The Daily News WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1905 ENGLAND AND GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7733, 8 February 1905, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1905 ENGLAND AND GERMANY.

The sudden sensitiveness betrayed by leading German journals regarding the speech of the Right Honourable ', Arthur Lee is a bad sign. It in- 1 dicates a state of tension and rivalry such as has ofltien preceded war, I and which, in the case of England and Germany, has been growing more and more acute lor some years i past—in fact, ever since the accession of the present Kaiser. At the , root of all the international ill- , feeling, which undoubtedly at pre. ( - sent exist!), lies commercial rivalry, i On the completion of the unification . . of Germany;, which was consummated at the conclusion of the success- i ful war with France in the early seventies, a new factor entered into he world's politics, and one which '. has b'een growjjng in strength and in- ' _ fluence from that day to this. Un- , der the shrewd guidance of I'll nee . Bismarck, Prussia, as a name for a factor in the world's diplomacy, j ceased to bej, and Germany took its '• place. Bu't the Junker party, the reactionary aristocracy of l'russia, has never ceased to wield a potent d influence. Counteracted to a growing extent by the spread of an enlighten- ' ed socialism, which yearly increases '• in weight and influence, the arisio- ; cra'tic party in Germany has not - had jfutf sway for its ambitions). For years the present Kaiser, with the staunch support of a strong sectdon of the old-fashioned nobility; has -e struggled to undo the work of the )■ revolutionists of the forties, and so : ito re-establish complete control for . I those from whose hands, it was then ' partially wrested. Over and over again, in tho earlier yearn of his ■ | reign, the Kaiser found his efforts', ; I thwarted, and in spite of threats , :and fulminaifonb, and the imprison- j | meat of outspoken men for lese ma- ! ( Ijjeste, he could not succeed in car-: I rying the Reichstag with him. But i when our South African conflict was ai in progress his urgent demands for i 'a great naval policy received such a I j trong impulse from the necessary ' factions of our own warships that' [the ■question 0 f a naval conflict with i iEngland becamo only a question of I time and opportunity. l'rior to i j that war tho German Parliament ' - jhad refused to agree to a vast j ship-building programme, and the ,j I Kaiser was at Ms wits' end to know how to gain his way. Then England played into his hands by temporarily scitfng and searching a couple of German vessels suspected of »■ carrying contraband to the Boers. Thereupon Germany, which was alJt ready excited to a, sti-ong animosity against England's policy in South j. B j Africa, was again appealed to fori a I large vote for warships, the Kaiser j M drawing attention to the national in- ! dignity to which he had to submcti, '. - ''for want of an adequate navy." There was no opposition worth mentioning, and the vote was easily carried. Sinae that time Germany has laboured without cease to perfect a fighting mechanism on the s waters which shall be the adequate l- complement of the fighting machine whish the genius of von Moltke founded for her on the land. Quite ; recently Heir Bulow, the German Chancellory disclaimed any antj-Bri- _ tish bias or indention, but such woids are merely diplomatic, and '. must be read, in Ihe light of patent as absolutely unconvincing. That Germany means to lie ready .. to bear her pait in a war with ] England on the particular element of the latter is as clear as that ' throughout the world she is making enormous efforts to wrest from Eng- ' ► Jand her old commercial supremacy. ' There is, from the German point of 1: view, and from any impartial point ' of view, nothing wrong in this. There 1 - exists in the world a national, struggle for existence as truly as there is ' an individual one, and each nation has to do its beet to maintain its j own interests and increase its own t powers. But for us, who belong to '• the British Empire, there can be no question that England should lie rea- j' . dy to hold her own upon the sea, ' and should strain every nerve to maintain her supremacy as the great ' colonising power of the world. She ' must, in fact, get ready to light ■ Germany. Sir Arthur Lee's speech j Y —with the details of which we are I ] not yet acquainted—probably said |' this in a more or less veitod form, I and forthwith the press of Germany!, has respondod with quarrelsome re- I, _ mark*. Xbe Berlin Tageblalt is the <] organ gi the Jewish ilnuncicrs of I " Germany—the men, who despite \\ their national sympathies, are find- , ing ready funds for Russia 'in her Ij present conflict. The financier of Europo is, and for long years has been.. ' the stormy petrel of ahe world—the ! man who is in advance or the storm, ' and sees and knows what is to come , long before any others. Also he , d never fails to find in wars and ru- _ moui'sof war a road to personal profit, Apparently the Tajyeblall deprecates 'present incitement to con. j Aiel. If so there wjll , io j, ve t \, O uny serious trouble, but .when fh c day is ripe the man without a kij;g .. or country of hfe own will again \ pull the strings and set armiies and , navies mo\fng at his will. The Bei'Hn Post, which is the semi-ofHcial | ■ organ of tho Prussian Consorva- ] _ tyves, seizes the opportunity to whip i »P tho uounii-y to redouble its elfous. Herein 1,1, voices the highest i opin.on of the land, and indicates what may be regarded as the r u '- ing principle in Germany ut the present time. The Vossiseho ZHtun" '. characteristically "sits on a rail " Its policy is always without pro - Bouncod colour. 'tAunt Vossk'," as it s is known in Germany, will ' never • «ay "war" tiil ail others have said- ] n»«i»T- un " ' ,a ' s ]mon "trusted, to ■ assist in whipping up the spirit „f he nation. At present it y (inks , that the matter "require , on on the part of the i,| t ,; K1 , tul U.nt is as nearly „ m . imls vim . M could be expected. Finally it K£n"" W '. . thC e *P'«natlon of | mualt,v_ Ul e iininwliale causo „f all w .: i& tt c "~ is rChivny "» ,df "* *■"■' ing- It .9, ,„ c act , a dJl)tomnUc ( explanaition of a diplomatic threat and must be read between the lines ' - for its real meaning. ' 1