THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1912. THE GERMAN PROBLEM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14920, 19 February 1912, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1912. THE GERMAN PROBLEM.

Recent cables have disclosed some' somewhat extraordinary sidelights on the negotiations which have been going on between the British Government and that of Germany, with a view to a better understanding. It is not too much to say that, if it were possible to bring about that understanding without loss of prestige, or the endangering of national honour, the achievement would remain the . greatest solution of foreign politics which a Liberal Government has ever made in all the long history of British diplomacy. There were good reasons for making Lord Haldane the bearer of the olive branch, for the Minister for War is not only well known in Germany as an individual sympathising to some extent with its aspirations, and at least knowing its conditions by personal contact with its people, but also as one of the best German scholars ever provided in English public life. For some strange reason English people, as a class, know less of Germany than they do of the more Western European nations, and it has been unfortunate that the reconciling of the views of the two nations should have had to be dependent almost entirely on the private efforts of a few men such as Lord Haldane and Lord Lonsdale, who, because of their intimacy with the highest German social life, have frequently been looked upon with suspicion by their own countrymen. No one who can! in any degree pretend to a knowledge of world politics can fail to see what an immeasurable blessing to the chances of a continuity of European peace would be a real rapprochement between England and her greatest trade rival; the only difficulties which would seem to stand in \he way are those relating to a mutual reduction of armaments on the one hand, and the finding of a peaceable means of allowing Germany to acquire by purchase, or otherwise, something in the nature of a Colonial Empire, on the other. With regard to armaments it is true

that the German masses are' gradually being crushed by, the burden ,of taxation necessary to the maintaining/not only of : the greatest army in Europe, but also of the most powerful fleet; and it is probable that German public opinion may be influenced by the economic fact— well stated a few days since by Mr. Winston Churchill— if the duel between England and Germany continues the former can not only build quicker, and better, and cheaper, than her rival, but also that she is financially able to "stay" longer than any other Power in the world. The Colonial question is a much more difficult matter, for, as we have oft-times pointed out, Germany has never been a very successful coloniser, even though the German people in British and other colonies make most admirable settlers. Looking to the fact that all the desira^lßi

spots in the world, situated in temperate or semi-tropical clima.*Sj have already been occupied for many years by other nations, it is difficult to see what arrangement could be made other than the cession, by England or France, for a consideration, of some of their dependencies— a matter which becomes the more difficult seeing that, in this democratic age, there are very few of such dependencies which would be willing to be transferred to another flag, however much their parent State might desire it. There are many people who think that England made a great mistake when she exchanged the island of Heligoland—which practically commands the entrance to the Elbe and the great commercial port of Hamburg—for an uncivilised tract in Africa which has been of little value to her or anybody else since she acquired it. There would doubtless arise an outcry if any other possession, inhabited by the white race, were either sold or exchanged on the same lines. We need scarcely say that any arrangement which England could come to with Germany would have to be subservient to. the long-standing • entente with France, though it is probable that, in official circles at least, the French peoplewho are essentially practical and industrial—* would welcome anything which would increase English influence in Berlin, and so enable that influence to be exerted, if occasion arose, on behalf of France itself. The present .mission, and the manner in which it was started, forms a departure from all the old traditions of diplomacy and creates a precedent which might prove embarrassing in the future. It has always been understood that momentous questions of Foreign Policy should never be publicly i dealt with other than by the Prime J Minister, or the Foreign Secretary :of State; yet there is probably no 'man in the British Cabinet who is more esteemed and looked up to, even by his opponents, than Lord Haldane, who has done solid and steady, if undemonstrative work, ever since he forsook v the Bar for politics. One of the most encour- \ aging features about the whole business is the fact that the German | Chancellor has publicly declared in the Reichstag his approval and his confidence in the chances of this semi-official • discussion clearing the air. .-. The manner in which the German press, as a rule almost entirely hostile to England, has on this occasion accorded an almost unanimous meed of praise to Lord Haldane and his good intentions, is a sign that the time may not be very distant when the two great branches of the i Teutonic race will confine their antagonisms to the peaceful rivalry lattaching to industrial and educational efforts.