Under the title of “King Edward VII the Peacemaker” he contributed to the same review a short article written a few weeks after the King’s death, in which he dilated on his high personal qualities, his merits as a ruler, and his love of order and peace. His last communication on “Germany and England” the editor declined to print, but it was published in Nord und Sud, an old-established and well-known fortnightly review of good repute. The article is so characteristic of the good sense and right feeling of its author that it is well worthy of reproduction, apart from its interest in relation to the one supreme topic of the time.
Germany and England.
I write neither from the point of view of a diplomatist nor of a politician, but simply as a scientific man who, being a Menschenfreund and Deutsch-gesinnt and anxious to see differences between the nations as between individuals disappear, asks himself the questions, who are the people who are stirring up all this discord; what do they mean; what do they want; what is their power? We in England call these men Jingoes. In Germany, I believe, they are termed Pan-Germans or All-Deutschen. In France they are “Revanchistes,” and in Italy “Irredentisti.”
What they mean is clear enough; they mean mischief. What they want is not so plain, for they do not tell us in simple language; indeed, I doubt whether they know themselves. That their language, whether spoken or written, is more or less dangerous to the peace of the world everybody admits. What is their power, and how far that danger goes, is another question. Nobody believes that their wish to set the nations by the ears is shared by the mass of mankind. The general good sense and honesty of the people of every nationality is a strong bulwark against Chauvinism. And if the true opinion of the British and of the German peoples could be obtained who can doubt that it would be in favour of peace and good feeling rather than of hostility and war? But to err is human, and to be misled is easy, so that it behoves those who love progress and hate all that opposes progress to use all efforts to denounce and destroy Chauvinism in every country and in every form. In England Jingoism has practically no power. In Parliament certainly none—witness the speeches lately delivered in both Houses—not one note of ill-feeling towards Germany was heard. On the contrary, the warmest expressions of appreciation of goodwill and friendship fell from the lips not only of the members of the present Government in Lords and Commons, but also from the leaders of the Opposition in both Houses, and the wish for an understanding with Germany was universal and emphatic.
In the British Press, with a few dishonourable and unimportant exceptions, the same thing may truthfully be said. The working classes have never been infected by anti-Germanism. Our commercial men, who are brought into intimate trading relations with the Germans, desire an Anglo-German understanding beyond all other aspirations in the sphere of foreign policy.
To believe that England now wishes, or is likely ever to wish, to go to war with Germany is a delusion in which only the insane can indulge. What on earth, may well be asked, can England gain by commencing war with Germany? Suppose, for instance, the British fleet could bombard and destroy Hamburg; in what way would such an act of vandalism benefit us? In no possible way; on the contrary, we should be cutting our own throats, for is not Hamburg one of our best customers, merely to look at the transaction from a monetary point of view?
Let me pull down another idol. It has been said, and is still believed by many persons who ought to know better, that England is jealous of the rising, or risen, world-wide trade of Germany, and is determined to stop it in defence of her own. That such a view has been expressed by certain of my countrymen is, of course, a fact. But surely this is a totally false view. Imagine, if you can, Germany reduced to the condition of half a century ago, poor, disunited, with little or no world-wide trade. Would English commerce be more flourishing than when, as now, Germany is rich, united, and trading the wide world over? Certainly not. The richer our neighbours and competitors become the more will our own trade benefit. A man with sixpence in his pocket is not much good as a buyer. With a handful of gold he is a welcome customer! What the trade between the two countries was worth fifty years ago I don’t know, but it must have been a mere fraction of what it now amounts to, namely, over 100 millions sterling a year.
Is there any other point of view from which the notion that England can personally gain by making war on Germany can be urged? I do not know of one, and perhaps our Jingoes may even admit this. But say they: “If we do not declare war Germany is certain to do so. Is it not better for us to choose our own time and occasion rather than allow our enemy to take the step when the conditions are most favourable to them?” This conclusion is sound provided the premises are also sound. Does Germany intend to declare war or so to act as to bring about a war with this country? What is the evidence? Certainly if we are to accept the statements of the All-Deutschen party as representing the opinion of the nation at large there are good grounds for believing that war is inevitable. But surely every one who knows anything of Germany and German opinion is certain that the All-Deutschen have even less power to bring about war than our own Jingoes have, and that their utterances represent public opinion in Germany to a less extent than those of our Jingoes represent the English opinion. The debates in the Reichstag, the speeches of your Ministers, the expressions in the more responsible organs of the German Press, and the outspoken opinion of the German working classes, all tell the same tale, “We do not want war.”
Still there remains in Germany a strong and widespread feeling of animosity—not to use a harsher term—towards England. Upon what is this feeling based? What has England done, is doing, or is going to do that should create such a feeling of mistrust and enmity? I have never been able to answer this question, and I believe it arises out of a misunderstanding and misconception; a sort of revival of the old French cry of “Perfide Albion.” Can these All-Germans point to any one of the many Anglo-German agreements which have been arrived at from the time when Germany began to expand down to the present moment which has not given Germany every opportunity to take her place in the sun?