From that day the counsels of the allies and their new found "friend" thickened and quickened.

The immovable "menace across the Rhine" in one case had become the active "menace across the North Sea" in the other case.
The sin of German militarism was at last out.

It could take to the water as kindly as to the land.

As long as the war machine guaranteed the inviolability of German territory it was no threat to European peace, but when it assumed the task of safe-guarding German rights at sea it became the enemy of civilization.

These trading people not content with an army that kept French "revanche" discreetly silent and Slav "unity" a dream of the future presumed to have a sea-born commerce that grew by leaps and bounds, and they dared to build a navy to defend and even to extend it.