They have called up the Naval
Reserves. They would not have taken this step had they not felt that in
this quarrel our interests are now directly at stake. After the example
of what Germany has done in Luxemburg and on the French border we can no
longer rely upon the presence of her Ambassador as a security against
some sudden surprise. We have no controversy with her, it is true. We
have been willing and anxious to develop those better relations with her
which had of late sprung up. We were eager to work with her for
mediation and for peace. Now she has shown her hand. She is resolved to
crush France, and to trample upon the rights of those who happen to
stand in her way. Yesterday it was Luxemburg. Today it may be Belgium or
Holland, or she may treat us as she has treated our French friends, and
assail us without a declaration of war. She will find the empire ready.
Here at home and in the far-off dominions the sure instinct of our
peoples teaches them that the ruin of France or of the Low Countries
would be the prelude to our own. We can no more tolerate a German
hegemony in Europe than we can tolerate the hegemony of any other power.
As our fathers fought Spain and France in the days of their greatest
strength to defeat their pretense to Continental supremacy, and their
menace to the narrow seas, which are the bulwark of our independence, so
shall we be ready, with the same unanimity and the same stubborn
tenacity of purpose, to fight any other nation which shows by her acts
that she is advancing a like claim and confronting us with a like
threat.
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