The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, JULY 17, 1916. GERMAN ADMISSIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 169, 17 July 1916, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, JULY 17, 1916. GERMAN ADMISSIONS.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

Judging by the cabled extracts from it, Prince yon Billow's treatment of foreign affairs in I'is new book on German politics ia much the same as his chapter on the came subject in "Imperial Germany" published some time before the war. We are told that the ex-Chancellor now confesses that "Germany adopted a policy of dissimulation with Britain until the German fleet should, be strong enough to justify defiance." "It was essential, while we were building up our Xavy," 6ays Prince yon Bulow, "to maintain Germany's Continental position and avoid collision with Britain. Our fleet had to be built with one eye on Britieh politics. My main efforts in the field of higher politics were directed towards the fulfilment of this tack." In his "Imperial Germany" yon Bulow said the same things Bismarck, he remarked, was right when he told the British ambassador at the time of Prussia's war with Denmark that if Britain attacked Pruesia she could «Io little harm to her. But the great growth of German oversea trade had altered the situation. "We are now vulnerable at sea. We have entrusted millions to the ocean, and with these millions the weal and woe of many of our countrymen. If we had not in good time provided protection for these. valuable and indispensable national possessions, itc should have been exposed to the danger of having one day to look on defencelessly while we were deprived of them." He then outlined the policy towards England which ho developed in his twelve years oe Chancellor, from 1597 to 1909. In brief, this was to build up a great fleet without arousing such suspicion in England as would lead to war before Germany was ready. "The fleet was to be built while we maintained our position on the Continent, without our coming into conflict with England, whom we could ac yet not oppose at sea, 'but also while we preserved intact our national honour and dignity."

The task was not easy, for it meant stirring up feeling against Britain in Germany, and yet keeping on good terms with her. The German people had to be interested in the fleet. They had to be told that Britain was the harrier to world-power, and that there was a danger that Britain, apprehensive of German rivalry, would make war and crush the young navy. The Press, controlled after the manner of Bismarck, was instructed to attack England, and the educational eystem, which ie under Government control and inspiration to an extent undreamt of in England, was used to the same end. And yon Bulow nearly succeeded. Looking back on those yeaT6 it appears mote astonishing than ever that the whole English nation did not ccc through the manoeuvre. But the small band of journalists and public men who did sec through it, and worked their hardest to make the nation realise the vast _plot that was being woven on the other eide of the North Sea, encountered a great mass of apathy and hostility. All their warnings, in which they appealed to the utterances of German statesmen, journalists, and leadens of thought, and to tho 'hard fads of German naval expansion, did not prevent pacifists from, doing their utmost 1o whittle down the Navy.

What Prince yon Bulow eaya about Germany's attitude towaTds us in. the Boer War is aJeo similar to triiai ne says in his "Imperial Germany." "At] laet there seemed a- chance, during the Boer W«r, of (striking a blow at Britain. Tliie would: have -been applauded by the German, people. The general situation, however, was not really onfawHwaMe to Britain, Furthermore, bad Germany struck then, our rolatioisv with Britain would bsve been poisoned for a long time. Even if our intervention had caused! her fsilme-'in. South. Africa, ehe would etill hftTo been able to nip-in the bud onr deretapments ia ei;a power:" It ift quite dear that ho -wonldi 3ave liked *o-sttaelc ■Uβ then. He says in 'Impezial Germany" that German neutralHy then, was' dictated, by national iatereetg. Hβ ieazed, an "iscemednble iueach" with Britain, end. *» "rteetei nil temptefiems •to-interfere," as -interference would have dealt English, selfesteem a wound that would not heal. This is what he says in hia book, but he told the Reichstag in effect that he had done liis hmt, po bring #bout a

combination againet Britain. What ultimately prevented this combination wae the British Navy. The part played by the Navy in the South African war ie commonly ignored. Not only did command of the eca enable us to transport large armies with perfect safety, but the Fleet kept the ring intact. It has been eaid that the Mediterranean Fleet, then under Sir John Fisher, stood 'between Britain and a European war. "By the year 1914 we had grown so ibig that we could ventirro upon war with Britain in high spirite," eaye Prinea yon Bulorw. VViere are the high spirits now? Before the war, both yon Tirpitz the head of the Navy, and Balliii, the greatest shipping magnate in Germany, admitted that a war, much ehorter than this one has been, in which Germany would be blockaded, would be highly disastrous. The Chancellor must see that his plans have come to ruin. To a great extent he tjeceiyed Britauij hut the Fleet Tie built up with such caTe was not equal to its task when the day came, and ite failure meant defeat on land as well as on eea. Prince yon Bulow haa given us a picture of Bismarck, who did hii3 work in the days before Germany had a great navy and mercantile marine, visiting in his last years Hamburg harbour under the guidance of Eallin. Bismarck was taken on board one of the new Atlantic lineiß,. a typo of vessel new to him. He looked at the ship for a long time, and then around the activity of the great port and at last eaid: "I am Gtirred and moved. Yes, this is a new age—a new world." Prince yon Bulow, commenting on the remark, save that BismaTck. "with the never-failing insight of genius, recognised the future, the new tasks of the German Empire in the sphere of world politics." What would Bismarck say if he could revisit the world to-day, and ccc Hamburg deserted, or go to New York and see the great German liners lying ide at the quaye? Would he not demand of hie successors why they have wrecked the huge superstructure built up on the foundations he laid down?