HISTORY THROUGH GERMAN EYES.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14838, 2 December 1913, Page 6

HISTORY THROUGH GERMAN EYES.

Englishmen who wish their Government and their countrymen- to view foreign policy with clear and honest eyes, will thank Princo yon Biilow for his candid avowal of a policy which has long been clear to many English observers, but they will protest against the disregard of facts which runs through his revelations. If the cabled summary of his book does it justice, tho ex-Chancellor considers that the German Navy has been built to meet the serious risk of attack by England. Fifteen years ago," he gays, "the " problem was to avoid a conflict with "England while the fleet was built." This is a complete reversal of the facts. Fifteen years ago no one in England, save those who had studied the writings of Treitschke and other German professors, dreamed of tho possibility of war with Germany. The Government never considered Germany, as a potential enemy. Franco and Russia were tho countries that had to bo watched and checked. It was not until the South African war that English people began to realise how unfriendly German sentiment was towards them, and it was\ not until some years later that certain publicists, assisted by Germnny's bullying of France, succeeded in arousing the public to the nature of tho danger in tho North Sea. As late as 1903, only ten years ago, we find tho Prime Minister of England saying:—"I do not in the least under- " stand, and I havo never been ablo " to understand, tho causes which hay. " produced disliko to England in " Germany." It is a favourite argument of Germans that England, by concluding an entento with France, compelled Germany to strengthen her defences. But the entente with Franco was accomplished some time after the famous German Navy Bill of 1900, the foundation of the present Fleet/was passed. This Bill was quite clearly aimed at England. But years before Treitschke and others had been fulminating against England, and lending their authority to a modern version of "Delenda est Carthago." - And in 1897 wo find the Kaiser seeing to his sailor brother: "I shall never rest "until I have raised my navy to the ''same height as my army." The facts aro all against the idea, which, of course, the German official world wants to foster, that it was England's menaoe that mado Germany decide to become a great naval Power.

. Now that vthe cases of Bailey and Fraser, two of the Wellington strike leaders, havo been dealt with, wo are free to comment upon their offences. Bailey was the man who recommended the strikers to resort to arson and "a littlo sabotage." Fraser suggested that the strikers should break into shops. Mr P. J, O'Regan, in defending Bailey, said "tho accused now realised tho seriousness of his position. In time of popular excitement and stress a man was liable to be carried away." He pleaded that justice might be tempered with mercy. In pleading . for mercy for Fraser, Mr O'Regan said that "the outburst was quite unpremeditated." and that "the accused would be the last person in tho world to put this doctrine ;ho has preached into practice." "It was most unfortunate," ho added, "and I cannot defend it." We should like tho public to note this defence very carefully, and we should like still better that the strikers and their friends should reflect upon it.

The man Fraser, in recommending robbery to a mob which he knew to be ready for acts of violence, was himself conscious of the wickedness of the methods ho advocated. He himself was quite cool-headed. He was not outlining a course of action for himself, or for his colleagues. He was urging on an excited and credulous rabble a

courso of action which he himself would have been careful not to follow. But the mob did not know that. They would feel certain that their adviser would take the lead in breaking into tho shops. It would not enter their head."? that when tho time came for action the man who had incited them would, on his own counsel's admission, havo been clsewhore. Wo need not emphasise the wickedness of such incitements to violence. What wo would emphasise, however, is the light which this little incident throws upon the methods and policy of tho 6triko leaders. Too clever themselves to commit the acts they advocate, they rely upon the ardour and simplicity of their dupes to do the damage. In whose interests do they thus grossly imposo upon the general body of unionists? Obviously not in the interests of the men whom they would lure to ruin while escaping it themselves.

The older members of the famous company of Irish players from the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, must bo getting used to riotous audiences. Doubtless in the company who, as reported in our cable news this morning, were hooted and attacked in Liverpool by infuriated Irish people, thero were somo who in the days when Synge's masterpieces were being introduced to the Dublin public, spoke their parts night after night amid such an uproar that no sound carried over the footlights. When they went into tho Abbey Theatre in those early days of tho new Irish movement in drama, the people of Dublin left their -sens© of

humour at home. By an irony of fate, Mr W. B. Yeats, whose heart was entirely given to Ireland, saw policemen brought in. to restore order on tho first" night of his ''Countess Kathleen." while the first acted play of the greatest Irish writer of his time, Synge's "The Shadow of the Glen." raised an even greater-storm of indignation. The suggestion that an Irishwoman could be unfaithful to her husband blinded the audience to the comedy and poetry of the play.

