AT CROSS PURPOSES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 9, 11 January 1912, Page 6

AT CROSS PURPOSES.

To attack the Kaiser would obviously not be a good way to improve the relations between Britain and Germany, but an incident of the last few days shows that >it may be equally dangerous to praise him. Anything better calculated to impress the British mind favourably towards Germany and her ruler than Lord Lonsdale's interview in the Daily News it would be difficult to imagine. Lord Lonsdal© is by no means a Little Englander, and he ii on 'terms of intimate friendship with the Kaiser. When, therefore, he represents the Kaiser as "a warm friend of Britain and a great upholder of peace," and declares that he has a horror of war, the opinion is one that must carry weight with th© British people and tend to weaken that suspicion of German aims which is, perhaps, an even more serious obstacle to a better understanding between the two, peoples than, any necessary conflict of interests. It was a great stroke of luck for such a champion oi peace and good will, so thorough a believer in the superiority ot friendly sentiment-to the parade of force in international rela tions, as the Daily News to have secured such an interview. It was especially fortunate that it was able to publish this message of kindness and conciliation just when tho Germans wer© engaged in a General Election. Here > .surely, was a practical contribution to thocaiiae of peace, in that spirit of brotherhood for which Dr. Schon© made an earnest plea in his interesting address at Victoria College last night. But, alas for the vanity of human wishes ! Th© good intentions of Lord, Lonsdale and the .Daily News have set a match to the powder-mine of Pan-German patriotism with a success that no Jingo fire-eater could nave hoped to rival. Fhen lord Lonsdale eulogises tha Kaiser's leve of peace, and declares that "we have no greater ally, and no ona is more devoted to England," the patriotic pres» of Germany is tilam* with indignation, on the ground that h* has insulted both the Kaiser and the German nation. Th© explanation of what at first appears to be a morbid perversion of patriotism is twdfold. Th© memory of that remarkable interview in th© Daily Telegraph three years ago, in which th© Kaiser posed as the friend of Britain and explained in detail how ho had helped her against th© wishes of his J own people during th© South African -war, Js.«til| green. .The id.ea, that &* i

Kaiser, after a long interval of coni; paTativ? discretion, is now using Lord Lonsdale and the Daily News aa he previously used the Daily Telegraph, and! that ho is again posing as devoted to the interests of Germany's most formidable rival, doubtless accounts to some extent for this pingular outburst. But the exigencies of tho General Election aro doubtless to be regarded as the principal explanation. Only a day or two before this interview appeared General Liebert, in tho purest strain of military patriotism, had been urging the seizure of Portuguese Africa and "th© annihilation of ' the Socialist Party, thereby preventing them from further j hampering Germany's aspirations." The collocation of these two objects is not t accidental. The- best way to check the dangerous advance of the Social Democrat* is to set the military fever working. Tho annexation pi Delagoa-'Bay and its hinterland would be an enterprise well calculated to have that effect, if th& German Government cared to face the responsibility; und, though the Government is not so foolish, tho scheme cm be adVocatod on the eve of the elections and the Socialist Party represented as a wicked obstacle in the path of Germany's honourable ambitioti. Another wicked obstacle is Great Britain. At all times she is unfortunately a safo mark, but when th© elections are ap« proaching and * Socialist* are making headway it is mdre than ever imperative to represent her in th© worst possible light. If she can be caught rodhanded in an insult to the Kaiser and I the Fatherland, what more potent argument could be desired for inducing the patriotic elector to vote against the party which does not know how to rattle the sabre in the presence of such a foe? Thie firing of patriotic and military zeal for the purpose of defeating the Socialiste is no. new experiment. It was tried four yearn ago, and with remarkable success. For tlie twenty years preceding the General Election of 1907 there had been no break in the steady advance of the Socialist Party. In 1887 they secured 11 seats in the Reichstag, and, by fairly even gradations, the number had gtown to 81 in 1903. But in 1907,, whea the conduct of the war in German Africa had become a burning; issue, the number fell to 43. Since then, however, the Socialists have a. remarkable series ,of victories in the byelections ,for the Reichstag, as well as in*" State and municipal elections; and the general expectation has for some time been that, in the absence of some unforeseen side-issue, their strength in tho new House would be from 100 to .3. Seeing that for tho last twenty-five years the Centre is the only - group that has ever held more than a hundred seats— its maximum being 106 in 1890 — this would give the Socialists a stronger position than any of the rival groups. To defeat this possibility the Government is straining every nerve, and it recognises that the military drum discourse* th& kind, of mu«ic. that is the likeliest to have the necessary effect upon the electors. In one official manifesto issued within the last few days the need of maintaining the army and navy at the highest point of efficiency is insisted on — and the conclusion is drawn that "the final defeat of the Socialists, whose existence imperils the national unity, is a question of vital interest \to the Fatherland." "The final defeat of tho Socialists" is a thing which neither the most frenzied rally of patriotic % voters at a "khaki" election nor the whiff of grape-shot, to which General Liebert would perhaps prefer to appeal, k likely to effect in our time. But we condole with the Daily News upon having involuntarily supplied a weapon which may help to | secure the temporary defeat of the very gospel it sought to promote.