The stakes are too high to play under unfavourable conditions.

But if France thinks she has all the trumps in her hands, she will not shrink from an offensive war, and will stake even thing in order to strike us a mortal blow.

We must expect the most bitter hostility from this antagonist.

Should the Triple Alliance break up--as seems probable now--this hour will soon have struck.[B] If the war then declared be waged against us in combination with England, it may be assumed that the allied Great Powers would attempt to turn our strategical right flank through Belgium and Holland, and penetrate into the heart of Germany through the great gap in the fortresses between Wesel and Flushing.

This operation would have the considerable advantage of avoiding the strong line of the Rhine and threatening our naval bases from the land side.