GERMANY'S AMBITION.

Nelson Evening Mail, 7 December 1905, Page 1

GERMANY'S AMBITION.

We all, or at least all of us who are moderately sensible, and nut bemused by a vague dislike ot particular races (says the •'Speciator"; recognise that the dillicultius of the German Eim'piru are many and serious, anu expect her Emperor to exert himself to find, it he can, a remody. But what is vhe rir meciy threatening to other countrlvf} on which his mind has fastened .' is it a second slico of France, as ho many politicians cow suspect, but which if per inipossibihs a me obtained, would £>c a source lof political weakness givaljr tmm German l'oland is now, while 11 wouli /urn sh »o "■dumiping ground" for tho overspill 01 ih<.-Gat-Huan population ? Or is it the French colonies, which, extensive 2iy they are, aro hardly worth a co»u\ and doubtful war, and might in the getting bring Gvrmany into collision with two great Powers at ouc<3 V Or. is it, as the French set.'. v inclined to hnugimj. Uho nixolo 01 tho Empire of Morocco, and tlw consequent twenty years of guerilla war with a scoru ol tribes, t-uch 0110 of which has three times tho Uytuing power of the Ilereros ? or is it Holland' and the reversionary horitagw of the Indian Ar-chive'-wuo, upon which Japan, ana possibly America, would have oujocVionb to raikw ? Ur 'is it, atf^i-i, ius KubSians Kays when they uiv \ ao.ry Asia Minor, with Uotil Itusi sia"u.ml thu givat ouoaiaa clou to , be duioated urst ? Or is il thu viei- [ man evction of the Austrian Jdiupiry ' o-r Borne w do possession now occu--1 pied by British colonists V Or is I it, laatly. ouo of those sections ol ! Bouth America which constantly tempt tho a.m)ntioUH mien' of -Europe as they oucb tempted JSapcleon the Ihird, but which are eilectivuly protoctttt, to all appearance by the Monroe doctrinu ? The Jhlmpcror would repudiate every one of these suggestions iwith more than Ik-ijrew inuiyn|ati«in^ and we do not doubt that his reputation would be sincere ; but it is the misfortune of his lncteliniten'oss or his martial opportunism, or whatever it is, that he creates fear erveryivhero by action which is attributed to ambition of, the kind. 1 Thta Emperor will f^illil his tiestiny,, n o -doubt, whatovoi 1 his critics may «ay t but It is a li-ttlo difficult for opponents Ako Hvrr Jiebel, or quiet observers like most English.- --' men, not to wonder a, little why h\j is not moro nearly content. , lio is already the first man 'in the ; world, the on» on whomi any- . thing happens every eye is turned to see how he will take it. Jlo is near:ly absolute within his wide douii- ' nion, yet he is -free from, that dw ' pressing kind of responsibility, that loneliness which no .man shoul iL^r, which crushes and dopresses auto- , crats like Ms Russian cousin. Hisdolninion, though not the lar^vst, is the strongest in the world, and geographically situated that when he is fully awake sleep for tho re^mainder of mankind is nearly impossible. There is, and there has , 1/ en in. history no position greater , than his-, save for moments in thu lives ol one or two comi'jierors, j whoso careers, he declares, and : quite honestly declares, iho has no | wish to emulate. i