NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12662, 16 September 1904, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

EXGLANtf AKfi GERMANY. Tire following letter, -written by a German to a friend in England, is published by the London Spectator, and as the writer is said to lis "a man of mature- age, a keen observer of politic!?, and a strong Liberal," it is riot -without interest, particularly ill view of tlio widespread belief that German policy is aimed at preparing for a Struggle With England. The writer of the letter says : — -' Another fable is that of the enmity against England and the preparation. for a struggle with that country. You will ndt find ono serious man in all Germany who has such ideas. It were indeed time" that another Carlyle should speak about Germany to his countrymen. The way in which the Times and oilier papers speak about- Germany now* for years is indeed such that every thinking man must feel provoked to answer. It is an undeniable fact .that Germany, the greatest military Power, has not fired a shot for 30 years. England, Russia, France, weru in the meantime continually at war in some part of the world, and nave added new possessions of the greatest importance to their former colonies. , France spends much larger sums for her army -as well as her iiavy than Germany, and yet nobobdy thinks that she does so out of enmity for England. That Germany arms herself in the same measure as France should appear natural when the 'revanche' is the loadstone for great part of her" politicians and most of her officers. The expenditure for the navy of the United States is much larger also than that of Germany, and the outlay for new ships is in England three times as great; in Russia, America, and France greater than in Germany, so that this country holds only the fifth place (as she does in number and weight of ships also) ; it -would ba wonderful if her fleet only should grow in an alarm" ing manner to England. What cause is there for enmity? Our press wrote against England during the War in South Africa, but was not the same done by all Continental papers? And certainly the French papers were moTe insulting to you than ours. Our largest trade is with England, and do you think that we hope to increase it by war? Or do we want any of your colonies? More than-half the members of the Reichstag are enemies of colonies under all circumstances, so that it is with great pain that the Ministers obtain grants of money for colonial purposes. And even if a party in Germany were wishing.for new colonial enterprise, is there no cheaper mode for getting colonies than a war with the greatest naval Power, which any day may seize our colonies which we cannot defend? The Dutch have most tempting' colonies, which are much more easily obtainable., and yet nobody there has fear of our country, which, situated among : many weaker neighbours, has never injured them, but proved herself a sincere friend of peace. Germany has two things to fear: 1. The Socialist movement, one-third of our : voters following the standard of Herr Rebel. This movement would grow in case of any war in an irresistible manner. 2. The Panslavio movement in the East and in Aus- ! tria. Germany is sure to have the Slavs ! on her hands whenever she engages in war, | and France will not keep quiet in that case either. These two dangers are. always paramount in our considerations, and secure all other Powers against our breaking the peace except in vital questions. Excuse my writing so explicitly, but it seems to me the duty of every honest man in both countries to diminish the ill-feeling and the unreasonable nervousness which some people seem to have an interest to excite between England and Germany, who hitherto have had no serious difference." In a footnote the editor of the Spectator says that although millions of Germans may think-as the writer of the letter does, unfortunately » the course of the ship is determined by the men who hold the tiller, not by the sentiments of the crew or passengers. Of the policy of the men at the helm in Germany there can be little doubt.

SSXTIMENTALISSt AND APATHY. If our age has one special advantage over its predecessors, it is that it is more merciful. Public cruelty is forbidden, and private ill-treatment is punished whenever it is brought to light. We have become more sensitive to the griefs of our neighbours, more sympathetic towards weak things, whether children, or women, or lower animals. Our consciences are certainly less robust than our fathers', for what they passed by with scarcely a glance, we shudder at and seek to reform. We have abolished bear-baiting and cock-fighting, we do not hang our criminals in public, and we give our horses sun-bonnets in hot weather. We have also become more reasonable, less ready to make the primordial- appeal to force. Duelling has gone out of fashion, and wo take our quarrels to the law courts—but law has too much of the old Adam in it, and in time we shall settle them before a tribunal of suave and sympathetic friend's. It is, no doubt, a welcome change. Mercy and kindliness are the finest of human virtues. But since all ethics-are a delicate equipoise, it is possible to incline the balance too far, and" in overdoing a virtue to make it firsteauKin to a vice. For mercy, if carried too far, becomes a shallow conception, a mere list of negative commandments, and the strong human blood which gives it its value may be so weakened as to become incapable of either vice or virtue. In attempting to make the path of life too smooth, in centring all our interest upon its smoothness, wa may tend to forget that it is • a path, and that our true business is not with the path, but with the goal at the end of it. If we overrate the terrors of death and pain, we shall drive oat all discipline from life and make an end of courage. What boys' school would be of any value if there were no fights, no floggings; if everyone spoke in silky tones and spent his days in a rivalry of loving kindness? Let us advance by all means ix. the direction of mercy and charity, but let us remember that these, cannot be secured by the sacrifice of strength, manliness, the old noble impulse to contend and conquer. All unfriendly observer might read signs of a failing courage in the carnival of false sentiment which arises whenever pain or death is involved. The abolition of capitkl punishment, attacks on field sports, abstinence from flesh foods on humanitarian grounds, the clamours of dreamers against war— spring from the false creed which sees only one-half ol morality, and finds in physical pain the chief oif evils. There is another false doctrine working to the same end'— belief that anything worth having ! can be got in. this world without sacrifices. War, as we have seen, is held to be evil bej cause it involves suffering ', so many manly and honourable enterprises are killed at birth because they cannot be achieved without a certain price. The country, of course, must be made secure against aggression, butyou cannot ask the ordinary citizen to do anything. The Imperial power of Britain must be maintained, but—unless tangible profit® are realised from the start it is not worth doing. British commerce must hold its own among the nations of the earth, but— it will all happen without the average man bestirring himself. Such a belief kills energy and self-reliance, and, if persisted in, will most effectually ruin any commonwealth. If ever the twin doctrines of sentimentalism and apathy gain any wide, acceptance in these islands, then our historic I courage will be a tradition of the past,