On Monday the Cologne Gazette, perhaps thrown off its balance
by the impressive centenary celebrations of the War of Liberation, published a sensational attack upon France. The article was headed " The Disturber of the Peace." A more lamentable piece of mischief-making it is impossible to imagine. We give the following extract from the article as it is translated in the Times:— " We do not underestimate the factors which arise out of the new order of things in the Balkans, but when sacrifices are demanded, as they are demanded now, the finger must be pointed plainly to the point whence the most immediate peril threatens us. That is France. Never has the relationship to our Western neighbour been strained as to-day, never has the idea of revenge been exhibited there so nakedly, and never has it become so plain that people in Franco claim the help of their Russian Ally and the friendship of England solely for the pur- pose of reconquering Alsace-Lorraine. In whatever corner, therefore, the world may catch fire we—that is quite certain— shall have to cross swords with the French. When that will happen nobody can know."
The German Government has consistently and very properly explained that the proposed enormous increase of expenditure on the army is due to the upsetting of the balance of power by the rise of the Balkan Alliance. The Cologne Gazette itself has published the semi-official statements to that effect.
