We must use it, if we wish to be mindful of the warning of the Great Elector, that we are Germans.

This is the point of view from which we must carry out our preparations for war by sea and land.

Thus only can we be true to our national duty.
I do not mean that we should adopt precipitately measures calculated merely for the exigencies of the moment.

All that we undertake in the cause of military efficiency must meet two requirements: it must answer the pressing questions of the present, and aid the development of the future.

But we must find the danger of our position a stimulus to desperate exertions, so that we may regain at the eleventh hour something of what we have lost in the last years.
Since the crucial point is to safeguard our much-threatened position on the continent of Europe, we must first of all face the serious problem of the land war--by what means we can hope to overcome the great numerical superiority of our enemies.