This
tendency to chauvinism was recognized as a menace to peace, and we find
reflections of that feeling in the Belgian dispatches. Thus, for instance,
Baron Guillaume, Belgian minister at Paris, writes on February, 21, 1913,
of M. Poincare:--
It is under his Ministry that the military and slightly chauvinistic
instincts of the French people have awakened. His hand can be seen in
this modification; it is to be hoped that his political intelligence,
practical and cool, will save him from all exaggeration in this course.
The notable increase of German armaments which supervenes at the moment
of M. Poincare's entrance at the Elysee will increase the danger of a
too nationalistic orientation of the policy of France.
Again, on March 3, 1913:--
The German Ambassador said to me on Saturday: "The political situation
is much improved in the last forty-eight hours; the tension is generally
relaxed; one may hope for a return to peace in the near future. But what
does not improve is the state of public opinion in France and Germany
with regard to the relations between the two countries. We are persuaded
in Germany that a spirit of chauvinism having revived, we have to fear an
attack by the Republic. In France they express the same fear with regard
to us. The consequence of these misunderstandings is to ruin us both.
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