In publishing the diplomatic correspondence of the dayspreceding the outbreak of the Great War , the Governments ofEngland, Russia and France have entertained the hope of proving inthe eyes of their own people as well as of the whole civilised worldGermany 's exclusive responsibility for the most terrible bloodshed,the world has ever seen, and they hoped further to show thatthey have spared no effort in order to avoid this catastrophe.England has published a Blue Book, Russia an Orange Book, andFrance a Yellow Book. Several things seem to indicate thatthose publications which pretend to contain the full facts areincomplete in capital points, and in the particular case of theFrench Yellow Book it must be held to have been indisputablyproved that certain of the documents reproduced have beenexpressly manufactured for the purpose.*) Nevertheless thesepublications are deserving a careful comparative study.

*) An example: Chapter I of the Yellow Book, entitled: — "Aver-tissements", contains a number of documents which, beginning fromMarch 1913, are intended to demonstrate the growth of bellicose spirit inGermany . One of them, No. 5, is a note dated the 30* h of July, 1913,addressed to the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, which contains thefollowing passage: —

"..... M. de Kiderlen fut l'homme le plus haï de

"l'Allemagne , l'hiver dernier. Cependant il commence à n'être"plus que déconsidéré, car il laisse entendre qu'il prendra sa"revanche".

(Transi: ..... Mr. von Kiderlen was the most hated man

in Germany last winter. Nevertheless, he is beginning to meetwith disdain only (instead of being hated), for he is letting itbe understood that he will take his revenge (for Morocco ).Secretary of State von Kiderlen who had, according to the preced-ing statement, in the month of July 1913 begun to think of taking hisrevenge, died in December 1912, a fact which had evidently escaped

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