Mr. Balfour was specially interesting on the meaning of a
return to the status quo, which Germans now speak of as being a highly reasonable proposal. Out of the situation before the war the Ger- mans made war with great ease. To reproduce that situation would be to enable them to make war a second time just as easily. What sounds a moderate offer is really a negation of all the security which we are fighting for. Mr. Balfour cast regretful glances back on the pre-Bismarckian days, and there his insight was certainly not at fault. Bismarck was the poisoner of German diplomacy. He in- vented the system of doing unscrupulous things in such a way, and at such moments, that the blame could he laid on somebody else, and Germany would appear as the unhappy victim rather than as the author of wrong. His reminiscences axe filled with examples of the high perfection to which he brought this odious art. It is this art which is still the chief inspiration of the German Govern- ment. We see instances of it daily.
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