But it was in 1907, over "The Playboy of the Western World," that the fiercest storm broke. The story is of a young braggart peasant lad of amazing imagination, who is lionised by the district because ho says he has killed his father rather than submit to his tyranny. The audience, unable to see tho psychology of the play, thought that Syngc implied that tlie peasantry of Mayo deemed it an heroic act to kill one's father, whereas, as a critic says, ho implies nothing more criminal in these people than a bias towards romance. The audience also thought they saw in an allusions to "shifts," a reflection on the modesty of Irishwomen, and these two factors kept the theatre in an uproar for a week.

Such was Synge's reward for replacing the grotesque stage Irishman by flesh and blood rich in humour and imagination. The importation of a band of Trinity College students to keep order had a contraty effect, for they responded to the uproar of pit and gallery with thunders of "God Save the King." However, Synge's work was too good not to prevail over opposition, and Dublin has long since been much more than reconciled to the unique comedy, tragedy, and poetry of the plays. But when tho Abbey Company went to New York "The Playboy" was howled down by furious Irish-Americans, and now tho Irish of Liverpool, where Miss Horniman is doing such splendid work for dramatic culture, have followed suit. In time, of course, New York and Liverpool will delight in Synge just as Dublin does. In tho meantime the unkindly Saxon will ask whether "Macbeth" is to be forbidden or set in another country so as not to hurt the feelings of Scots, or whether the scene of "Hamlet" is to be laid in that No-man's Land of Maeterlinck because the villainy of Claudius is to the modern Dane an intolerable insult to his Royal houso.

It will bo surprising if action of some kind docs not follow the very serious allegations which Mr Maxse, tho editor of tho "National Review," has brought against tho British Liberal Party. He has now stated that in March and April of 1911, the Party invested £66,000 through a stockbroker named Fenner, and that Fenner was allowed to continue his peculations months after he had made away with £70,000. Tho implication is that Fenner, who absconded after his bankruptcy (which was tho accident that led to the revelation of some of the Marconi dealings of Ministers), could havo retaliated had Lord Murray, of Elibank, the controller of tho Party funds, mado any unpleasantness. In the October number of his review Mr Maxse printed full particulars of certain investments of Party funds in Home railways stock during the coal strike of 1912, which Ministers were engaged in settling. The strike, of course, affected the price of Home Railways, and anyone, with money to invest, and with an inside knowledge of the course of the settlement negotiations, could obviously have made a great deal of money by judicious investments. Mr Maxse, says Lord Murray, did mako investments in Home Railways at the time, and he gives particulars, even to the dates and amounts of the cheques paid in. Mr Maxse declared that he intended to ask some further questions of Ministers, and he is apparently being as good as his word.

Tlie wheel may turn full circle in Mexico. President Huerta has invited tho aged Porfirio Diaz to return to Mexico from Europe, and the ex-Presi-dent has accepted the invitation. The invitation is a , most striking tribute to Diaz's rub. Diazmade himself master of Mexico and ruled it for thirty-four years, giving at comparative peace and a great measure of progress. In 1911 ho was defeated by Madero, who in turn was deposed by Huerta, At present the country seems to bo in a state of chaos. Huerta is losing ground, and there is apparently more than ono claimant to his place. Threatened with defeat by a rival who would give him short shrift if he caught him, and with tho UniEcd States pressing him to resign, Huerta appeals to Diaz, now spending the evening of his lifo in Europe. It is a striking acknowledgment of his genius that this man of 83 should be asked to return to resolve into order tho chaos that has fallen on his country since his departure. .

Diaz had gravo faults as a ruler. Ho was in somo ways an unscrupulous tyrant. He did littlo or nothing to improve the economic conditions that are mainly responsible for Mexican revolutions. But ho was a strong man, and he did a very great deal for Mexico. An American correspondent tells an interesting story of how Diaz and he watched the mail train approaching the capital, and how Diaz recalled the days when there was no train, when travellers came to Mexico City by coach, and were regularly robbed on the way. Then there was no order in tho land, and the foreigner's life and property were at the mercy of bands of robbers. Diaz looked on that luxurious md punctual train as typical of tho revolution he had worked in Mexico. Ho had put down disorder, made the foreigner safe, introduced the comforts and refinements of civilisation, and indirectly brought about an enormous increaso in the country's trade and commerce. Since he left, tho country has been slowly slipping back to barbarism. But howmuch can he do now? He is an old man, and he cansi-i rule far long. During his long reign ba. made the great mistake mado by other autocrats: he did not train anybody to succeed him.

The methods of the Drivers' Union are extremely puzzling. The secretary is a member of the Federation Executive, and he feels that he ought to bo up and doing, and his idea of doing appears to be to wrestle confusedly with circumstances. Inat is the explanation, we should say, of the decision of the union to call upon those drivers to strike once more, the pre-

vious "exemptions" being repeated. An appeal is also made to involve the Butchers' Union in the strike. We should say that the drivers, if they are sensible, will rebel against the idea that they may be called out, and sent hack, and generally trifled with, according to the mood or the section which is desirous of making trouble.