In reply to a request from the editor of Die
Nation, a leading weekly periodical published in Berlin, Mr. Bryce has contributed a statement of his views with regard to public opinion in England about Germany. Mr. Bryce begins by fully endorsing the editor's surmise that no serious English politician has ever thought of "contesting the indubitable • right of a Sovereign State, like that of Germany, to the creation of any military or naval armaments which it con- siders necessary." Such a pretension, having for its aim to prescribe limits to the extension of the German fleet of war, could never call in question the good relations between England and Germany, and "has altogether no place in the head of any normal Englishman." Mr. Bryce adds his con- viction that the idea of using force as a means for meeting commercial competition is completely foreign not only to British Liberalism, but to the great majority of thoughtful Conservatives in England. These views, which Mr. Bryce mentions have been endorsed by Lord Spencer and Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, are both judicious in expression and accurate in substance; but when he goes on to deplore "the campaign of mutual incitement which is being carried on by some English and some German organs of the Press," he entirely overlooks the fact that this campaign was started, not by the newspapers, but by German historians, professors, and "intellectuals," and that if journalists use inflammatory language, they have been educated into that dangerous habit by the deliberate and long-standing hostility of German publicists.
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