But we must be careful not to attribute to the
speeches of the Nazi rulers that currency value which they would possess if uttered in the House of Lords. The weapon of overt insult is so recent an addition to the armoury of diplomatic intercourse that it arouses undue apprehension and surprise. . The currency of Nazi pronouncements has become so inflated that to buy a tram ticket requires a note of one thousand marks. We must discount their insults at their own rate of exchange. It must be remembered also that the whole German conception of policy is (as I have often said before) a military and not a civilian conception. I have been reading recently an interesting and instructive book which Baron von Kiihlmann has just published under the title of Die Diplomaten. In this book the negotiator of the Treaty of Brest-Litowsk reminds his countrymen of an old German saying : " In politics a sudden and surprising success must in the end be dearly paid for ; often too dearly." Somnambulists, alas, do not read such books, or think about the less immediate future.
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