The Daily News. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1911. A CLEAN SLATE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 138, 2 December 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1911. A CLEAN SLATE.

The very fact that the great powers are at present more formidably armed than any nations have been in the history of the world is a reason for the state of intense international nervousness. It seems inconceivable that gigantic preparations for war of thp most hideous .kind can continue side by side with expressions of internationajl peace and goodwill. The people of the Empire through perusal of Sir E. Grey's speech on the policy of the British Government have been allowed "behind the scenes," and are' permitted tp see that the Agadir incident, which consisted in Germany sending a gunboat to a Moroccan port, and evidently misunderstood, came nearer .precipitating a European war than any event in the history of the past five decades. Tli'e mere lay observer, who is not acquainted with the machinations of diplomats or the temper of great players on the international chessboard, is constrained to believe, after reading of the negotiations between the German and British Governments, {hat each nation finds i : t easy to mistrust the other; that the excessive care exercised in secret diplomatic conversations frequently obscures their real intentions and produces popular unrest and the feeling that "war is in the air." The point at which Mr. Lloyd-George was deputed to deliver what is now known as' his "hands off" speech was the point at which the war clouds were blackest, and it was obviously because Britain was to some extent ignored by Germany in her negotiations with France and her apparently sinister intentions in Morocco, that Britain said: ''When British interests are affected we must not be treated as of no account." Although at the time when -the fate of nations was hanging in the balance it was not known whether or not Germany intended ti occupy a» a naval base a Moroc-

can poll, it was quite obviously supposed by British Ministers that Germany contemplated -iii-Ii a stop. Presumably if the German Government had at this stage stated (as its representative in London has since stated) that Germany had the intention of M'tting up a naval depot in Morocco, the subsequent intricacies, misconceptions and suspicions would have been avoided. As an example of how much may hang on the words of a person chargwd with grave international business, the statement that il "\va* inconsistent with German dignity to oiler an explanation (II the Agadir incident" may lie meniion''d. 'I lie "dignity.' therefore. thai prei luded a diplomat from settling with a few word* a -ilnation that caused panic in Germany and unrest everywhere, might just as easily have led to the

greatest war of all time. British dignity precluded an explanation of Mr. LloydGeorge's "hands off" speech, although the explanation of this speech if made at the time of Germany's enquiries might have allayed intolerable suspense and ill-feeling. It was a supposition during the crisis that Germany's secret conversation with Franch touched British interests. Germany disdained at the time to explain that it was not contemplating the destruction of British interests, hut, as is seen, eventually disclaimed any such intention, thus at once dispelling the idea that in its Moroccan operations its sole idea was to preserve German interests there and negotiate with France for the exchange of territory. It was to be expected, as has now appeared, that France, in the course of the intricate negotiations with Ger- I many, should frankly disclose them to her powerful friend, Britain, and it was probable that the frankness threw into bolder relief the sinister reserve of France's hereditary enemy. The points that Sir E. Grey's speech make clear are: That the sending of warships by Germany to Morocco had no relation whatever to British interests; that Germany desired no territory by conquest but by exchange, and that the only country she desired to negotiate with in this connection was France; that the extreme care of secrecy of the diplomats and the mutual distruct between the two nations led to strained relations on quite suppositious grounds; and that Germany did not contemplate war until Britain should retaliate for her lack of courtesy in not disclosing negotiations. Mr. Lloyd-George became the mouthpiece of the Government in his speech. We are also led to believe that although the diplomatic situation may again be- acute in relation to German's very pardonable desire for new territories that Morocco as a basis of a quarrel between Britain and Germany does not now exist, It is a matter for intense gratification to be assured that there is now "a clean slate" between the two countries arid to console ourselves with the statements bymany eminent men who declare a war between the two countries is- unthinkable because of the gigantic interests shared by them in commen. It is inevitable. however, that Germany's intention to achieve territory must lead to further strained relations, but it might be possible in the future—with the Moroccan misunderstanding as a precedent—for diplomats to be franker and less inclined to mistrust each other. The temper of the German and the Briton alike is averse to "climbing down," but it is obvious, at least in the Moroqcan adair, that neither need have "climbed up." The Empire has escaped war "by tlie skin of the teeth"—a war that was likely to have been brought about by an easily explainable misunderstanding. The "cleaning of the slate" has perhaps taught a lesson to the diplomats, and if misunderstandings are avoided in inevitable future, operations the incident will'not have been without use.