Many journals
consider that the French Government, in declaring itself ready to impose
three years' service, and in nominating M. Delcasse to St. Petersburg,
has adopted the only attitude worthy of the great Republic in presence
of a German provocation. At the Foreign Office I found a more just and
calm appreciation of the position. They see in the reinforcement of
the German armies less a provocation than the admission of a military
situation weakened by events and which it is necessary to strengthen.
The Government of Berlin sees itself obliged to recognize that it cannot
count, as before, on the support of all the forces of its Austrian ally,
since the appearance in South-east Europe of a new Power, that of the
Balkan allies, established on the very flank of the Dual Empire. Far
from being able to count, in case of need, on the full support of the
Government of Vienna, it is probable that Germany will have to support
Vienna herself. In the case of a European war she would have to make
head against her enemies on two frontiers, the Russian and the French,
and diminish perhaps her own forces to aid the Austrian army. In these
conditions they do not find it surprising that the German Empire should
have felt it necessary to increase the number of its Army Corps.
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