The Daily News. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1912. OUR FRIEND THE ENEMY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 190, 9 February 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1912. OUR FRIEND THE ENEMY.

It was bred in the bone of tens of thousands of Britons to Hate Frenchmen and to regard every one of them aB an an unforgivable enemy. For his part, the Frenchman regarded l the Englishman as a perfidious monster, to be killed if possible. Britons have slain tens of thour sands of Frenchmen and Frenchmen have been equally careless with the lives of Britons. Bitter, unreasoning hatred between the two people survived long and flourished. Gradually, because there was nothing particular to fight about, the Gaul saw good points in the people of ■ perfidious Albion and the Briton found himself admiring his splendid neighbors. King Edward invaded France peacefully. Fewer apparent precautions were taken to guard him in the land of our hereditary enemy than in any other country. It is peculiar that he was styled "the King" in France, and gratifying, too. King Edward l undertook the task of cementing the amity between Gaul and Briton, and' what is known as "Pentente cordiale" grew and blossomed into an understanding that will possibly withstand all shocks and international complications. Although "Pentente" was diplomatically and politically of greater service to France than to Britain, it very possibly established a precedent that will be largely fallowed. At present the air is full of electricity, because a number of people, interested in war, declare that it must come between Germany and Britain. "The wish is father to the thought" in these circles. To establish an entente with France would seem to be a much more difficult thing than to establish one with Germany, which is a related country and certainly does not contain an hereditary enemy. The disappearance of high pride and choler on both sides would make an agreement between ourselves and our relatives easy. The concentration of the genius of the leaders of both countries on this issue would surely achieve it, for the peoples of both countries detest the thought of conflict, which, if it ever comes, must be engineered by warmong.

ers, for there is no reason of any kind (why an armed' quarrel which would ' bathe Europe in blood should take place, if we except the desire to use warships for the purpose for which they were built. The personnel of the German Eeichstag has changed and the strength of the parties has greatly altered. The naval programme of the old Reichstag need not necessarily be carried out, and the tremendous expanse and increased expenditure on preparations for war may not be agreeable to the new Reichstag. The Liberal Party is, of course, in the position of all parties holding the balance of power in a Parliament composed of divers parties with personal and »elfish aims (for there is no doubt that selfishness is the prevailing sin in party politics). The party must gang warily in order that the Democratic Socialists and the various other elements in the Reichstag which may lean to democracy do not turn them out of offiee. It is, therefore, possible that Germany may be debarred from spending many borrowed millions on new armaments, because the party in power wants, to keep its billet very badly. The Socialists, who wield a greater power in the German Empire than ever before, declare unequivocally for universal disarmament, in order that new bases of agreement between rival powers may be made. In plain English, the Democrats want a clean start, the navies scrapped, and the past forgotten. The Germans are phlegmatic. The j French are emotional. , The German temperament is harder material in which to I impress sentiment than the French temperament, and the higher the place of the German, the more phlegmatic is he. If he is not phlegmatic he pretendis he is, which practically amounts to the same thing as far as amicable negotiations are concerned*. As a matter of fact, the British and the Germans are too much alike to Teadily agree, and it is only by great waves of public sentiment beating on the rocky ramparts of diplomatists' hearts that so simple a matter as a peaceful agreement may be achieved. The chief means towards amicable understanding between Britain and Germany k' the check in the navy race. The rest is simple. There is no possibility that Germany will ever have a navy big enough, strong enough or clever enough to beat the British Navy, and she is therefore simply emptying borrowed money in the sea without the least chance of receiving interest on the expenditure. The recognition in Germany that the race which simply adds pace to British expenditure is. perfectly hopeless, might appeal to the practical side of the German people, even if their sentimental and emotional side remained unruffled. Mr. Lloyd-George, who made the "hands-off" speech and caused a profound consternation in Germany, where the war-eagles plumed themselves for immediate soaring, has now showed how pacific is the intention of Britain in regard to her very good customer. Germany is very necessary to Britain, and Britain to Germany. It is certainly within the province of possibility that by a simple stroke of the pen, the amity of the three great nations, Britain, France and Germany, may be assured The statesman who effects the triangular handshake will be a more useful person that Alexander, Xerxes or Napoleon.

DOES / GERMANY WANT COLONIES? One of tho most influential men in Germany to-day is Edward Bernstein, the philosophical- leader of the "Revisionist" Socialists. He has changed the whole tendency of modern Socialism in Gert many iby opposing the stark and stubborn policy of tha Marxian school, which has its stronghold in Prussia, with Herr Betel as its leader. Karl Marx based his philosophy upon what he believed to be the inevitable increase of misery among the working classes owing to the power and tyranny of capital over labor, until the last point of human suffering and endurance would be reached and a revolution would 'break up the structure upon which social life is at present built. Herr Bernstein has reiealed, in many books and articles and speeches, the fallacy of this argument, which is contrary to fact and experience, and instead of relying upon the increasing misery of ths working classes he has shown the value of an opportunist policy to seize upon any chance of improvement in democratic conditions and to advance, by steady pressure and unrelaxing efforts, towards a practical realisation of Socialistic ideals. This leader of the Social Democrats pooh-poohs the idea that Germany would gain anything by a war with England. He pointed out that Germany can never 'hope to obtain any part of the British Empire. Canada, Australia, South Africa and India are great nations, almost independent of England, and could never be made subject to German rule. "What do we want with colonies?" askHerr Bernstein. "We are doing pretty *well as it is. Look at our industrial life. Look at our internal prosperity. Do you see such poverty as exists in England? We are able to make use of our increasing population by developing our own resources and competing in the open markets of the world."