Page:The heart of Europe; an address delivered by Charles Pergler in Washington, December 11, 1916, at a conference of oppressed or dependent nationalities (IA heartofeuropeadd00pergrich).pdf/24

lin, and without keeping in bondage the Slav nationalities in Central and Southeastern Europe. When German dreams of world dominion were endangered by the victories of the Balkan League in 1913, the German attitude found striking expression in a speech of the Chancellor, delivered April 7, 1913, in the German Reichstag in support of increased military appropriations; from it the following deserves to be quoted verbatim: “For the future it is decisive that instead of European Turkey, whose life as a state has become passive, have appeared states that show a remarkable strength of life. We all have an interest in seeing this power prove itself of the best in peace as it has in war, and to see the Balkan states grow in close economic and cultural contact with their neighbors and with the group of Western powers. Thus they shall also be factors making for progress and European peace. But in spite of this, one thing is certain: If it should ever come to an European war wherein Slavs and Germans shall stand against each other, then it would mean damage to the Germans if in the present system of equilibrium southern Slav states were to take the place hitherto occupied by European Turkey.” These are thoughts couched of course in diplomatic language, but it is obvious that even then the German Chancellor had in mind the bugaboo of a racial conflict between Slavs and Germans; not because Germany had suffered any real damage, but because Southern Slavs had thrown off the yoke of Turkey and had asserted their right to growth as independent nations. Such was the political philosophy which dominated Ber-