ANGLOPHOBIA IN GERMANY.

Feilding Star, Volume II, Issue 319, 17 July 1907, Page 5

ANGLOPHOBIA IN GERMANY.

WHY THE TEUTON HATES THE ENGLISHMAN. (By a Diplomat.) The present outburst of Anglophobia in the German Press maybe taken as another sign that the disease is chronic. There are periods of quiet and apparent good feeling, but, they are fated to be followed by virulent revivals of denunciation. King Edward takes a holiday tour. He journeys into several countries, aiijd everywhere he is met with cordiality and enthusiasm by peoples., It is too much for Berlin, Perfidious Albiqn is at her work agan. i Her monarch is planning a great AntiGerman Alliance the while her Prime, Minister prattles of disarmament. The Kaiser and his Ministers, of course, know that this is mere talk., Biit it serves their purpose. It keeps, up the convenient fiction that "La Aqgleterre voila l'ennemi," and. it fans the bellicose spirit of the nation into paying cheerfully for its army and navy. In order to understand the basis of the German feeling toward. England, it is necessary to glance briefly at the history of the past. . The overthrow of Napoleon left England mistress of the sea, unhindered in the development of her Colonial Empire. It left Germany crushed and disunited. Bismarck completed the labours of previous statesmen, and the German Empire, with Prussia at the head, came into existence in 1870. Commercial progress followed political unity, and in less than forty years Germany has evolved from a poor agricultural country into perhaps the greatest industrial nation in Europe. „ EXPANSION NECESSARY. A country filled with so virile a spirit naturally demands expansion. But where can she expand 'i Her African colonies are of little value. Great Britain has acquired all. the overseas countries that are available. Germany, therefore, at once sees herself trammelled by Great Britain. She has arrived too late. Therefore, for expansion, she turns naturally to Europe, and here I would quote from a valuable article on "Will the British Empire Stand or Fall?" contributed by Mr J. Ellis Barker to the current number of the "Nineteenth Century." Mr Ellis Barker says:— In order to be able to become a great maritime and colonial State Germany requires in the first plaoe a sufficiency of well-situated commercial and naval harbours. Hamburg, her only great harbour, is not very favourably situated, for nearly all the great industrial centres of Germany lie on or near the Rhine, which ia the great high road of German trade, because coal and iron, abound in its vicinity. Therefore the greatest German harbours are not Hamburg and Bremen, but the harbours at the mouths of the Rhine, Antwerp and Itcttordam, and it is not unnatiral thpt Germany desires to obtain the control of these harbours. . . . From the point of view of every German business man it seems intolerable that the Netherlands should be allowed to make a profit, one might almost say to levy tribute, on every article exported from and imported into, the principal manufacturing districts of Germany via the Rhine; that the Netherlands should become wealthy by Germany's work. From the German point of view, the fact that Holland and Germany are two separate States is an anachronism. FUTURE ON THE WATER. "Germany's future lies on the water." The Kaiser has given his people the watchword : but if that be so, she must have harbours, and to have harbours she must acquire Belgium and Holland, and if the death of the Kaiser Josep shatters the AustroHungarian Empire, Trieste also. No amount of smooth denials can alter the fact that this expansion is necessary if German ambitions are to bear fruit. , No patriotic German will question their legitimacy. ' The future of Germany, therefore, demands the redrawing of the map of Europe, the rearrangement of the balance of power. Such a development would put Europe at. her mercy. The Scandinavian countries would be her vassals. France would, perforce, have to; be her humble friend. It is therefore obvious that the one aim of German diplomacy is to prevent alliance and friendship between the other European States. The coloniafl policy of France under Jules Ferry and his successors continually brought France and England to the vergs;.of war, and it has been made quite clear that Bismarck constantly strove to intensify the bad feeling between the two countries; '• BENEFICIAL MISFORTUNE. Every country's misfortunes are under the circumstances Germany's good fortune. The South African war might have lowered Great Britain's prestige ,and the Germans were violent Pro-Boers. The Japanese weakened Russia, and the- F ->re madeGermany fear less the dual . 'anee. But England has wtfkened «-_ and. taken a strong lead in internal.. ~l politics. For years Downing str*--* had contentedly played second fiddle to the Wilhelmstrasse. We had become used to the idea that sooner or later we should have to fight France. Russia was our traditional enemy. Therefore, Germany must be placated at all cost. The Kaiser Wilhelm characteristically himself woke us up. The Kruger telegram will remain in history aaone of the most momentous political blunders ever perpetrated. England realised for the first time; Germany s real attitude. The Kruger telegram was the beginning of the entente oordiale. j And since King Edward ascended the throne the whole international position has changed. France and England are almost allies, Spun \- is friends with both, Italy is a doubtful member of Bismarck's, xriple Alliance and is always . drawing nearer to France and England, And -an entente between England and. Russia becomes more and more possible every day. Austria alone remains Germany s staunch friend, and Austria is an unreliable entity, i The great fact to remember is that, of the Europeap rations, Germany alone could gam by war, and that England is making WW impossible by gradually drawing the nations into aiieague of peace. • Hence the Anglophobia of Berlin, henoe the suspicion of -King IHwiira, Hence, too, the necessity for l-aving our swords sharpened and our poWider dry. With Germany itt her pre^i sent mood, talk of disarmament is roi- j England does not hate # Germany. There is no party, no individual, in England who would not regard war with Germany as a dreadful cahjmity. But the persistent outbursts of S-ng-land Feindschaft" (enmity ..towards England), which is so inexplicable to us here, make it necessary for us to be watchful.