4 MARCH 1916, Page 13

HERR VON BETHMANN HOLLWEG AND " NECESSITY."

[To THR EDITOR OF THY " SPECTATOR.")

Srn,—We have read lately that, from the official record of the German Chancellor's well-known speech, the acknowledgment of the wrong done to Belgium and the plea of " necessity " have been expunged. Perhaps he, or the German Emperor, has been reading Milton ! Certainly the following passage might have affected either painfully, even though the two cases are not in all respects parallel:

" And should I at your harmless innocence

Melt, as I doe, yet public reason just, Honour and Empire with revenge cnlarg'd, By conquering this new world, compels me now

To do what else though &mufti I should abhorre.

So spake the Fiend, and with necessitie, The Tyrant's plea, excus'd his devilish deeds."

—Paradise Lost, IV., 388-394.