German Destiny

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 73, 15 August 1914, Page 6

German Destiny

Till] NATIONAh SPIRIT. PREPARATIONS FOK WAR. (11. T. li. Drew in film Wellington Post.) The general feeling seems to be. one of surprise and wonder at the apparent equanimity with which Germany has taken upon herself the Napoleonic task of facing, with only one comparatively weak ally, the wihole of Europe armed. She seems to ask no one's aid, and to require no one's sympathy. One seeks for a satisfactory reason.' Yet this spirit of arrogant confidence has been Germany's national trait for many years. In competition in the I world's commerce it lias been dominant —a topic for countless magazine and newspaper articles. Germany's only reply to all complaints has been the challenge of a rapidly increasing army and navy. 'tlhc. Kaiser's own repeated utterances have been a sullicicnt explanation of this policy, namely, that tiermany believes she is merely pursuing her destiny. I suppose that [ am not the only due who has knocked up and down Germany in recent years who has found this bcJief in his country's great destiny ingrained in every German, more par- ] ticularl-y, in the Prussian. Everywhere in the cities and larger towns the Kng lish traveller, if he talks freely with them, will learn of Germans with more conviction than boast of England's greatness i.-- passing away, that soon, like effete Etime, she will "crumble; and they point to Germany's miraculous development and growth, to the superior stability of their own economic, social, and commercial fabrics, and they say: "It is the will of God; we are destined to be tlho next great nation." It is not a thing they will argue about; it is almost a religion. Four years ago I was chatting to an English lady who kept the Pension Rud eroir in Dresden upon this very topic. I had been cycling round about Saxony, and had been charmed with the kindly reception I had everywhere experienced. There had been no animosity and no racial contempt or hatred shown. And yet [ had noticed, even among these homely people, the feeling referred to. j The lady in question, who had been ten years in Dresden, said with the utmost conviction that Germany must sooner or later come to war with Britain. Germans, site said, spoke of it as quite an event to be expected. They were taught to believe it in tlho schools, and in the course of professional and commercial education—not perhaps directly, but fhferentiaily. The German said' Germany was expanding, the nation was multiplying, and always when God gave the increase he provided for the increase. The German, as things were, could not go abroad to live without finding evervwlhere the British flag, and thus he became, perforce, lost to the Fatherland. .Why, lie asked, should this be so? Fate was pushing the German onward, and if he trod on the toes of the Briton that was not his fault but the will of Providence, and sometime or other the Englishman will lose his tamper and wish to fight, and- then Gennanv would accept tlie gage'and vanquish him. and assume his place at the ,hcad of the nations. And with this one idea Germany 'has gone on preparing for "The Day.'" In my diary 1 have the lad.'s prophecy that in a few years war was sure, to come, a prophecy tiliat has been fulfilled and .probably that lady, with ten thousand other English- residents of Dresden have lied to England. \ Subsequently. I cycled up through Germany, visiting many cities and towns, etc.. dwelling in out-of-the-way places, seeing Berlin and Hamburg, threading up through Kiel, and Sehlcswig Holstein to Denmark, and subsequently riding back through Wismar, L'ubeck, Hamburg, Bremen, and over the. dreary lowlying north-western portions of the Dutch frontier, striking it near Deventer. I came into contact with all classes of Germans. In Prussia the arrogance of the German is often very annoying to the Briton. I retain many unpleasant recollections of it. It is'the Prussian who is pushing Germany to its fate. One does not can' at siieh times as this to predict, but should German expectations not be .fulfilled, and Britain's greatness not be predestined to come to an untimely end, I venture to believe that Prussia will become a separate kingdom of its own, "with the other Germanic states estranged from her. For the Bavarian and tlie Saxon, though at present-proud of their Empire, and sharing its ideals, are, by tradition and extraction, a more cultured and less aggressively ambitions people. Anioug.-t them the Prussian is as a piece of modern furniture amongst a suite of Chippendale.

For the .present war, Germany has thoroughly prepared herself. Yo'u see evidence of it evenywdiere in Germany. She has relied on the support of not a single nation. Forts protect her from Austria as 'well as from Russia, France, Switzerland, Belgium, and England. In the northern and western .borders of Germany. fo r instance, the land is lowlying, which in winter, when under snow, would soon become impassable with the heavy traffic of war hn'podimcnta. To several strategic points of her borders, therefore, Germany has laid the roads' for miles with square cobbles. 1 observed also that the ordinary traflic did not warrant such expense, for often the roads, which • were in out of the way places, were covered with grass. I made enquiries and learned that they were war roads. Almost all the highways leading to Kiel, the great naval arsenal at tlhe entrance of the Kiel canal, are 1 of blocked pave. The roads' which for miles converge upon Liege from (Jermany, along Germany's present line of attack, are, of pave; and to the other strategic points on \ the Belgian, and Dutch frontiers the preparations for all eventualities have been the same Fortunately, Belgium, Holland, and other nations tfiave judged Germany rather bv these hostile preparations than by he'r sincerity as a signatory of the guaranteed neutrality of these countries.. Bet me give but two brief and purposely diverse examples of the typical I russinn spirit. In Schleswig-Ilolstciii, not far from beautiful Opcurude. has been erected a mammoth monument capped with a statue of Bismarck. It is seen over tlhe Hat country for many miles. This statue Germany erected to celebrate her dispoiling of little Denmark, in the 'sixties, of two of her choicest states, and it stands on the borders of the Danish Kingdom, a grim taunt, the taunt of the bully, to all patriotic >anes. flow the Danes liate Germany tor the insult! Again, in Jerusalem, which the Kai-c----honored a few weeks'back with n State visit, Germany has within the last decade soim-ht pious representation, wid!, other nations upon hallowed g,„ lm ,| the Bnt,sh Cathedral and Chtm-h „„.' situated m lowly ;p lu ts of the city, but hospital Ihe 'highest point of [ , .? t about half a mile from the city and observable for miles around- ,nd her sew church building, i n allitsumd- ?£ « ,ncM ° f outlin ''' t-qmUlv dominate] the ancient old buildings' of the ortjr from the highest point Sf Mount ' Zion. It apoib the effect and the Orient.

al symmetry of the city, 'but it announces from the 'housetops the presence of Germany, and When J read of the Kaiser's frequent prayers and appeals to God, so carefully published, I always think of that German church set up in the iliigh places of tlhc Holy Citv.