GREAT BRITAIN AND GERMANY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1481, 2 July 1912, Page 6

GREAT BRITAIN AND GERMANY.

AN INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM. VIEWS OF MR. BALFOUR AND LORD HALDANE. v A very remarkable collodion of articles ou Anglo-Gorman relations is to appear in Hio .Tiuio ami July numbers of the wellknown German monthly magazine. "Xonl uud Slid." , Tho .lime number is to contain the- views of several prominent Englishmen, nnd threo'aro to form, in tho tho subject of replies from iin equal jiumbev r.i prominent Germans. \Among tho English contributors uro Mr. jßalfour, Lord Haldnne, Mr. Bonar T.nw, Jiord Courtney, Sir William Rnmsny, ■Baron Alfred liodischiWl, and Sir Vezey iStrong. Prince Lichnowski will reply to Jlr.. Balfour, nnd llcrr Wernmth, tlio Qately-oleokd Oberburgermcister of Bcrllin; to Sir Vezey Strong. ' Oilier (.Senium will be Count von PosadowWci, Grand-Admiral Koster, llerr von Ulollebcn, Iterr Balliii, of the Hninburg- . lAmorika Line, Herr Krupp von Balach, jHovr Thysson, a lending eoal-owner, llerr Etinnes, a leading manufacturer of steel, Men- Theodor AVolff, of tlio "Berliner rl'agoblatt," and Profes.-or Schiemann, whoso pen is familiar in tlio "Kreuz ZeiJtung." AIR. BALFOUE'S VIEW. Mr. Balfour's is certainly tho most injteresting contribution on tho English feide. Ho explains that tlio invitation was extended to him "partly as a politician, partly as a philosopher." I "I fear that philosophers have littlo to gay, about tho question, and that politicians may easily say too much; it is .[therefore with great misgiving that I com})ly With your'invitation. I may easily flo harm; I cannot think it likely that j[ shall do much good. But as you apIpeal to mo I will mako the attempt." ,f Mr. Balfour iben proceeds to point out '/that in tho past tho German nation has mover been our enemy, and dwells upon tlio great debt which the world owes to lOormnn, genius nnd German learning, ■ hvhich is fully appreciated in England, llle continues:—

j "If, therefore, recent years have produced a.change in tho way in which ordinary Englishmen judge of German policy, 5t is duo to no national prejudice, to no lUiiderestimnte of German worth, to no jwant of gratitude for German services in [tho cause of universal culture. To what : [then is it due? . I reply (hat, so far 'as Nil can judge, it is due to the interpretation which they have thought themselves 'obliged to place upon a series of facts or . {supposed facts, each of which taken by itself might bo of small moment, but [which taken together can neither be llightly treated nor calmly ignored. ; "Tho first of these facts which he real- , Used was the German Navy Bill and its hrcsnlts. No Englishman denies the right of every country to scttlo tho character and makniture of its own armaments; tand there has been, I believe, no eagerness to detect in the German iiaval policy jnriy intentions hostile to this country. IBut on such a point British opinion 'is Sensitive, and must be sensitive, for reajEons which are commonplace here, but ■nre, I think, imperfectly understood by many Germans who. in general, are .friendly lo this country. Let me briefly Ktmlicato their character, t "If ..Englishmen' were, .surp that a Gcr■Sjinn fleet was only going 'to be used for Hetensive'piirpose'j-f.0., against aggression ■ Mney would not care how large it was; jfor a. war of aggression against Germany hs to them unthinkable.., There, are, I toni told, many Germans who would Wrongly dissent from this statoment. Yet it js no paradox. Putting on one side ■ tall considerations based on public morality, it must be iremembered, in the first . .■place, that we are- a commercial nation; ■ tind war, whatever its issue, is ruinous to *ommerco and to the credit on which commerco depends. Jt must be remembered, in the second place, that we .are a .political nation; and an unprovoked war iwould-sliattor -in-α-day- the most powerful Government nnd Hie most united jjwvty. It must be remembered, in- tho . ithird place, that we nre an insular nation, wholly, dependent, on seaborne supplies,, possessing no considerable nrmv either for homo defence or foreign service, and compelled, therefore, to plav lor very unequal stakes should Germany ■bo pur opponent in the hazardous game •'of viir. ' "It , is this last consideration which I jhonjd earnestly ask enlightened Germans ,1o weigh veil if they would understand tlio.-Bntisli point of view. It can be .made clear in a very few sentences. Ihero nfe two ways in which a hostile country can be crushed. It can be con.quorod or it can be starved. If Germany (wero ; mastc-rs in our homo waters she Vould apply both methods to Britain jAYofo Britain ten times master in Hib ■Aorth bea she could apply neither method to Germany. Without a superior fleet . , !»nram would no longer count as a Power . fWithout any fleet at all Germany would remain the greatest Power in Europe. It if therefore the mere instinct of selfpreservation which obliges En«li«hinon aiot_mercly to take account of the growlh in. foreign navies, but anxiously t<, wei"h tho motive? of those who build them. If ttliey aro built solely for purposes of defence, Britain would not indeed be thereby relieved of the. duty of maintaining the standard cf relative strength required Jfor ..national safety; but sho would have ■ po Sround for disquiet, still less for illwill. ■ But does Germany make it ensv for.Brifnin to take- this view? The oxi facts nf f,he situation nnpear to be • as follow:-Tlie greatest military Power and. tho second greatest naval Power in fthe-world is nddinsr both to her Army and (to Her Anvy..-, Sim is increasing" the ftrategic.railways which lead to the fronMer..States—not merely b frontier States pnich themselves pessess powerful armies, put.;to small States which can have no flesiro but lo remain neutral if their formidable neighbours should unhnppilv b"pomo belligerents. She is in like manner .modifying her naval arrangements so 'P% J?. Iriak( > I,e >' nival strength instantly ;Jcnecliv<!. It is conceivable that all I his miay bo only in order to render herself jmpregnablc against attack. Such nn /ibject would certainly Ij'o commendable; jthougn tho efforts undergone to secure it jnight (to outside observers) seem in exjress, .'of...any possible danger..' If all nations could be made. iinpTcgnablo to tlio same extent, peace would doubtless bo rostly but at least it would bo secure (Unfortunately no mere analysis of the German preparations for .war will show for what purposes they .are. designed. \ tremendous weapon has besn foiled;evcry year adds. something to i!s cfli(Ciency and power; it-is 'ns formidable for ' -purposes of aggression us ,for purposes of defence., lint to what end jt was originally, designed, and in what cause il will .ultimately-be used,- can only be determined. ; if determined 1 at nil,'by extraneous Iconsideralious. . v, the most, dilliriill and ,<lelicate part of my task. Let me m-cfice. it hy saying that ■ ordinary Englishmen Jlo not. believe, and certainly T do not heieve, oithor that !ho great body oT the merman people wish to make nil altack ;<a their neighbours,'or that the- Gcnnnn (Ooverumeut intend it: A v-u- in which .the. armed manhood of linlf Enrone won id •fako part can be nn obiect of deliborato rjcfdre either for nations "or for <sra(eaii!i<n. Tho'danger lies elsewhere. It litr in the ro-e'xisteneo of Ihnt marvellous iiiHlrunvont of warfare, the Prcrniau Ainiv and ; Nav'y. with the assiduous, T hud nlmnsf. paid the organised, advo':>>oy of 'a policv .which it seems impossible lo rpcnnrilii

