TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

Count Ebnst zu Reventix)w*s book " The Vam-
pire of the Continent,'' of which I have much pleas-
ure in presenting a considerably abridged English
edition to American readers, cannot be too strongly
recommended to all those who desire to obtain an
insight into the hidden recesses of European political
history, where the forces are at work which have
shaped the evolution of Europe since about the mid-
dle of the sixteenth century. It is the first syste-
matic attempt to go to the root of things, to lay bare
the developmental forces in question that have es-
caped the attention of partial or insufficiently clear-
sighted historians up till now. With rare penetra-
tion and skill does County Reventlow show all such
forces to find their synthesis in England's Will to
Power — to use an expression coined by Nietzsche —
in England's insatiable greed, in her limitless crav-
ing for the riches of this world. The center-point
of European history during the last S50 years is to
be found in London. It is here that have been
spun all the threads of the countless political in-
trigues, the result of which has been to turn the
palaces and cottages of Europe alike into shambles,
her sunny fields and pastures into a desert deluged
with human blood. And, meanwhile, the bams and
granaries of England were filled with com, her ware*
houses with goods of all descriptions from all cor-
ners of the globe; her factories and workshops
poured forth their products with quadrupled energy ;
her warships prowled along the ocean highways,
stealing all they could lay hands on, whether it
belonged to friend or foe or neutral; and her trad-
ing vessels transported her manufactured articles to
all countries, draining the wealth of the latter in
exchange, and filling the pockets of the British mer-
chant with gold.

• The more greatly Europe was impoverished, the
more did England's wealth increase. Therefore has
England stirred up wars innumerable, in which she
has herself taken practically no part, in order to
ruin Europe economically, morally, and politically.
Therefore has she always sought to prevent by all
means the rise of any prosperous European State
capable of competing with her in the markets of the
world. She knew that, as long as she ruled the
seas, Europe was helpless, and that the monopoly
of the oversea trade belonged to her. Therefore did
it become a fundamental principle of hers to destroy
mercilessly the sea power of every nation, as soon as
this sea power showed signs of growing to an extent
such that England's ^^ maritime supremacy" would
be threatened.

Founded on piracy, the British Empire has been
built up at the expense of humanity. The English
commenced by robbing the Spanish treasure-ships —
acts of murderous and dastardly brigandage which
are held up to Englishmen to-day as deeds of prowess.
They continued by robbing Canada and the States
from the French, Gibraltar from the Spaniards, In-
dia from the French and the Portuguese, South
Africa from the Dutch, Egypt and Cyprus from the
Turks, Malta from the Italians — and last, but not
least, Ireland from the Irish. Over the whole world
' we can follow the trail of the venomous serpent,
which has fastened its deadly fangs into so many
victims. Over the whole world we hear the cry for
vengeance and for redemption.

The great merit of Count Reventlow's work is that
of showing us the history of Europe in its true light.
Pitilessly has the historian here torn to shreds the
garment of hypocrisy in which the English seek to
clothe themselves; spurred on by the sole desire of
impartiality searching for the truth, he has rent
asunder the veil which they have thrown over the
real history of the world with a cleverness equalled
only by their unscrupulousness. England is here
exposed to the reader in all her hideous nakedness,
with not even a rag to cover her sores ; in the cold,
unshaded light of facts she appears before our eyes
— no longer as the " Liberator,'* but as the Vampire
saturated with the blood of its victims, as the Shy-
lock gorged with ill-gotten wealth, as the Parasite
grown fat on the marrow of the boned of all the peo-
ples of the earth.

Count Reventlow's book is not only a book to be
read ; it should be re-read many times, pondered on,
slowly and carefully digested; the great lessons it
teaches us should be engraved in our minds* When
the world has grasped the central truth taught by
all the facts of its history during the last 850 years
or thereabouts — the truth, namely, that Europe
has never been considered by England as anything
else but an instrument adapted to increasing the
latter's wealth and power: then only can the salva-
tion of the world be hoped for.

Spain, Holland, France, who, all of them, de-
fended the interests of Europe against England^
have been vanquished. But the victories of Eng-
land were never obtained by England herself. Phys-
ical courage, endurance, organisation, are not char-
acteristics of the Vampire. England's victories
were obtained by Europe against Europe. From the
outset England succeeded in trading on the ignorance
and stupidity of Europe; admirably did she under-
stand how to wave red cloths before the eyes of the
European bulls, skilfully goaded to fury by her;
equally admirably did she understand how to enthrall
them with sententious phrases about ^^ liberty " and
^^ justice," even as the mermaids of old enthralled
unsuspecting mariners by means of their divinely
sweet melodies. The English Mermaid bewitched
Europe with her Song of Liberty ; and only too late
has Europe discovered that it was a Song of Death.

But has she discovered it? We fear the truth is
only just beginning to dawn. France at any rate does
not yet perceive that she is being bled to death
for the sake of England, who employs her to-day
against Germany, even ad she employed Q^ermany
against Louis XIV and Napoleon in former centu-
ries. France, Belgium, Russia, Italy, are to-day
England's instruments. By means of them does she
hope to destroy Germany and Austria-Hungary;
but she also hopes that by destroying these, they
will have eo ipso destroyed themselves. The whole
of Europe will thus be drained to the last drop of
blood, exhausted, ruined; and on those ruins will
England's trade flourish anew. The harvest reaped
as the result of the Napoleonic wars will be reaped
again.

