GERMANY'S AIMS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1450, 27 May 1912, Page 5

GERMANY'S AIMS.

4> AS MR. BALFOUR SEES THEMSOME REASONS FOR BRITISH DISTRUST. PURPOSE OF GERMAN DEFENCES, By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (lice. May 20, 5.5 p.m.) Berlin, Jl'ay 25. 'L'lio Bre-laii magazine "Nord uml Hud" has published a symposium on AngloGerman relations. The British standpoint is set out in a contribution from Mr. A. J. Balfour, lately Leader of the Opposition. After a tribute to the world's debt to Germany's genius and learning, Mr. Balfour says if recent yours have produced a changcd feeling, this has not been duo to national prejudice but to a series of facts which cannot bo lightly treated or calmly ignored.' The first was fhe German Navy Bill. If Englishmen were sure that the German fleet would only be used for defence, they would not caro how large it was. Great Britain was wholly dependent on seaborne supplies. There were two ways by which a hostile nation could be crushed. It could lie conquered or starved. If Germany were master of Britain's homo waters, she could apply both methods to Britain. But were Britain ten times master of the North Sea, the British peoplo would ljo unable to apply either method to Germany.

Why Britain Needs a Fleet. Without a superior fleet, Great Britain could not count as a rower; whereas without any fket Germany would remain the greatest Power in Europe. Therefore ; the instinct of self-preservation obliged Englishmen not merely to take account of 1 the growth of foreign navies, but anxiously to weigh the motives of those building. Germany was increasing both her Army and Navy, and he.r strategic railways to frontier States. It was conceivable that this was being done to render her impregnable against attack. Unfortunately no mere analysis of the German preparations for war would show the purposes for which they were designed. The preparations were just as formidable for aggre.-sion as for defence. Tho danger lay in the coexistence of (his marvellous instrument for warfare with an assiduous advocacy of a policy of territorial expansion, which it seemed impossible to reconcile with the peace of the world ov the rights of nations. All countries hindering—though in self-defence—this ideal were regarded as hostile, and a war of threats was deemed a natural and fitting method of accomplishing the ideal. Let German students assume that Germany should be endowed at the cost of other nations with overseas dominions proportionate to her greatness in Europe, but do not let them ask Englishmen to approve. We were tco surely convinced of the perils that such a policy, were it successful, would bring upon ourselves, as we'll as others. Not Predestined Enemies, Mr. Balfour said he was afraid that Germans held widely the conviction that Great Britain stands in their country's light; that Englishmen desire to thwart her natural development, and were jealous of her legitimate growth. Of these crimes Englishmen were unconscious. He did not belicvo that Germany and Britain were predestined enemies. Germany had taught Europe much, and eonhl teach yet, that the organising of military power might be used in tho interests of peace as effect ks-. ly as those of war; that the appetite, for domination belongs to an outworn phase of patriotism; that the furtherance of civilisation for which the has laboured must be tho joint work of many peoples. If she were prepared to lead on these' lines she would find the world prepared to follow. But if her policy was determined by national ambitious of a different type, she. must not be surprised if other countries watched tho growth of her aggressivo powers with undisguised alarm, and considered the means of meeting a common danger. Lord Haldane, Secretary of State for War, enlarges the peace argument from literary and philosophical traditions. Mr. Bonar Law, Leader of the Opposition, declares: "Tho best, perhaps the only absolute, security tor peace is each country's realisation of the strength of tho others, and realising that, whatever the respective domestic differences, each is prepared to defend to the last her rights and honour." "THROUGH FRENCH SPECTACLES," GERMAN LIBERAL COMMENT, (lice. May 20, 5,5 p.m.) Berlin, May 25. The Liberal journal "Jvrenz Zoitung" regrets that Mr. Balfour's opinion of Germany has been influenced by French Chauvinist views, springing from a hatred of Germany, which was hardly to be expected of an Englishman of his Standing. Hence Germans must conciudo that English Conservatives like Mr. Balfour viewed German conditions and motives through , French spectacles, and were unwilling to . I make any concessions for the German I standpoint.