[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECT(Ten.a
Ssa,—I am sure you will pardon me if I mention that your footnote to my letter you were good enough to find room for last week attributes to me a belief the precise contrary to that which I hold. To be on "good terms" with France (which some of us preached long before it happily became current philosophy) I bold to be in no sense "an act of hostility" towards Germany. That any rational human being should entertain such a view appears improbable. But it is a very different thing for this nation to find itself in a relationship towards France such as apparently impelled us to throw our whole weight in the scale in her favour, as against Germany's ease, in order to assist her in the successful violation of an international treaty to which this nation had affixed its signature. And not only so, but to be prepared to place this nation's sea power at France's dis- posal and to denude our country of its Regular forces to enable France to achieve her purpose. The know- ledge that this could be possible when no agreement known or sanctioned by the nation exists to warrant it has shaken the entente in the nation's eyes, and if that policy is persisted in will eventually destroy it. Nor, if you will per- mit me to say so, am I in the least desirous of encouraging what you call the " preposterous legend that the Germans are the long-suffering victims of perfidious Albion." What I do assert is that British diplomacy showed itself needlessly un- friendly and hectoring towards Germany last July, and adopted a general attitude which the recent disclosures in the French Chamber and Senate show in the most categorical fashion to have been unjustified by any facts publicly accessible to-day. Seeing that the outcome of that attitude is almost certainly going to cost the British taxpayer further very large sums, and is the governing factor in our relations with Germany at the present moment, it does appear to me regrettable that organs of independence and weight persist in treating the subject as though the feeling provoked in Germany by our diplomatic attitude were wholly uncalled for and unreason. able. Neither traditional British fair play nor the national interest can be strengthened or served thereby.
Nothing is more remarkable than the difference in appre- ciation of the causes and origin of recent German policy in regard to the Morocco question held, on the one hand, in well. informed quarters in France, and in quarters which pass for being well informed in Britain on the other. While the French were directly concerned and we were not; while the bitter memories of 1870 still divide France and Germany and no such scars require healing in our relations with Germany ; nowhere in France (except among the Jingoes of the French colonial party, whose power in influencing events is unhappily considerable) has there been exhibited that harshness of judg. merit displayed among our own governing classes and in the columns of British newspapers and periodicals wielding enormous intellectual influence. The reason, I suppose, is that in France they were aware of the facts, while over here the facts have reached us in a garbled and incomplete condition, with the result that we have been more French than the French. One cannot but be profoundly impressed by the tone of the speeches in the Morocco debate in the French Chamber the other day. I wonder how many British editors have read them in the °Piet! I venture to con'. mend the following extract from the speech of M. Deschanel, the President of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber, who can be suspected neither of "peace-at-any-price" leanings nor of the numerous other heresies attributed to those who decline upon any and every occasion to let other people do their thinking for them, but prefer to get at the facts: "Could we," said M. Desehanel, "affect to ignore the efforts of Germany in Morocco for half a century, Um travels of her explorers, the on':orprise of her colonists, her agricultural and mineral enterpris is, her steamship linos, her post offices, and especially that in nemont of ideas which gravitated towards the Shoreefian Empire, not in Pan .German circles only or in colonial committees, but in intellectual circles, among that thinking elite which, to the honour and power of that nation where all co-operate for the same ends, prepares the work of diplomatists and soldiers."
Received with cheers, that speech strikes a more generous and understanding note than can be found, in the references to the Franco-German Moroccan dispute, in the speeches of any member of our own governing classes. The infusion of that sort of spirit.into our relations with Germany as regards other problems which loom upon the horizon is, I continue to believe, a national interest of the highest importance.—I am, 96 Talbot Road, Highgate.
LMr. Morel is entitled to a hearing, but we cannot say that
we are convinced by his arguments. We strongly demur to his applying the term " hectoring " to British diplomacy, and
the insinuation that our governing classes are incapable of showing proper understanding or generosity in their refer- ences to Germany is most unjust to the many distinguished and highly placed men who have assiduously striven of late
years to promote good feeling between the two countries.— En. Spectator.]
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