VI.
"BUT there is nothing of that sort and there are no military projects at all," we shall be answered; "it is only that two nations feeling mutual sympathy express those feelings to each other. What is there wrong in the fact that the representatives of a friendly nation have been received with special celebrations and honour by the representatives of another nation? What is there wrong even if one admits that the alliance may have value as a defence against a dangerous neighbour threatening the peace of Europe?"
What is wrong is that it is all the most obvious and shameless lie, a wicked lie with nothing to justify it. This sudden exceptional love of the Russians for the French, and of the French for the Russians, is a lie; and our implied dislike for the Germans and mistrust of them is a lie too. And it is a still greater lie that the object of all these unseemly and senseless orgies is the preservation of the peace of Europe.
We all know that we have neither felt in the past any special love for the French, nor are we feeling it now; just as we have not felt and are not feeling any hostility to the Germans.
32
