WHAT DESRAELI FORESAW.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 297, 14 December 1914, Page 4

WHAT DESRAELI FORESAW.

That Disraeli foresaw or had apprehensions of the German naval men. ace is, we believe, not news, but the passages on the subject in the thiid volume of his “Life,” contain new and highly interesting matter. Disraeli’s view of Germany’s designs on the Danish piovinces show him to have been a man of rare insight, for nothing was further from the thoughts of Englishmen then and for many years afterwards, thqn that Germany aspired to be a great naval Power. The first steps towards a, German Navy were joked about in England. As late as 1890, Lord Salisbury, who had graduated in foreign affairs Disraeli, and succeeded him ill the madership of the Conservative Party, saw no harm in giving Heligoland to Germany. A distinguished British Admiral, on hearing of the transaction, expressed strong disapproval, hut comforted himself with the redecoion that if war broke out with Germany, Britain’s first step would he to take the island back again. It was not until ten or twelve years later that Englishmen began to realise what a menace to the .Empire was being developed across the North Sea. Future generations will wonder why the British were blind for so long, but it is just as easy to be wise after the event in national affairs as in personal, and the temptation to indulge j in such wisdom is greater, remarks a writer in the Christchurch Press.