THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 1907. ANGLO-GERMAN RELATIONS

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8473, 26 June 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 1907. ANGLO-GERMAN RELATIONS

Professor Delbrueck, the successor of Ranke and Treitschke in the chair of history in the University of Berlin, contributes a remarkable article to the Preussische Jahrbuecher, entitled "Disarmament and Germany and England." Professor Delbrueck says that there can be no doubt that the British proposals, as to the arrest of armaments, at the The Hague Conference, will fail, even though it results in Germany being regarded as the holder of barbaric and retrograde ideas. He believes that the first result of the discussion of the question would be an increase of tension between the two Powers rather than a rapprochement, an increase of the danger of war rather than its diminution. The cardinal mistake of those who advocate the arrest of armaments is, he says, that they believe their ideas, if realised, will strengthen the cause of peace. The very opposite will 1 be the case. He draws the conclusion ..that there can be no greater safeguard of peace than the "greatness and intensity" of existing armaments. He does not believe that the cost of armaments presses with greater weight on modern Germany than it did thirty or forty years ago. Turning to differences between Germany and England, he rejects with scorn the assertion that England's alleged hostility is due to envy at the success of Germany in trade. The British people, he says, are too great and too noble to be actuated by such paltry motives. The secret of their mistrust and hostility is solely and alone in the increase of the German fleet, and this, for the simple reason that the existence of the British Empire depends on the predominant position of the British fleet. Professor Delbrueck asks the question whether Germany, in order to appease England, shall cease to build ironclads, or whether there is not some other means which, if adopted ' ' ' # would quiet British susceptibilities. He comes to the conclusion that Germany cannot cease to build ships, but he thinks that British nervousness might vanish if the British nation finally dec ided to adopt conscription, and so increase their land forces that*they could view with equanimity the maritime growth of their rivals.