The Daily News THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2. GERMANY AND ENGLAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 254, 2 December 1909, Page 2

The Daily News THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2. GERMANY AND ENGLAND.

A iciiunkiihlc C.-i- ii I k ha,. up pen ml ■■tiiTtiiiin.v iiml KilKliuiil," nj'l Call Hlcilil.lcll in which the illlllmr III! dcrtukcs In iuterpri'l In liis countrymen Ihu ri'iil iiuluic ill I hi' Hnlisli I'diipirc mill tliii genuine chariiclcrislics uf Uc iniliviiluiil llrltim. In view ill' recent cables Ins rclVicnces lire of s|ii'i'iiil inleriM. Tin' Knglish ami the Germans, hi) says, truly enough, "are inure closely related to t'lU'li oLliui' than ally other twii iiiitinus mi I'lU'tli"; iiml yet no two l)i'i)[)li) morn completely misunderstand ouch other, llcir Blciblrcii lins some qualifications' I'm- interpreting I Grout Britain to Ilia countrymen. Uf knows F.uglish liti'i'iiliin.' well, iiml tins written 11 history of it; «ml in- knows, too, how completely I In) average Gonna a misunderstands Urn average Englishman. Tin- unfortunate Briton is conceived of us a mere bit of scllish arrogance on two legs, .proud beyond measure of a sdeces.-. which is duo to chance. The llritisii people uro "a nation of «lu>pki'ej)uis; a mass of dull, uuiiungiualivo souls," who only by accident havi; thrown up a genius like Shakespeare anil a soldier like Wellington. A more dangerous dc lusion still, the Gernf.au regards the British Empire as' ;i sham, bankrupt ot nil elements of strength. "The British Army is a laughing-slunk, only lit I" be clapped into prison if it showed itself on Herman soil; the Fleet, undermanned and wretchedly constructed, is being rapidly outstripped by the young marine of Germany." Ili'ir'lllciotreu ought in | know his own countrymen, and his itej scription of the popular German con ceptiou of the British people is prohalil, quite accurate. Hut the author of "iici 1 many and Kngland" knows better, and he makes an energetic attempt to correct the foolish opinions so common in Germany. He warns his countryman that to think Great Britain is a spent force in any realm—commercial, intellectual, political—is a deadly mistake, lie writes of all things British m terms so high as to be nothing less than astonishing when coming from a German pe*. Germans,' are apt to excuse the lateness of their development in power and civilisation by a series of misfortunes—the Thirty Years' War, and so forth. Let them consider the case of England!.-* "If England, under the most difficult conditions, struggled indefatigaoly upwards— an extraordinary achievement for a nation originally owning but oneeighth the population of Germany—--1 what can this denote but a great intellectual, moral, and physical superiority? Has any German ever had a true conception of the bitter toil which it has cost to bring the British wurnipower to iU bloom? Good luck? A nation of three millions under Cromwell, of ten millions at the time of Napoleon, ventures oil a war to the knife ' with the Corsican giant, who controlled | in France alone a force of forty millions, . and had forty millions mfore as hi- ' obedient vassals in Europe." "Ger- ', many, says this German author, "must • for ever toil in vain to reacli the mng- ', nilicent development of the 13riti.su Fleet. ' which is superior to that of the whole oi ' Europe. NiOt only on sea, but, relative- > ly to her needs, on land as 1 well, Kngland ' is stronger and better equipped than [ ever before." Far from being a nation | of materialists, the really sinning thing | about the English is the artistic turn, i the sense of form, which pervades ah ' their literary work: "Even the ', well-known military history, Xn- ' pier's ' History 'of the l'enins'ular [ War,' reads so eloquently, is ■pervaded , with such a veritable breath of poetry, i that no similar German or French work ' can be compared with it. And herein , lies the incredibly comic side of the in--1 ternational legend which pictures the ' British as essentially a people of dry i and cold intelligence, practical, but alto- ' gether unpoetic. Little as they resemble a 'nation of shopkeepers,' but rather. ', at all times, a politic and warlike folk of the Soman stamp, yet there is S|ni- ', planted in them a notable artistic im--1 pulse which a certain loftiness of spirit ever tends to turn inward, to the things' ■ uf the soul—in a word, to poetry."