Thus, for instance, the humane measures proposed in forbidding the
bombardment of open towns and private dwellings unoccupied by troops,
or the destruction of unfortified villages, were not adopted because
the German delegate insisted on the impossibility of limiting the
powers of a commander-in-chief, who must remain the sole judge of the
utility of such destruction in the general interest of military
operations. It was the same in the case of the article whereby it was
proposed that provinces occupied by enemy forces should be guaranteed
in the maintenance of their autonomous administration and in certain
rights against the demands of invasions, Germany declared her
unwillingness to fetter in any way the decision of her army commanders.
I would ask those amongst us who rejoice at the idea of seeing William
II take part in the Exhibition of 1900, to let their thoughts dwell a
little on the attitude of the Prussian delegates at the Peace
Conference. William I took part in the Exhibition of 1867 and we know
what that visit cost France three years later.
Now that all the perfidious plans inspired by Berlin have come to
nought, now that the defenders of German policy at St. Petersburg,
Warsaw and elsewhere have come to grief, and that the Peace
Congress--even though it may not have fulfilled the generous hopes of
Nicholas II--has nevertheless led to a great advance in the opinion of
the public as in that of governments, on the subjects of arbitration
and disarmament, William II shifts his rifle on to the other shoulder.
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