I do not agree with this contention. I have known
many Germans for many years, and have found them kind, courageous and true. Yet I admit that the German character is contradictory and uncertain, and that it contains a greater admixture of jealousy, vindictiveness and moral cowardice than is to be found in the Latin or the Anglo-Saxon tem- perament. This is due to no particular virtue on our part, but to the fact that whereas we have for generations lived in the security of wealth and power, and whereas France for more than two centuries and a half has been sublimely con- fident of the supremacy of her own culture, Germany has not been accorded by history those rewards which seemed her due. Hence comes that dreadful self-distrust which is the bane of the German character. And hence their jealousy. As an illustration of this I shall quote a passage from Friedrich Sieburg's fascinating book, Germany My Country, in which he describes how the average German regarded England during the period from 1895 to 1914: "Yes, the Englishman was the true enemy, for he had every- thing which the Germans ought to have had. He too was rich and powerful, but these attributes sat easily upon him. It was obvious at a glance that he had worn than for a long time, that he was accustomed to them, and took them as a matter of course, and that they had never cost him inc drop of sweat. What else was there for the Germans to do but to declare the English to be slack, decadent and hypocritical, and to toil desperately to rival them in the domain of power ? "
It is by exploiting this feeling that the Nazi leaders will be able, although in coarser terms, to revive again the hymn of hate.
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