THE NORTH SLESWIC QUESTION 315
But with the temporary lull in the evictions, public excitement, and consequently interest, soon subsided, without the temporary outburst of indignation having crystallized into tangible results.
For, after all, it may well be questioned whether the vast majority of the German people are not in fullest accord with the foreign policy of their rulers. Much goes to bear out this theory. Dazzled by the glitter of the arms that welded the national union, they are not as yet ready to emancipate them- selves from the magnetism of the mailed fist that pointed out to them their " manifest destiny " as the world's greatest military power. The spirit of Bismarck is still hovering above the waters of Germany's national aspirations.
It is undoubtedly for reasons connected with this fact that, while the suppression of foreign nationalities within the borders of the empire is held to be perfectly justifiable nay, com- mendable the highest degree of sensitiveness prevails in regard to the treatment of German residents in other countries. The position of the Germans in Bohemia and the Russian Baltic provinces can in no wise be compared to that of the Danes in Sleswic or of the Poles in eastern Prussia. Yet the Germans' sense of justice is continually being outraged by the iniquities to which their foreign-ruled compatriots are declared to be subjected by their masters. The selfsame methods which in Sleswic are decried as " traitorous " are being employed, with official approval and support, in the propaganda for the perpetuation of German language and sentiment in Russia and Austria. According to this adjustable standard, a Sleswic man who refuses to join in a " Hoch der Kaiser!" is stigmatized as a " perjurer," while the German merchant of Prague who declines to change the inscription on his sign at the behest of a Czechish mob is hailed as a hero. What in Flens- borg is styled " agitation " in Riga is proclaimed as martyrdom. The modern ideal of pan-Germanism is conceived of as com- prising all Germans from everywhere plus so many non-Germans from anywhere as can comfortably be digested. The means adopted for furthering the digestive process seem relatively immaterial.
