THE CAPRIVI ERA 43

now that a grave but not hopeless fate had made us the target of a world-coalition. In short, this insistence on Caprivi's standpoint under completely altered conditions was one of the historical reasons for the war taking the course it did. But more of this later.

In contrast to the land officer, the naval officer was referred to the study of overseas forces. Intercourse with foreigners moreover rounded off the rough Prussian edges in him, without killing his appreciation of the indispensable traditions of the State. For it must never be forgotten that Prussia has fashioned in her officers one of the few fixed German types, and moreover the type which has enabled us to appear as free men in the world again, since our complete lapse into foreign slavery after Frederick the Great.

"La vie au roi, L/honneur pour soi, Sacrifiant son bien, Chicane pour un Hen, Voila Tofficier prussien."

Between 1870 and 1914 the German State was too young to fashion a German type of its own. This fact did us harm in the world.

The relations of the English naval officers' corps with their German comrades were still free from jealousy in Caprivi's time. The prevailing tendency in official policy at that time to regard the British fleet as the complement of the Triple Alliance almost brought our relations to that pitch of friendliness which such an alliance implies, but this was con-