was an avowed supporter of the Western Policy. At
the present moment, while we are standing as mourners
at the grave of our national hopes, I am more than ever
convinced, that had this policy been steadily pursued,
we should have been spared the catastrophe that has
overtaken us.

On the other hand, I will not deny, that even the
Oriental Policy would have proved a feasible political
scheme, if only we had decided to pursue it in good time.
Albeit, I am of opinion that even Bismarck had already
started us in the direction of the Western Policy, when
in 1879 he decided in favor of Austria-Hungary and not
Russia. Despite all that the careworn recluse of Fried-
richsruhe may have written against Caprivi's policy,
which was decidedly Western in tendency, he was him-
self the founder of the Triple Alliance, which, without
the good-will of England, could not have come into ex-
istence. Had we pursued an Eastern Policy, though it
would ultimately have led to the sacrifice and partition
of Austria-Hungary, it would not have secured us those
advantages in the Orient of which Marschall speaks.
Nevertheless, I have always regretted that we sent such
a first-rate man to Constantinople, for him ultimately
to become the able director of the false policy which we
pursued there. There is an Oriental proverb which
says: "Never lay your load on a dead camel's back."

If, as I always used to hope, we had resolved to adopt
the Western Policy, we should in any case have had to
be prepared, in certain circumstances, to venture with
England's help upon a war against Russia. And the
experiences of the Five-Years War have taught us that
we should have won such a conflict with ease. I never
wanted a war with Russia, and was never an enemy of
that country; but I believed that our position among the
nations of the world would compel us to decide one way

-2-