ENVY OF GERMANS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20431, 16 December 1940, Page 11

ENVY OF GERMANS

“NATION OF* SAHIBS” POLITICAL SOLIDITY TRIBUTE TO BRITAIN VON BULOW’S MEMOIRS Allegations of decadence, furiously levelled at the people of Britain by Nazi writers and speakers during recent years, are perhaps already receiving sufficient refutation. Germans who have access to the non-Nazi literature of their own country will find there estimates of British character very much to the point at a time when the Battle, of Britain is still raging unsuccessfully for the enemy, and when the opponents of Nazism and- Fascism are doing so well in other theatres of the war.

It is stated that Hitler’s fulminations against Britain and iris theories ol British decadence have their roots in a book written by an apostate Englishman. He might have found better inspiration in • such writings as the memoirs of Prince von Bulow, a predecessor in the German Chancellery, whose impressions of the British oeonle provide an interesting passage. “if I may express a general judgment, which perhaps has no other advantage than that of being based entirely on direct impressions, without any preconceived opinion. I would say •hat the physical, intellectual and moral soundness of all classes struck me as the characteristic of British conditions,” Prince v6n Bulow wrote in his memoirs.

“Britain appeared to me as a thoroughly sound country and nation, t found everything in England sound, from the English care of infants, which is incomparable, and the English nursery, which is the best in the world, to the grown-up Englishman toughened by bodily exercise, even in advanced years. With no more than such well-nourished strong bodies, and such a strong national feeling, something can be achieved.

English Will To Power “The English arc in truth a nation of sahibs, whose will to power is their oolitical motive and aim, in contrast with the German, in whom the native hue of resolution is only too often sickbed over with the pale cast of thought. To a love of his country, which is not paraded so much as that of the Latins, but which is perhaps ;tiir more unshakable, the Englishman unites common sense such as is possessed by no other nation known to me.

“The Englishman has not learnt so much as the German usually has, but his brain is cooler on that account. The young German leaving a German Mace of instruction is certainly ahead of the pupil of an English school in acquired. But for the formation of character, for the education of the future citizen, more is achieved by the English school whose paramount task, in view of, the ‘struggle for life’ among the people, is to provide the country with capable and manly citizens, having minds thoroughly national and patriotic.

“The fact that the Englishman forces his morals, his speech, his habits, on the whole world, that he plays lawn tennis and ; golf at Hamburg and Sorrento, in Ceylon and Sydney, is a sign of strength; his adherence to old habits, traditions and systems is a proof of respect for the past, withoui which no great nation exists. Unity of the Country “Exemplary, above all, is the unity of the country, once there is strife with the foreigner, the sturdy conscience with which every difference with the foreigner is fought out, and the bulldog obstinacy on the principle of ‘Right or wrong, my country.’ ” The political tolerance displayed in Britain was also a subject of much interest to von Bulow. who records the : tory of the maiden speech of the late Sir Austen Chamberlain, first of the sons of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain to enter Parliament, as an illustration of the nobility of English politics. “The young Chamberlain was evidently nervous, and after he had spoken for some minutes, Mr. Gladstone looked up at the Speaker and asked for the next turn. Now Joseph Chamberlain, father of the young man then making his first speech in the House, was of course the man at whose hands Gladstone had experienced the cruellest disappointment of his life, Who had most bitterly attacked and opposed him. Joseph Chamberlain moved uneasily in his seat, thinking that Gladstone would deal hardly with his offspring.

Worthy Son of Eminent Father

“When, however, young Chamberlain had finished his speech, the old man rose, and in his melodious voice congratulated the House tnat again, us so often in English history, an eminent father had presented Parliament and the country with a son worthy of him: for in this, as in everything that promoted continuity, lay one of the foundations of British greatness. He hoped that Joseph Chamberlain’s son had before him a career worthy of one of his name. It may be incidentally mentioned that this wish of Gladstone was realised. When Gladstone spoke in this way, a tear ran down Joseph Chamberlain's cheek, the only one, it is asserted, which he had shed in his life.”

This incident was contrasted by von Bulow with the scene in the German Reichstag, when Hubert Bismarck made his debut there, and when all the opposition forces, with Eugen Richter at their head, tried with interruptions and laughter to bring to confusion the son of the greatest German statesman of all time.

The incident is also ol' interest, in relation to the recent maiden speech of Mr. Winston Churchill's son in the English Parliament, which was marked by expressions of approval from all sides of the House,