BRITAIN AND GERMANY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16564, 30 May 1914, Page 10

BRITAIN AND GERMANY.

When Mr H. Atmoro told a Christchurch audience on Thursday evening that an Anglo-Gennan war was "inevitable" some of his hearers shouted a vigorous dissent. We should be very loth indeed to believe that tho member for Nelson was right and that there was no escape from a struggle that would involve the nations occupying the van of civilisation in unimaginablo horrors. But a cablegram we publish this morning contains, by a rather curious coincidence, a reminder that Anglo-German rivalry did not cease to be a grave factor in international politics when the threatening war- clouds lifted after tho Moroccan crisis. Wo aro told that Professor Schiemann, the Kaiser's confidential adviser on the empire's foreign policy, has asked publicly for "a definite official utterance as to whether it is true that an Anglo-Franco-Russian naval convention exists concerning both the Mediterranean and the Baltic." The message adds that since the Moroccan trouble German authorities have discussed continually the possibility of making "systematic economic preparations for war " and that the problem has been entrusted now to the permanent committee which advises the German Government on commercial subjects. All this does not mean necessarily or even probably that a check has been given to-tho steady improvement in Anglo-German relations noticeable during the last year or two. But Professor Schiemann's question is a pertinent one and it gives a clear indication that German distrust of Britain is not fully allayed. The Germans feel, as Mr Atmoro said, that they are being cramped and hampered in their national development by Anglo-Franco-Russian influences, and as long as they have that idea the peace of Europe will be imperilled by tho determination of a proud, confident peoplo to get "a place in the sun." It is not reassuring from the British standpoint to realise that the Empire does not know what its real engagements are as a member of tho Triple Entente. We know that' the French fleet has been concentrated in tho Mediterranean, while the British Navy has been gathered into the Channel and tho North Sea, and we see Russia building in the Baltic and tho Black Sea Dreadnoughts which obviously would play a part in a war involving the Powers of the Entente. But the Foreign Office keeps its secrets and Germany naturally is disposed to arm upon the assumption that an Anglo-Franco-Uussian naval convention exists. The pacificists would tnko a great step towards tho realisation of their ideal if they could persuade tho Powers to lay all tho diplomatic cards upon the ! table for the information of the peoples concerned.