THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 1885.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7270, 7 March 1885, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 1885.

Judging from the telegrams, there are evidently two different and somewhat opposing currents of feeling at present prevailing in Germany with regard to England's colonial policy. The one springs from irritation at the thought of that immense accretion of territories which, in all parts of the world, has in the course of centuries and in virtue of the mobile activity of her subjects become the heritage of Britain. This, however unjustifiable, is yet very natural, being, as it is, the product of that consciousness of power which the consolidation of the German Jiimpire haa given birth to. Accompanying this feeling is a desire, which also is natural enough in its way, to take every possible advantage of that sluggishness and aversion to the increase of responsibilities, which are more or less characteristic of old-established Powers, and which has, especially in recent years, loaded England's colonial action. It is this incipient ambition on the part of Germany to become a colonising Power that has placed her in a position of antagonism towards the Australasian and other British colonies; and also by consequence to England herself, being forced as she was by the pressure of these colonies to lay aside her hereditary apathy, and endeavour to gratify to some extent their aspirations for annexation. As is well known, negotiations of a somewhat complicated character and marked to a considerable degree by that evasiveness which is the leading feature in all political diplomacy, were in consequence entered into between the Governments of the two Empires, and resulted in both of them pursuing courses not quite straight. The sense of wrong aroused in the colonies by the conviction that they had been sold by the negotiating parties moved them to denounce in anythiug but honeyed terms the course which had been taken, and made both Imperial Governments anxious to justify their lines of action. This led to the publication first of the German White Book and then of the English Blue Book, in both of which revelations were made of a somewhat startling character. The public were thus made aware of the weakness and meanness which the statesmen of great Empires are betimes guilty of, and the knowledge of this fact did not help to sweeten th<? temper of parties on either side. Hence the report which the telegrams of yesterday brought us of the diplomatic relations between the two Empires being somewhat strained. As might be expocted, the North German Press makes the most of the occasion thus furnished to fan the national irritation, and even Prince Bismarck has been tempted to employ, in reference to England's relation to some European questions, language savouring in some degree of the spirit of threatening and retaliation. Still, however desirous the Prince Chancellor may be to have his own way and to steal a march on English simplicity, and however boisterously the German Press may declaim against the alleged grasping and obstructive character of England's colonial policy, there is yet no real wish cherished by the German people to have any serious dispute with the British. The good sense which forms a leading feature in the Teutonic mind is a pledge that any irritation begotten of mutual blunders and misunderstandings will gradually give place to a desire for conciliation. This accordingly is the other feeling to which we have referred as exerting a perceptible sway over the relations of Germany to England. In a remarkable speech recently made in the Reichstag, and which will be found in another column, Prince Bismarck in referring to the alleged possibility of Germany being opposed to England some day with arms in hand, said :— "Those questions which are now in dispute between us and England are not of sufficient importance to justify a breach of the peace between us and England, either beyond or on this side of the North Sea."" The publication of the White and Blue Books has, it is true, taken place since these words were spoken, and the irritation they were intended to allay has risen to a higher pitch than it had previously reached. But none the less do these words ex-press the solid conviction of the German nation which, despite the most recent ebullitions of temper, is again beginning to assert itself. This we take to be the import of the telegram of this morning, which intimates that the mission of Count Herbert Bismarck, German Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, who has just arrived in London, is to bring about a friendly understanding between Germany and England on the Pacific question. The fact of the Chancellor's son being sent on this mission is evidence of a desire on the part of the German Government to find a modus vivendi with England in respect to those acquisitions of land in the Pacific, which have led w> unpleasant recriminations. There is nothing Prince Bismarck desires less than to foster a quarrel with Britain or with her Australasian dependencies. He is well aware that, in these seas at least, the influence of the Englishspeaking race is destined to be supreme. He is, moreover, too keensighted a statesman not to interpret aright the significance of a united disapproval on the part of these colonies of the attempts he has made to traverse their lines of extension, or the reciprocal effect which the unanimity of their desire to aid their mother State in time of war, is sure to produce on the mind of the English public. And he is therefore solicitous that

the relations subsisting between the English people and the people he represents should be strictly of a neighbourly charaeter. From time immemorial the two nations have been at peace., as was stated by him m the speech already mentioned, and he evidently feels that at this time of day it would be a crime to insist on measures that would not only endanger the maintenance of friendship but also thwart those very enterprises which it is the professed aim of his colonising policy to promote. It may therefore be expected that the parleying which has already commenced between Count Herbert Bismarck and Lord Granville will be attended with results which will prove satisfactory to both England and Germany, and the Australasian colonies as well. The better of the two feelings referred is sure to prove the superior. Provided the matter is gone about in an honest and business-like way, there ought to be no difficulty in coming to an arrangement regarding the Pacific question, at once advantageous and creditable to all parties concerned.