‘If I have offended you by what I have written, just consider I cannot do otherwise than say what is my opinion. My personal esteem for you is not altered by what is taking place.’
From Sir John Wolfe Barry to Mr. A. B.:
October 4th, 1914.
‘I have read with profound interest and grief the copy of the letter of August 29th from your German friend. The rancour which it displays is beyond words. It is apparently useless to criticise its contents looking to the frame of mind of the writer, who, I think and fear, expresses the present general feeling in Germany of hatred and anger with our country. Many of his statements and arguments are however absolutely and fundamentally erroneous and are capable of complete refutation.
‘The poisoning of German thought in respect of Great Britain does not date from anything done by King Edward and still less from Sir Edward Grey or the present or former Ministry. It began long earlier in the antagonism between the military class and what may be termed the liberal aspirations of many thoughtful Germans when the Crown Prince, afterwards the Emperor Frederick William, married our Princess Royal. Both were in sympathy with liberal ideas and they were violently opposed by Bismarck and the blood-and-iron school, while the youth of Germany were systematically taught by the professors and writers of Germany, under the encouragement of Bismarck and his school of thought, to hate and despise Great Britain. There is not and never has been a corresponding feeling here towards Germany.
‘Of course the two countries are rivals in trade and commerce, but that is no reason for rancorous hatred. We are keen rivals in trade with the United States and other countries, but such rivalries have not engendered any other feelings than that each country should do its best honourably to succeed in competition. It must never be forgotten in this connection that in England and in our colonies Germans, though keeping a strict barrier of tariffs themselves, have had absolute freedom in competition, that they have availed themselves of it and have made huge profits under our Free Trade system. Thus the rancour of Germany against Great Britain must be sought for in other directions, and it cannot be truthfully put down to trade rivalry.
‘The cause is in fact to be found in the Welt Politik, the jealousy of Germany of British world power and in the aspirations of crushing Great Britain by force of arms. This has been the persistent and avowed policy of the Kaiser and the Junker class.
‘The idea was to fight France and Russia to a finish and then concentrate all forces against England (and parenthetically against Belgium) and to destroy the British Empire. The present extreme and violent hatred on the part of Germany is due to the probability of the failure of that deep-laid scheme in consequence of England supporting her Allies, and refusing to break her pledged word to Belgium. It may be also caused by the feeling which must be somewhere embedded in German thought, that Germany has behaved dishonourably and scandalously to Belgium, whose neutrality she most solemnly guaranteed.
‘If one looks back on the history of the last twenty-five years, or thereabouts, one sees Bismarck threatening an unprovoked war with France, and only withdrawing under the threat of the opposition of Russia and Great Britain. This proposed attack on France by Bismarck was a most shameful episode, for France’s only offence was her existence and recuperative power after her disasters in 1870. Then came the Emperor’s policy in our South African War, when, if he could have done so, he would have arrayed Europe against this country, but ended only in having lured Kruger to ruin. Then came the “mailed fist” in China, the seizure of Tsing-tau, and Germany’s efforts to crush Japan after the Russo-Japanese war. The demonstrations at Tangiers and Agadir occurred soon afterwards, with more threats of an European war. Afterwards came the annexation of Bosnia by Austria backed by Germany and the insults hurled at Russia by Germany in “shining armour.”