GERMAN DISTRUST OF ENGLAND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8133, 5 October 1904, Page 4

GERMAN DISTRUST OF ENGLAND.

♦— . • (Berlin Correspondent Ntv York Sun.) The warm reception of King Edward in Hamburg was in striking contrast to the cool demonstrations at .Kiel. Tliis, indeed, was in some measure to be expected, though no one could have foretold the extent of the friendliness that was to ba shown by the Hanaa town. Hamburg is the continental city with ■which England has commercial relations of oldest date ; Hamburg possesses, and may be said always to have possessed, an English colony ; and the effect of these two facts have been to inspire the German inhabitants of the old and " free " town with a sympathy for, and an understanding of, things English which are lamentably lacking in all other great German cities. . There are two classes of business men in Hamburg, the one academically, the other commercially, educated. The former have had a high school and university teachings which has expanded, and liberally influenced their minds; the latter class consists of those who, on leaving school, were sent to serve in the branches of their fathers' or other relatives' houses abroad. . It is as a consequence of this liberal spirit, and this English connection, that the enthusiasm with which the Hamburgers received King Edward is to be explained. No one who was present at the Bourse when the King, -tending in a balcony above their heads, and speaking their own language, told the crowd of four or five thousand tightly packed citizens that he would riever forget Hamburg or his visit to ib, and heard the loud succession of "Hochs!' , uttered at regular intervals, like the thunder of a royal salute which answered him, bub will remember the scene. ' Ther» was ftothing at all like it in Kiel, where the enthusiasm was semi-official, and where there was NO POPULAR DEMONSTRATION AT ANY TIME. The fact is, there is no enthusiasm among the German people for anything English. There is for a few things American—for American boots, for example, and American machinery, and Sousa's "Washington Post March." But, on the whole, to say to a German that a thing, whether an idea or' a commodity, is English, is a poor recommendation of it. What is the reason of this undeniable antipathy between Anglo-Saxon and German? The editor of a London newspaper, in whose presence on board Sir Thomas Lipton's yacht the subject was discussed, went so far as to assert that the two races hated one another simply and solely be, causa of their rivalry in business. This opinion is widely held in England, and possibly in America; but it is only partly true, for the reason that hatred is too strong a word to use. It must be adm tted that there is a mutual dislike. What then, is the cause of this dislike? It is not altogether trade, rivalry, though trade rivalry has a good deal to.do with it. Hitherto England ha s played the chief role in the trading of the world.^ Suddenly a second claimant to the buyer's favour—America—appears, and the Englishman" and the American have hardly agreed to divide the trade between them when, behold, a third party, the German, bustles upon the scene. The comfortable arrangemenb made between the Englishman and the American has to be reopened , and its terms resettled in consideration for the new arrival. .... . Now, the new arrival is neither so nob nor 'so experienced as either of them in possession, but he claims as much — claims it on a footing of entire equality, and with a manner not distinguished for what, for want of a better name, may be called international politeness. Under these circumstances, it is only natural that there should be at first but little love lost between the men in possess on and the new claimant; and if hatred does not exist, there must be, as there is, i A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF SUSPICION AND ILL-WILL. But this is not all. There are the barriers of language and of national character. Th* difficulties and misunderstandingcaused by the barrier of an unknown and difficult language reed not be insisted upon, but the esrer-tial differences of national character deserve a little further description. The Germans are the Chinese of Europe —self-contained, self-conscious, eelf-se king. As a people they have somehow becom-. possessed of the idea that they are of all nations the most higlily cultivated, and as a rule the individval German on meeting an Ansrlo-Saxon for the first' time- convoys, cbnsc ously or unconsciously, his conviction of tliis fact by his maniier. He is, m point of fact, well educated, with the exception that he does not appear able to recognise that others may be as well educated as himself, and sometimes even ' better educated. The result is that he is nearly always unable to see things from a foreigner's standpoint, and still less able to admit that the foreigner who is of an opinion different from his own can be right. In this respect a Chines© wall surrounds his intellectual horizon, and it is only by - slow degrees that breaches in the wall are being made. Not long ago he was inclined to consider all Americans as either humbugs or swindlers, and though this inclination has now almost entirely disappeared, ho. is still prone

to regard th« American as less truthful, or, -say, moro "sensational," than other people. Another marked feature which contrasts unplca-ingiy with the orTi-iisne chakacteristics oif THE ANGLO-SAXON, and especially the Amerioan, is his pessimism. The German reduces everything to its lowest common denominator. His first impulse is to a*sume that the lowest form, of self-interest i_ the guiding motive in the national and individual acts of the foreigner. He docs not believe that either nations or individuals can pc generous, that is to say, can give aaything without requiring or expecting a return. And yet among his own. people he is often generosity itself. Indeed, all that has been here charged against bim is only true as regards his relations with the people outside the Chinese wall. Inside the wall he is sincere, genuine, hearty, a good friend ; good, in fact, in all the important relations of life. Outside it, he seems to think it necessary to wear an air of supposing that in these respects the foreigner is on » lower plane than himself. . It is deducible from what has been said, and particularly from the distinction thafc ha« been drawn between Hamburg and other German . cities, that the meeting of the Kaiser and King Edward at Kiel will have only tht very slightest effect upon th* state of feeling between the AngloSaxon people and the Germans, whereas the influence of the visit of the King to Harpburg is likely to by considerable. The fisit to neither plaoe, it is now generally agreed, will have ko rotrrrcAL consequence or as ' UtPOKTANT CHABACTER. Indeed, it is hardly going too far to say that the German statesmen have no political ends immediately in their view; political, that is, as distinguished from commercial. ' They are not thinking of territorial acquisition. If- they are thinking politics tt all, it is only in so far as politics is connected with getting an entrance into and a footing upon new markets under identically <_he same conditions as other countries. Germany is' as fully determined as other lountries to have the open door, and her only fear is lest the other countries may endeavour, to close it against her. The real situation is different. All the nations are trying, not only t-> open the door, but to keep it open, an' iheir efforts appear to cause as much fri tion hs if they were trying to bang it i each others' faces. If each country could only be led to believe that th<- others wer_ trying. to open the door for the benefit o! all, and not of one alone, there would soon ■A D-M-rCT-OSr OF RACE HATRED OR RACE DISLIKE ALL ROUND. • Race hatered, or race dislike, will, of course, never entirely disappear. Ignorance of the languages, of the conditions, and of the institutions of other countries will always give birth to somo amount o_ misunderstanding and suspicion. Bui this ignorance, both in Germany and abroad, is lessening, though the process is slow. The schoolmaster is at work, and hia lessons will sooner or later bear fruit in the shape of toleration, if not friendship. _Juch, at least; are some of the impressions feft by reoent events at Kiel and Hamburg.