Herr von Jagow, who was German Foreign Secretary from 1913
to 1916, has confirmed the main thesis of Prince Lichnowsky's memoirs, up,-,n which we comment elsewhere. "We found the English Government ready to meet us," he says in regard to the BagLiad Railway. His reason for not publishing the agreement as to Portuguese Africa was "the risk of its being attacked by our anti-British Press and in Parliament." He does not adopt "the opinion, which is at present widely held in Germany, that England laid all the mines which caused the war ; on the contrary, I believe in Sir Edward Grey's love of peace and in his serious wish to reach an agreement with us." Yet Herr von Jagow for two years after the outbreak of war tried to persuade the German people that Great Britain provoked the conflict. He adds, indeed, that Lord Grey of Fallodon "did not prevent the world-war—as he could have done " ; but he means by this that we could have compelled France by a threat of war to remain neutral, leaving Germany and Austria to deal with Russia. Herr von Jagow knows that no British Government could or would have contemplated such a monstrous absurdity, so that his complaint is irrelevant.
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