As a country we have no international policy, and European politics and policies have never interested us.
Germany is buttressed by tariffs and commercial treaties on every side.
Years ago I was told in Europe that the commercial treaties wrested from France in 1871 were of more value to Germany than the billion dollars of indemnity she took as her price to quit Paris.

But I did not realize until I was abroad this winter how European countries had warred by tariffs, and that Germany and Russia were preparing for a great clash at arms over the renewal of commercial and tariff treaties which expire within two years, and which had been forced by Germany upon Russia during the Japanese War.
German "Kultur" means German progress, commercially and financially.
German progress is by tariffs and commercial treaties.

Her armies, her arms, and her armaments, are to support this "Kultur" and this progress.
I believe I have told the story as it has never been told before.

But the facts cannot be drawn forth and properly set in review without some presentation of the spirit of the peoples of the European nations.
If all the nations of Europe were of one language, the spirit, the soul of each in its distinctive characteristics might stand out even more prominently than to-day.
Then we could see even more clearly the spirit of brotherhood and nationality that stands out resplendent as the soul of France.

We should see the spirit of empire and of trade, interknit with administrative justice, as the soul of Great Britain.