Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1906. GERMANY & HER FOREIGN POLICY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLI, Issue 317, 7 December 1906, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1906. GERMANY & HER FOREIGN POLICY.

German Government is not directing its foreign policy in 'such a way as to remove tint obstacle. Hence, the National Liberals wish to take a hand in directing Germany's foreign relations, which have been directed recently ill such a way as to isolate Germany in Europe. In Other words, Herr Bassermann joins with Prince von Bulow in believing that Great Britain is the cause yr Germany's uncomfortably isolated^? tion, but further he is convinjf l the National Liberals «uJ&Sd lar business of releasing tneu<r .. am l better than the ,Ge^™»* "$ by inference the^ {^ the course it "V^NatJonal Liberals is to influenceof|? counte( , hy the s;m^\ n sss t Srfr Bassermann's following. His °irfy is a compact band of 50, a mere miit in the Reichstag. But complications and evolutions inside and outside the Chamber must be taken into account. The function of Herr Bassermann's party in the Reichstag is to unite with the 100 members of the Clerical Centre and the 73 members of the Conservative party in providing the Government with a good working majority, capable of defeating the schemes of the Radical Left, the Socialists, the Poles, and the other small parties that are for ever trying to embarrass the Kaiser's Ministers. The foreign policy of Germany is framed by the Imperial Chancellor, under the supervision of the Kaiser himself, and the notion that the National Liberals could direct it more efficiently must strike Prince von Bulow md the Kaiser as rather a bad joke. It s important, however, to recognise that ;he dissatisfaction of the National Lib;rals is not with the objective of German foreign policy, which is avowedly the removal of the British obstacles to German expansion, but with the means that have been adopted to attain -that objective. Prince von Bulow cannot afford to permit a secession of the National Liberals, especially with Herr Bebel and the Socialists so greatly to the front as at present. Hence the criticisms by Herr Bassermann are more significant and likely to exercise more influence, than the mere numerical strength of the party behind him seems to warrant.

With regard to the isolation of Germany and the hand England has taken in causing it, a review of current international "events shows that in every diplomatic struggle Germany has been more or less worsted. Qi'eat Britain has enormously strengthened her position in Egypt; she has helped France to keep Germany out of Morocco ; she has lately coma into the reversion of Ilusjlun influence in Persia, as is proved by the fact that Porala has been granted by tho Shah a Constitution and parliamentary institution* ; and by her allianco with Japan, she had effectually prevented Germany from extending her position in Shantung, which the German Government secured by a plain grab at Kiao-chau.

But while all those Brltlgh gains are irritatingly clear to the National Liberals they seem to make the ridiculous mistake of imagining that King Edward is the Machiavelli who has accomplished these ends. Of course the German mind cannot realise that while a British sovereign may promote, cooperate ujt||, tjyjiii !!! flll S!!' Ie British foreign policy, he (locs not control it in tho same manner »s a Qerman Emperor might pomrol thn policy of his Ministry, Howf.vep, It is beyond qup.ulon that the attitude of Horr Bftsper-mann and his following is not to be Ignored — that it is nst being altogether ignored— by the Kaiser and Prime von Buluw. The irony of it all is that King Edward is credited with having conceived and carried out with complete success a design 10 inol&to Germany in European diplomacy on exactly (no lines Uismarck laid down for the isolation of England, — a policy the man of blcod and iron left as a legacy to the Kaiser, but one which the German Emperor has signally faijcfl ta dnvelon to a successful conclusion. K(!'g «ffW a l'' ( '' ll 'methods are very different frpm those of his near relative the Kaiser, or of the lattur's advisers—- but It must \)9 admitted that his Britannic Majesty's velvet glove has produced far better results that the German Emperor's mailed fist.

INTERVENTION BY THE NATIONAL LIBERALS.

ONE often reads in the cabled news of the modification of European policy due to the influence, at least to the aggressiveness, of tho Kaisai', But- to comprehend the impelling agencies bohind and about him the observer has to study the evolution of party politics in the German Reichstag. There is a very general impression that the German Emperor," and by inference his Ministry, are restlessly intervening in most international affairs, especially those affecting the issues known as the Eastern Question. But newspaper exchanges indicate that at least one party in the Reichstag, the National Liberals, led by Herr Bassermann, is far from satisfied with tho moderation of the Kaiser and his Government and desires liore aggression, especially towards Great Britain. • ♦»••» In the Reichstag recently Herr Bassermann announced uncompromisingly that his party intended to intervene in the foreign policy of the Empire. He went on to declare that Britain is the pivot of Germany's world policy, I and that King Edward is working silently with iron persistence to secure the isolation of Germany. This estimate of the work of the British Sovereign in tho field of statesmanship is obviously based on the wejl.-known fact that King Edward laid the foundations jf the Anglo-French entente, yhich is the great bugbear of German diplomacy, md the destruction of which is the dearest object of patriotic German statesmanship. •♦• • ? ? From Herr Bassei'mann's reftjatkj an(i attitude it may be gathered that 'the opinion which the German National Liberals hold with regard to England is as unfriendly as the opinion which, for the last ten years — ever since the 'Kruger telegram" in 1896 — has been ■eld by the real framers of German forign policy. But Herr Bassermann's nnouncement shows that while the Naional Liberals are a{ one with the German Government in regarding f^reat Britain as the great obstacle in the way of German expansion, they permit themselves to hold "■ '"* ••) that tb.9