounded ominous, but Count von Molke also said that Germany was bound to be peaceful, and wanted no territory which would impair her homogeneity, and he explained on the following day that his main
object had been to plead for a particular distribution of the German troops, to which, it seems, the Emperor is disinclined. The French Press criticised the speech with more calmness than usual, and the public mind of Europe has not been much dis- turbed by it, sensible people seeing that France will not attack without an ally, and that Germany will not invade now that the French Army is ready again, without a serious cause.
