THE AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1904, GERMAN FOREIGN POLICY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12736, 13 December 1904, Page 4

THE AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1904, GERMAN FOREIGN POLICY.

Count vox Bulow's speech, in the German Reichstag is a meritorious exhibition of the diplomatic methods by which the Kaiser seeks to advance the fortunes of his dynasty and the boundaries of his Empire. During the South African War no official attempt was %uu!e to restrain the "unmeasured violence and injudicious attitude" of the German press, whose abuse and misrepresentation of all things British was shared by the Government organs as well as by the most irresponsible publications. It was only with the pacification of South Africa that the j German Government saw lit to pro-! test its friendship and goodwill and j to persuade us that it did not con- j nive, for diplomatic purposes, at the incitement of popular antagonism against Britain in preparation for the profitable "intervention" that was a possible excuse for concerted attack upon out Empire if such an attack should appear to have reasonable chance of success. Now that the attention of the German public is directed to Russian affairs, and the natural hatred of the free Teutonic mind for the despotic, authority that exists on its eastern frontier is finding expression in vehement denunciation of the notorious and undesirable assistance given by the Kaiser to the Tsar, the German Chancellor —mouthpiece of a ruler who would be an autocrat if he could—has the assurance to recall the popular outcry against England and to compare it to the " hostile, clamourous and stupid propaganda." of the Socialist Party against the Russian Government. And he gives this as the reason why the German Government is "compelled to take pains to maintain peaceable relations with Russia," The Kaiser end his Chancellor must have a strange, idea of the gullibility of the world if they think that this will be accepted as sole and sufficient reason for the sale of subsidised German merchant-cruisers to Russia, for the coaling of the Baltic Fleet by the vessels of a Kaiser-controlled company, for the surrender to Russia of refugees who have sought asylum in Germany from conscription, and for the thousand and one other acts

of countenance and assistance given by the Kaisor to the Tsar. If there is no secret treaty between Russia and Germany, as Count von Bulow asserts, it is only because one is not needed. The Kaiser William has practically revived the' infamous "Holy Alliance" of rulers against peoples, and whether this is set by treaty or left to an unwritten understanding is a difference of no importance whatever. He did not feel compelled to prove his friend- : ship for England during the Anglophobist mania that convulsed Germany three years ago. His Chancellor only professes friendship to England now because Ave are rightfully indignant at Germany's attitude and our star is manifestly in the ascendancy.

Count von Bulow, "personally, and on behalf of Germany, disclaims all Anglophobia." But his Government, disclaims Russophobia b\ deeds, Anglophobia not even by words unless it happens to suit the diplomacy of the moment to do so. From the time that the Kaisers famous message to Kruger awakened England to his designs, Ave have been able to see that only by an effort does the German Government show any friendliness to us. As we have said, there was no attempt made to calm or to disown the Pro-Boer vituperations of the German press until our arms were victorious in South Africa. Canada was insolently attacked because she voluntarily gave to the Mother Country a quota of the preference which Germany forces her own colonies to give to German goods, and the rest of the self-go-verning colonies of Britain were actually threatened with all sorts of pains and penalties if they dared to follow Canada's example. Within the past few weeks Australian traders have been shut out of the Marahalls— to cloak the coaling of the Russian fleet—and Ave suppose Count von Bulow will be surprised if his professions of friendship do not satisfy the Australian Parliaments and stave off the threatened retaliatory imposts upon German ships and German goods in Commonwealth, ports. It is true that English newspapers attack Germany, but why I For long after German policy became distinctly antagonistic the bulk of the British papers persisted in believing that a nation so closely connected with ours by blood, by history, and. by religion could not possibly be unfriendly. The Kaiser and his Government have taught us differently. They have taught us—as even Count Bulow's speech must teach us, in spite of him —that Germany prefers alliance with despotic Russia to any other, that under the influence of Hohenzollern ambition she forgets the ties of blood, of history, and of leligion, and in .the hope of territorial and colonial aggrandisement, at British expense is joining with the Tartar against Western civilisation. While France held with the Russians, she was our enemy, and only the gradual recovery of French international independence—crushed by Germany m '7u-'7l~-lias made possible the recent rapprochement between France and England, which has made the Franco-Russian treaty as doubtful as the Russo-Ge'rman understanding is certain. Yon Bulow tries to stir up the old anti-French feeling of the German people in support of the Kaiser's pro-Russian policy and may succeed, by this or some other tactics, in securing for it sufficient endorsement to make it national. But the British peoples, now completely undeceived, will only read in his protestations that unfriendliness with them does not at the present time. suit German diplomacy. The Kaiser wishes to pose as " our mutual friend.'" to place Russia under great obligations without offending England, evidently because he looks upon the Manehurian' campaign as already lost to the Tsui, and intervention as too risky to be worth Germany's while. Count von Bulow's speech is satisfactory when thus regarded. But it will not lessen the activity of British, dockyards or persuade any intelligent colonist, that we need not trouble any more about all Imperial defences being oil an effective fooling.