Such was England's calculation. It was a mis-
taken one. For the first time in her history since the
Elizabethan period, England has miscalculated her
chances. Grievously miscalculated them! Ger-
many has to-day assumed the glorious task of lib-
erating the world from the clutches of 'the British
parasite. She it is who continues the great mission
of Napoleon, who takes up the sword dropped by
him, and which France, unfortunately, is to-day un-
willing to wield. In this great war everyone must
take his part — for it is a struggle between light and
darkness, between truth and lies, between manly vigor
and parasitical cowardice, between civilisation and
barbarism. Grermany, the champion of the light
and the truth, against the power of darkness and
mendacity ! Under such circumstances, to sit on the
fence would be contemptible. And those who cannot
fight with the sword must fight with the pen.

Germany, in fighting for her own existence, is
fighting also for the liberation of the wdrld. The
great day of liberation will surely come, sooner or
later. The conditio sine qua non of that liberation
is the destruction of England's maritime supremacy.
For as long as England rules the waves, humanity
must remain her slave. This is a fundamental truth.
And another fundamental truth is that England's
maritime supremacy cannot be destroyed until IRE-
LAND IS A FREE COUNTRY.

The one criticism which can be levelled against
Count Reventlow's admirable work is that it has not
fsujficiently insisted on this second great truth. As
long as Ireland remains a British colony — or,
rather, a British fortress — England can at any
time shut off the whole of Northern and Eastern
Europe from all access to the ocean; even as, by
means of Gibraltar and Port Said and Aden, she can
close the Mediterranean. Ireland is the key to the
Atlantic. Release Ireland from her bondage, and
the Atlantic is at once opened up to Europe.

Therefore must Ireland be restored to Europe,
if Europe is to be free. An independent, neutral
Irish Nation would be the natural bulwark of European
liberty in the West. The freedom of Europe
depends on the freedom of the seas ; and the freedom
of the seas depends on the liberation of Ireland.

We hear a lot about Ireland's helplessness and
poverty. And it is nothing but trash accumulated
by England's scribes and hirelings. Ireland, the
most fertile country in Europe; Ireland, whose
flourishing industry was deliberately destroyed by
England ; Ireland, whose civilisation reaches back far
beyond the Christian Era into the dim twilight of
the ages, and whose missionaries carried, during the
early Middle Ages, the torch of learning and piety
all over Western and Central Europe ; Ireland, who,
in the nineteenth century alone, whilst artificially-
made famines wrought havoc amongst her children,
furnished one thousand million pounds sterling to her
oppressor for investment in the lattcr's world-policy ;
Ireland, whose sturdy sons, broken on the wheel of
misery, were decoyed to the number of 2,000,000
during the. nineteenth century into England's army
of mercenaries ; Ireland, whose geographical position
makes of her the connecting link between Europe and
America, and whose forty harbors to-day lie empty
and desolate at England's behest ; Ireland, whose eco-
nomic and biological wealth has formed the basis on
which the whole structure of the British Pirate Em-
pire has been reared: — Ireland is a rich country,
rich by reason of her economic resources, and rich
by reason of the incomparable moral qualities of the
Irish race.

Europe has too long forgotten Ireland, too long
has she shut her ears to Ireland's cry of distress.
And to-day the most far-sighted of her thinkers and
statesmen recognise that the secret of Europe's fu-
ture destinies lies embedded in the green isle of Erin.

In his great speech *in the Reichstag on August
19th, 1915, the Grerman Chancellor, Herr von Beth-
mann-HoUweg, said : " The welfare of all peoples and
nations demands that we obtain the freedom of the
^eas, not — as England has done — in order to rule
the latter ourselves, but in order that they may serve
.equally the interests of all peoples." The words
spoken by the Chancellor prove that Germany un-
derstands the nature of the immense historical task
incumbent on her; and we may confidently believe
that she likewise realises the conditions under which
alone this task can be satisfactorily accomplished.

Despising the foul calumnies and the impotent
vituperation of England's scribes, Erin waits calmly
and confidently for the great day of her liberation.
The best proofs of her invincible strength — proofs
which no English lies can suppress — she carries
within her bosom: namely, her Existence and her
Faith. Alone against the most powerful empire in
the world since the days of Rome, Ireland has sur-
vived. The British Butcher has tried in vain during
three centuries to exterminate her; and yet, just be-
fore the war broke out, he was forced to hold out
his gory hands in a vain attempt to coax the victim
he had intended to strangle. Her race, her religion.



TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE xiii

her traditions, her language — Ireland has main-
tained them all, and yet no foreign help has been
hers since the days of Napoleon. Often has she been
deceived, but none the less is her faith to-day stronger
than ever. For England's difficulty is Ireland's op-
portunity. These who, to-day, are intently listen-
ing, can hear the groan of an empire staggering
under the blows rained mercilessly upon it — they
can hear, as if borne on the wings of Time, a music
like unto a distant death-knell, tolled by bells of the
future cast by German hands, strong, swift, un-
daunted.

And meanwhile voices are calling to us, voices from
the grave, the voices of our dead — of the martyrs
who died for Ireland, — sacred voices that we hear
both waking and in dreams, and that bid us watch
and pray and be of good cheer, for the Green Flag
of Erin is to-day unfurled in the whirlwind along-
side of the Black, White, and Red.

G. C.-H.

Geneva, September MCMXV.
Source

I haven't laughed so hard in ages. Thank you, Mr. Revenflow.