If they had declared war then, they, might
have had no serious interference from our Navy during the passage of
their transports, which, of course, would be protected on that flank
by their entire fleet of warships.
At first glance, it seems too fanciful a plan to commend itself to
belief, but in talking it over with German officers, I found they
fully believed in it as a practical proposition. They themselves
enlarged on the idea of the use that they would thus make of the civil
population, and foreshadowed their present brutality by explaining
that when war came, it would not be made with kid gloves. The meaning
of their commands would be brought home to the people by shooting down
civilians if necessary, in order to prove that they were in earnest,
and to force the inhabitants through terror to comply with their
requirements.
Further investigations on the subject proved that the embarkation
arrangements were all planned and prepared for. At any time in the
ordinary way of commerce there were numerous large mail steamers
always available in their ports to transport numbers even largely in
excess of those that would be assembled for such an expedition. Troops
could be mobilised in the neighbourhood of the ports, ostensibly for
manoeuvres, without suspicion being aroused.
It is laid down in German strategical textbooks that the time for
making war is not when you have a political cause for it, but when
your troops are ready and the enemy is unready; and that to strike the
first blow is the best way to declare war.
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