ENGLAND AND GERMANY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3168, 2 December 1914, Page 72

ENGLAND AND GERMANY.

HOW OUR GOVERNMENT SOUGHT PEACE. MR ASQUITH’S REMARKABLE DISCLOSURE. (Eao\i Cue Own (Joreespondent.) LONDON, October a. /Iho Prime Minister concluded in Cardiff Ins mission to trie tour cap.tal towns of the .Kingdom in furtherance ot the recruiting campaign, iho sensat.on ot mo speech was the disclosure ot communications that had passed between the Uromut and the German Government long betore the present war was antic.patcd. Mr Asquith said : " With regard to Germany in particular our poucy—repeatedly stated in Parliament, resolutely pursued year alter year bom in London and in Berlin—our policy has’ been to remove one by one tne outstanding causes of possible iriction and so to estabi.sh a firm basis for cordial relations in the days to come. "We have said from the first—l have said it over and over again, and so has Sir Edward Grey—that our friendships with certain Powers (with France, with Russia, ana with Japan) wore not to be construed as implying cold feelings and still lees hostile purposes against any other Power. But at the same time wo have already made it clear, to quote the words used by Sir EdWard Grey as far back as November, 1911 —1 quote ins exact words— 4 One does not make new friendships worth having by deserting old ores.' New friendsh.ps by all means let us have, but not at the expense of the ones we have. That has been, and I trust will always be, the attitude of those whom the Kaiser in his now notorious proclamation describes as the treacherous English. "We laid down, and I wish to call not only your attention, but the attention of the whole world, to this, when so many falsa legends are now being invented and circulated, in the following year—in the year 1912—we laid down in terms carefully approved by Cabinet, and which I will textually quote, what our relations with Germany ought, in our view, to be. We said, and we communicated this to the German Government: Britain declares that she will neither make nor join in any unprovoked attack upon Germany. Aggression upon Germany is not subject and forms no part of any treaty, understanding, or combination to wh.ch Britain is now a party, nor will she become a party to anything that has such an object. There is nothing ambiguous or equivocal about that. WHAT GERMANY WANTED. “But that was not enough for German statesmanship. They wanted us to go further. ihey asked us to pledge ourselves absolutely to neutrality in tne event of Germany being engaged in war, and this, at a time when Germany was enormously increasing both her aggressive and defensive resources, and especially upon the sea. hi. > asked us, to put it quite plainly, for a free hand, so far as we were concerned, when they selected the opportunity to overbear, to dominate the European world. To such a demand but one answer was possible, and that was the answer w r e gave. None the less we have continued during the whole of the last two years, and never more energetically and successfully than during the Balkan crisis of last year, to work not only for the peace of Europe, but for the creation ot a better international atmosphere and a more cordial co-operation between all the Powers. From both points of view, that of our domestic interests as a kingdom and an Empire, and that of our settled attitude and policy in the counsels of Europe, a war such as this, which injures the one and frustrates the other, was, and could only be, regarded as among the worst of catastrophes—among the worst of catastrophes, but not the worst. “ENGLAND’S DOOM.” 44 Four weeks ago, speaking at the Guildhall, when the war was still in its early days, I asked my follow countrymen with what countenance, with what conscience, had wo basely chosen to stand aloof, we could have watched from day to day the terrible unrolling of events—public faith shamelessly broken, the freedom of small people trodden in the dust, the wanton invasion of Belgium and then of France by hordes who leave behind them at every stage of their progress a dismal tale oi savagery, of devastation, and of desecration worthy of the blackest annals in the history of barbarism. That was four weeks ago. The war has now lasted for 60 days, and every one of those days has aclded to the picture its share of sombre and repulsive traits. We now see clearly written down in letters of carnage and spoliation the real aims and methods of this long-prepared anct well-organised scheme against the liberties ot Europe. 44 1 say nothing of other countries. i pass no judgment upon them. But if we here in Great Britain had abstained and remained neutral, forsworn our word, deserted our friends, faltered and compromisecl with the plain dictates of our duty—nay. if we had not shown ourselves ready to strike with all our forces at the common enemy of civilisation and freedom, there would have been nothing left for our country but to veil her face in shame and to bo ready in her turn—for her time would have come—to share the doom which she would have richly deserved, and after centuries of glorious life to go down to her grave unwept, unhonoured, and unsung.”— (Loud cheers.)