PRESSING GERMAN NEED.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 30, Issue 60, 2 August 1918, Page 2

PRESSING GERMAN NEED.

CONQUEST OP EGYPT.

A Dr. Hans Ehrenberg, who a short time ago contributed to the “Vossisehe Zietung” a series of articles “proving the pressing need of Germany to acquire the iron mines of Briey,” now tries to prove, in the same paper, that if Germany does not obtain possession of Egypt and a “Middle Africa” she will be lost. “I know that it still sounds I strange to' German ears to hear it I said that Germany is fighting for Africa; but when the people be-? gin to realise that the war is'a struggle for our world position, that if we do not gain it we shall be thrown back upon Europe and must suffocate in Europe, . . . then, indeed it will continue to fight with unabated vigour. The reason is simple. What is the possession of the . coast of Flanders? A mere bagatelle.. It would make Germany free as against the west of Europe, but not as regards America, or as regards the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ combination, of which England would be a sort of Heligoland. To escape from that position we must gain a secured outlet to the ocean, and to that end it is not enough to possess Constantinople, which is but the ‘first rung in the ladder’ from land to a maritime position. It is also imperative to gain the control of the Suez Canal—that ‘central position of British Imperialism,’ thereby extracting its ‘fangs.’ ” It is interesting to obseve how the learned phiosopher takes it for granted that Germany is now the mistress of Constantinople,. and that the subjection of Turkey is but the first step towards the fulfilment of Germany’s world ambitions. He also characteristically observes that the possession of the Suez Canal would give Germany a pledge of victory “in the futuue great naval and colonial war.”