“Success Among the Nations.”

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIII, Issue VI, 6 August 1904, Page 4

“Success Among the Nations.”

A Hungarian, Dr. Emil Reich, who is a great traveller, has just published his impressions in a book called “Success Among the Nations.” Of old time successes and failures he writes learnedly enough. But it is when he deals with the present and the future of the world that he awakens a keener interest. Every nation believes in itself, in its own powers and destinies. But what does a disinterested observer think of it all? The growth of the Imperial spirit in Germany is Great Britain’s most pressing danger. “Germany,” says Dr. Emil Reich, “is arming herself with patient, calculating, and laborious perseverance for the day when she shall at last feel ready to throw down the gauntlet of defiance in the face of England. Germany is of those that look, meditate, and prepare before they leap, in order that they need have to leap but once.” Expansion is a necessity for the Fatherland. She has no elbow-room left. Her population has well-nigh doubled since 1870, and her emigrants are forced into colonies beneath other flags than their own. He does not, however, prophesy that Teuton jealousy may actually result in the defeat of our Empire. He is certain that France has not forgiven, no" •will ever forgive. Alsace and Lorraine. Unless Germany made a good bargain with her. it is probable that she would throw herself into the balance against the usurpers of her provinces. Moreover, within her own land, Germany will find her dreams imperilled by the rise and growth of Socialism. That party is opposed to the immense naval and military expenditure which alone would admit of a successful attack upon our country. Truly, the task before Germany is not a light one, nor are her problems easy of solution. When he turns to Great Britain. Dr. Emil Reich confesses to a certain bewilderment. There are no historical parallels to our Empire. It is something unprecedent ed. something that has never happened in the world before. In the Homeland he also finds many curious traits of national character. The English are more mediaeval in their system of classes than any nation which he has studied. The middle class, comprising the shopkeepers, the small manufacturers, and other traders, are not proud of their position as are those of similar rank in France, Germany or America. Briefly, it is the snobbery of Great Britain that he considers one of the heaviest drags upon the wheels of national progress. The English woman he considers to be a devoted wife and mother; but beyond these spheres she does not go. She is not a business woman; she does not assist her husband to manage his affairs as do the wives of France. She has a tendency to “degenerate into Mrs Grundyism, and thus become a centre for the propagation of gloom.” The middle-class woman, like the middle-class man, lacks self-respect. As she prospers she pretends to despise trade. In other words, she, too, is a snob. The splendid isolation of which England has made so proud a boast has ceased to be possible. Her navy is no longer the only navy upon the seas. She could not land troops in Europe, for they would be swamped by the immense national levies. It would be well for her, he says, to seek an alliance with a Continental Power. The stumbling block to such an alliance is British Imperialism, which arouses the jealousies of the European nations. Will we decide to continue British prosperity by alliances, or will we oppose an unbroken front to the world by drawing together our colonies into a splendid whole? That is the burning question of the British day, in Emil Reich’s opinion.