IMPERIALISM ABROAD.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11283, 26 May 1902, Page 6

IMPERIALISM ABROAD.

The danger threatening Holland in case of its Queen's death is one of the reminders we receive from time to time that the spirit of Imperialism _t abroad amongst foreign nations as well as a___gst ourselves. In Britain it has assumed such gigantic dimensions during the fast three or four years that we occasionally forget its existence in other countries. But with the Germans it is just as active a principle aa it is with the British, and all that they lack is the same opportunity for displaying it on a grand scale. The Pa_-Germ_oic ideal is a vast conception which may or may not bs realised in

! the future; ibntw~i-3tW__y ease will cause , complications. Mr H. 0. WeXs, with his , curious faculty for taking a bird's-eye view of possibl- human destinies, puts it very concisely in his "Anticipations" j the whole interior of Europe, except Russia, will in the twenty-first century be occupied by a German Federation. This is a crude statement of Teutonic aspirations, but we have no reason to think it an exaggeration. Such an Empire did exist in ancient history for a short time, and it stretched then fron> the Baltic to tbe Adriatic. The wish to revive ;it may naturally allure tbe imagmation of the Kaiser and' his Minister, who are apt to be dominated by big ideas, and who have before their minds the sudden growth of Germany during the last half-century. Statesmen, however, are necessarily opportunists, and keep grand projects in abeyance unless some chance arises of carrying them out. Visionaries like Louis Napopeon rush on to destruction in pursuit of their ideas, but the practica. politician always wait'for tbe tide to lead his plans on to fortune. There are several circumstances in the present condition of Europe j which promise well for the hopes of Germany, provided only that other countries do not interfere. The prospect of annexing Holland is a most tempting one. Tbe Dutch possess many things that the Fatherland requires—colonies, ships, trade, and above all, a new sea outlet—whereas if Holland were hostile in a great European war it could do Germany incalculable harm by damaging her trade. The project of absorbing the Netherlands has assumed, very definite shape. It was first suggested by Prince Bismarck, and was lately advocated in a pamphlet written by a Germ—a professor. - Besides Holland there is another State on which the Pan-Germans have cast their eyes, and that is.Austria. The present condition of that once mighty Empire is exceedingly unhealthy,. and there is a general impression that it cannot last after the death of the reigning Emperor. A Frenchman, _„ C-teradame, writing on this subject, forecast* the inevitable absorption of Austria in Germany. A Greater Germany wMI - then arise, occupying—as Mr Wells prophesies—the whole of CentraEurope, from Hamburg to Trieste, and from the Rhine to the Vistula. . Perhaps the _tov-_tent will not stop even here. The Germans will almost certainly make a straggle for influence in-European Turkey, and for predon___nce in Asia Minor. Germany offers, just for the moment the most prominent example (of (foreign Imperialism, but in Russia, it is a far mightier force. It was in; Russia that Imperialism originated, even before the days when Empress Catherine cherished the dream of extending her power, over Greece and the Bosphorus. The Pan-Slavonio ideal is more inseparably bound up with tbe national life than the Pan-Germanic. It has led the Russians on across the whole width of Asia, and has inspired them to convert Siberia from a waste wilderness into _ great and thriving colony, : The movement or sentiment, whichever we chose to call it, canbe regarded from different points of view. One is that of union or federation amongst scattered people of the same race. ' It is chiefly this aspect with which British colo-. nials have been familiar since 'the South African war began, and it is this which causes the nine million Germans of Austria and their kinsmen under the Hapsburg Kaiser to move towards coalescence. It is this, too, that helps to keep alive Russian interest in the Slavs of the Balkans, But | out of t-lii desire for union amongst the members of a race, springs a desire to rale over other races. Imperialism, iv whatever way we took at it, has its good and its bad side. It wovld be merely national prejudice to deny that both in Germany and in Russia' there is a large amount of noble and patriotic enthusiasm wrapt up in - the national ideal. The belief in a vast and

constantly expanding destiny gives some loftiness of aim to a- nation, and the prac-4 tical attempts to carry it serve to employ their energies in a healthy manner, Franco, which had its brief magnificent'days under the —'apoleons, has declined ever 'since it lost the Imperial spirit and consumed its' forces in disgraceful domestic scandals and brawls. It almost seems as if, good or bad,llmperialistm t were the one vital principle in modern nations, and they must either stagnate or die without it