THE TREATY MAKERS

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 6, 2 October 1907, Page 4

THE TREATY MAKERS

Amongst this morning's cable news there are three items, apparently entirely independent of each other A which between them contain more' matter for satisfaction to lovers of peac,e than has been furnished' by the months of discussion' at the Hague Conference. We refer to the announcements that tlie Japanese- have welcomed the Anglo-Russian agreement; that Prince von Bulow accompanies the German Emperor to England next month; arid that the English language will hereafter take the place of French as the compulsory subject in the upper classes of the Berlin Gymnasium. The significance of the first of these interesting items of news hardly needs pointing out. The new agreement is the latest addition to the crop of ententes .which have sprung from -King Edward's diplomatic activity in the last two or three years, and is another safeguard against the fracture of the peace of Europe. To-those who remember the years before the South African war, when England was "perfide Albion" to excitable French eyes and Russia the bogey-man of English-speaking people, the transformation to the conditions of to-day may well appear startling. His Majesty's brief reign has witnessed the AngloJapanese treaty, the AngloFrench entente, and now the treaty which relieves British diplomacy, and British peace of mind, of the necessity for ■(renting war with Russia as an over-present contingency. The Anglo-French enteute was not neenred without a heavy set-off in the estrangement of Germany —an estrangement fostered by reckless journals in both Empires to a point that twelve months, a ad even six months, ago, seemed io make reconciliation entirely hopeless. An Anglo-German entente is all that is required to complete the chain of peacemaking friendships. The first steps to this good end were taken •luring August, when King Edward completed his round of calls on the European monarchs by meeting the German Emperor at Wilhelmslohe. The Emperor had previously met the l.'xar at Swinemunde, where, it 'vas scnii-ofßcially stated, " all actual questions " had been discussed, and had produced " a unanimity of opinion." At that time the Anglo-Russian entente was being talked about as an svant'on the eve of arrangement, and there was, therefore,

a notable improvement in the tone of German feeling 1 towards England. Most of the Anglophobia in Germany and Teutophobia in England has been bred by reckless publicists playing upon the public proneness to alarm, but better relations have been brought about in recent months by unofficial folk on both sides, consisting of lawyers, journalists, men of science, and municipal corporations. The old, almost incurable, suspiciousness lias given place to an openminded receptivencss, and the innovation at the Berlin Gymnasium, small as it is, will not be without its effect, as it is not without' its significance, as a straw in the wind. The fact that Prince von Bulow accompanies his master to England may safely be taken to mean business," and, without being over-sanguine, it may be concluded that the world's horizon is less threatening than it has been for many years.