The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 1911. FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1064, 1 March 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 1911. FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

For quite a long time tho newsjapers have happily had little to ■ecord of international politics but icws of harmony and peace. Recently, however, there have been discords, which are the more unpleastnt for their disturbance of a calm vhich enabled people at this end of ho world to give to the internal lolities of Britain all the attention her have, to spare for the affairs n the great world. There has been aIU oi tho inevitability of war be•vvcen America and Japan, and an imencan visitor, to New Zealand vho-bas lately been in Japan enlivses this prophecy, basing his opinion upon the commercial pres■urc of Japan against American in■erests m the Pacific. That pressure s very real and very severe, and is icing much discussed by the American press. The mail that arrived '■-■sterday,. for example, brought the icws that the American Government ias announced that American exports to China have declined from i 8,600,000 dollars in 1905 to 15,500,000 lollars in 1910—a result mainly due ;o the commercial expansion of Japan. Far more serious than the suggestion pf tl'b'tVble between these Ava countries, however, is the rejnidesocncc of active German hostility to the Entente between Britain md _ France. ; Nearly two months igo it was reported that negotiations jetweon Russia and Germany had ed to, a formal agreement in regard so Persia, and there was no little 2-xcitemcnfc throughout the Contin:nt lest the negotiations should infolvo a dislocation of the understanding between Britain, France, md Russia. ' These fears ■ were allayed .whan a long statement upon French policy was made in the Jhamber of Deputies'by M. Pichon, :hp Foreign Minister. Nothing, he mid, had happened to modify in any way the relations of France with tho Powers with which she was bound ay tics of alliance and of friendship. What-these relations were he explained very frankly: "Franco was bound to Russia by an alliance, to England by an Entente, to Spain by pacific agreements, and to Japan by other arrangements." As to the Entente, he said it had "never been more intimate and complete than it is to-day. There is not a single question upon which the two Powers arc not agreed to pursue a common This coalition of the two countries, which continues to grow more cordial, is one of the great events of the last six years." He referred to the famous incident in March of 1009, when Russia was suddenly given an hour's notice by Ger-' many that war would be declared against her if she did not recognise the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria. Russia was not permitted to consult cither Britain oi- France. M. Pichon declared that France agreed that Russia was right in not permitting the annexation to bea cause of conflict.

The most notable result of M. Pichon's speech was the revelation of Germany's resentment of the Entente. In approving the pacific tone of M. Pichox's speech, for example, the Vossische Zeitung was unable to refrain from a reference to M. Delca.ske, who was driven out of power by German intrigue, and who was chiefly responsible for the present relations between France and Britain. "M. Delcasse's fall," the journal observes, "made the first breach in that baleful system of antiGerman diplomacy, the exertions of t.he_ two Central Powers on the occasion of the Bosnian annexation crisis destroyed the structure completely, and the death of King Edward had the effect of removing the last remains." The Cologne Gazette had some angry comment upon the fact that "since- M. Isvolsky's 'appearance in Paris" some of the French newspapers were violently anti-German. That a fresh suspicion of Anglo-French designs lias been festering in Germany's mind is apparent from some cable messages in to-day's paper. The decision of. The Hague Tribunal'that the criminal Savaekah could not be claimed by France is really not a matter in which Germany is interested, still less about which the German press should become excited. Yet the Post, of Berlin has had " a violent article" upon it, charging France with "a crass breach of international law," and contemptuously speaking of the subservience of " proud France " to her ;il'y. This must bo read in connection with the almost frenzied shrieks of the German press at the mere suggestion that M. Briaxd, f.iw French Premier, should be succeeded by M. ])em:asse. He is spoken of as ''a little dwarf," who has ''popped up again at England's command," and the Post- warns Germany to "take timely precautions." There is small profit in guessing at the secret considerations behind • the moves of the diplomatists. But it

seems to us that there is one very obvious moral to Ijs drawn from this prompt baring of Germany's teeth U is that tin;, well-intentioned efforts of the unofficial peacemakers between Germany ami Britain— fcli:: exchange of noble sentiments and rubbishy talk about brotherhood between the Hadieal newspapers in the two countries, the exchange of visits between ''working men," and all the vest of the sentimentalist energiesare simply thrown away; and that the persons and the newspapers who furiously deny that war is a possibility and must bo prepared for aro dangerous nuisances. The day for childlike trust in Germany has not yet arrived.