The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1900. INTEREST VERSUS SYMPATHY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 36, 14 February 1900, Page 2

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1900. INTEREST VERSUS SYMPATHY.

1 —<» In calculating the chances of foreign interference with the British operations in South Africa some stress has been laid on the racial or bloo l -ties thgit exist between the Boers and the peoples of the German and French nations. No one questions that these ties are powerful factors in throwing the weight of European sympathy on the side of the Boers, many evidences of which have been furnished by the speeches of representative men and the publications of a large section of the continental Press. What is it, then, that has prevented this sympathy taking aggressive shape ? The answer is that tho dictates of self-interest effectually smother the national sympathy and prevent the heat of feeling breaking out into flames. This is by no means heroic, but it is characteristic of the age of continental peeples especially. France dare not interfere with England, as the cost of such inter-" ference might mean nothing short of a death-blow to all her aims and ambitions. Germany is not affected in quite ! the same way. With her it is a question of commercial rather than imperial interests, but in the eyes of the average German commerce ranks as the important consideration, and even his national pride, noisy as it is, has to take second place to his trading instincts. According to The Times, Herr Richter, the leader of the Radical Left and the oldest " Parliamentary hand " in the' Reichstag, some few weeks ago, delivered a speech on the naval projects, the present condition of the Imperial Government, and the foreign policy { represented by Count von Bttlow. The speech was so able and was delivered with such telling effect that it commanded the steady attention, not only of the House, but of the whole Federal Council, the Chancellor, and the Imperial Secretaries of State. Referring to the Transvaal war, Herr Richter gave expression to the universal sympathy in Germany for the Boers. But sympathies and interests were different things. All considered that strict neutrality must be maintained as a matter of course, and this was a great advance upon the Imperial telegram of unhappy memory. After all, there was less that divided Germany worn England than from any other country in Europe. "It is not true," he said, " that England is hostile to us in our colonial aims. England could have taken all our colonies long ago if she had thought it worth her while, for they all lay at her door. It has been possible for all our Imperial Chancellors, from Prince Bismarck downwards, to delimit our colonial spheres of interest by treaties with England in a businesslike manner. Who would ever have imagined that England would have ceded Heligoland to us? All these agreements were successfully concluded without any regard to our navy, but as a result of the general attitude of Germany to England. We cannot have an alliance with England, because England has many interests which we do not share. But very many of our interests are quite identical with those of England." Herr Richter went on to condemn the false perspective in which the importance of navies for the different States of the world had been placed by Count von Btilow. England in her insular situation with a colonial Empire uf 400,000,000 inhabitants, America enclosed between two oceans, France with two separate seaboards and a colonial Empire with 40,000,000 inhabitants, must naturally attach the highest importance to their navies. Germany, on the other hand, had no .-.eiibatrd'ott tl»o ocmmj. This German leader has spoken for more than himself, as the Socialist Party (perhaps the strongest and most promising political i'oree in the German Empire) is behind him, and he i>pb ouly voices the sentiments of his party, h.ut also can depend on the <\vhole weight of its support. It is likely, too, that his speech r wj]l have a wholesome effect not only thioughout his own country, but all over the Continent as well.