(with the. pence of the wnrlil or Hi? rk'lifs ;of nations. For those who accept Ibis /■policy, Gorman development means Gcrjnnn territorial expansion. All countrirs which hinder, tlipushit lip only in selfdefence, the realisation of this ideal are repnrded as hostile; and war, or the threat of war. is deemed tli" imtiirnl nml fitting method liv which (he idciil id-elf is t<i be accomplished.

"N'()W, it is no part of n>v- inlpution to rritici'se such theories. l\Ty liusiness is to explain tho views which are held in Brit-am, pof- to condemn tlio?* 1 which are preached in Germnny. T/ct Germivn studnnts, if they will, redraw Hie lnnp nf .Kiirope in harmony with what they rmiroivd to he the present distribution nf the Germain's race; let (li«in reeard the Gri'rn.in Empire of the 20th rentnrv u= tho licir-at-lav/ of all Ini-rilories in the Holy Roman Empire of tho 1lU.li: let. (lien assume that Germany should 1>» endowed at. (ho co?t of other nations with over-ens dominions proportionate to her srreatnoss in Europe But do 'not let. them ask Englishmen t<) .approve. . Wo have liad too bittoa W~i>. iWtbwe cJ Jtjjg jllg .idwfl

flow from tho amleavour of any siuglo Stato to dominate Europe, wo aro too surely convinced of tho perils which such ;i policy, were it successuii, would briir; upon ourselves U9 well us upon others, to treat them as negligible. .Negligible, .surely, thoy uro not. In peViods uf iuternutiniuil calm they always make fur increasiii'' iirmamcnts; in periods of international friction they aggravate the dilli-ciiltie.-i of diplomacy". This is bad, but it is not tho worst. Their elfeels, as it .-■[• fins to us, go deeper. To l.lieni is due the'conviction, widely held .1 am afraid by many Germans, that 15ri!ain stands in their country's light, that Englishmen desire tu thwart her natural development, are jealous of her most legitimate growlli.' Of these crimes we are unite unconscious; but surely it is no slight evil (lmt they sliuiild bo so readily believed. If ever b'v some unhappy fate it became an accepted article of Initli in either nation that Germany and Britain were predestined enemies, that tho ambitions of the one nnd the. security of the other were irreconcilably opposed, ilio predictions of those prophets (and they abound in the Chanceries of Europe) who regard a conflict between them as inevitable, would be alreadv half fulfilled. But for myself lam no believer in sneli predestination. Germany has taught: Europe much; she can teach it yet more. She can teach it that organised military power may be used in tho interests of peace as effectually os in those of war; that the appetite for'dominntion belongs to mi outworn phase of patriotism; that tho furtherance of civilisation for which she lias so greatly laboured must be the joint work of many peoples, and that the task for none of them is lightened by the tremendous burden of modern armament?, or the perpetual preoccupation of national self-defence. If on these lines she is prepared to Isad, sho will find a world already prepared to follow—prepared in no small measure by what she has herself accomplished in the highest realms of science and speculation. But if there bo signs that her desires point to other objects, and (hat her policy will be determined by national ambitions of a different type, ca>n it be a matter of surprise that other countries watch tho steady growth of her powers of aggression with undisguised alarm, and anxiously consider schemes for meeting what (hey are driven to regard as a, common daii-

LCHD HALDANE AXD fiOETHE. Lord Hiildniio sets liimself to answer Hie question. "What is Goethe to Us Englishmen?" and tracer, particularly in "Faust," the dcrclopnient of (.lootho's philosophy. He concludes that Goetho should have an important hearing on the existing rotations of England and Geiv many.

"No other writer, ancient or modern, had Goethe's power of combining philosophy with art. Mo other writer has been equipped as he was equipped. That is why the world owes so much to him, and why it appears to me to bo likely that as time goes on we shall increase tho depth of our consciousness of Hie debt, and are not likely to diminish it. And that is why Goetho means so much to many of us Englishmen. It is another, added to many reasons, why two nations such as Germany and Great Britain should cease from mutual suspicion and realise that their , real destiny is to work together to make, tlie'world better."