In the Reichstag on Wednesday week Herr von Bethmann Hollweg
made a long and very important statement on the inten, Mons of Germany. In his review of the military situation he took the strange course of saying that Germany could never be starved, and at the same time justifying Germany's criminal warfare at sea on the ground that she was being starved. As regards the possibility of peace, he said that Herr (sic) Asquith had treated Germany to invective which it would be unbecoming in him to answer, and that the British ambition was announced to be the "complete and final destruction of the military power of Prussia." We need hardly say that British policy is nething of the sort ; it aims at the destruction of Prussian militarism— the cynical, brutal, and predatory spirit of Prussian thilitarY' rulers. We could never prevent Prussia from having a powerful Army. The Imperial Chancellor said that if Herr Asquith sat down at a table with him and made such a proposal the conversa- tion would be "ended before it had begun." Presently Herr von Bethmann Hollweg went a step further in his distortion of Mr. Asquith's statement, and said that the Allies desired to destroy
" free and united Germany." He prophesied, however, that they odd- "smash their heads."
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