GERMANY AND ENGLAND.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I am sure that all those who wish—as I do—that friendly relations may be established between England and Germany on a sure and certain „footing must be grateful for your painstaking efforts to arouse in this country a proper appreciation of the danger that lurks in excessive forbearance combined with a too trusting disposition ; all the more because this kindly, not to say saintly, deportment is sometimes a trifle superficial. The foreigner who grounds his policy upon a complete sincerity is liable—not often, but sometimes to " a rude awakening." To those who aim at preventing war the English see-saw between graceful concession and fierce contention is both confusing and vexatious. They are aware, and with regret, that the Crimean War, and probably the South African, need never have been waged had the British bulldog behaved as do others of his race,—given tongue
when insulted and a judicious snap when aggression went toe
far. This regret is all the deeper because the bulldog's bite in a nasty one. He is not easily induced to let go, and his grip is often fataL There is, however, a growing conviction on the Continent, especially in Germany, that the British bulldog is not as terrible as he used to be; that though the valour and brute strength may be undiminished, the fangs and jaws—the weapons of Nature—are becoming daily less effective against scientific defence and up-to-date panoply. There is no doubt that the German attitude is contemptuous rather than vindictive. They dislike us somewhat, but they despise us more. In their very serious eyes, to do them justice, nothing is more odious than levity, the careless temperament that refuses to prepare. The feeble conduct of the South African War, the incapacity shown by England after the war to put her great spending Depart- ments in order, the utter futility of the Parliamentary debates, the readiness (which you have so shrewdly pointed out) of the public to applaud success and failure with an equal heartiness, combined with the inability (which you have also wisely con- demned) to appreciate what cruelty, barbarous cruelty, to our gallant rank-and-file, their wives and children, is involved in the neglect to provide leadership worthy of the men,—all these things have produced the worst impression of England's capacity to resist a steady policy of squeeze, and lessened the fear of overpinching the victim. The German especially is convinced that, as compared with the Briton, for purposes of the twentieth century, he is the better man.—I am, Sir, &c.,
ANGLO-GERMAN.
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