BRITAIN AND GERMANY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19455, 11 October 1926, Page 10

BRITAIN AND GERMANY

The meeting between British and German leaders of industry and finance, held at the week-end, is an event which obviously has aroused a great deal of interest. A rapprochement, commercial instead of diplomatic in character, between the two countries can be attributed to the logic of circumstances. Industry and commerce have problems felt in both Britain and Germany. This is an endeavour to devise means of co-operation and mutual assistance. One of the German delegates said so, in regretting that the meeting had not been held years ago. If there is astonishment at this evidence of discarding old animosities, it should be renumbered that the meeting in England was preceded by another much more surprising from that aspect. More than three months ago there was a conference held in Luxemburg between the coal magnates of the Ruhr and the ironmasters of France. The meeting laid the foundations of an intellectual co-operation expected to have far-reaching effects on the metal industries of the Continent. From this close approach of French and German industrial leaders there were predicted many consequences, among them a possible isolation of Britain in the face of a Europe closely knit together by economic interests, leading inevitably to diplomatic bonds. Germany • had also made similar gestures toward Poland, Belgium and the members of. the Little Entente. So far as the economic overtures do portend the formation of other ties, Britain does not appear to be condemned to isolation. It is dangerous, however, to attach too much international significance to gatherings which, like the one of the last week-end, are more likely to be simply meetings of business men for the purpose of talking business.