THE COBDEN CLUB AND THE WAR. [To vas EDITOR OF
vas " SrzeTAToa."] SIB,—For the last two months the newspapers have been persistently spreading mischievous reports indicating that a state of war exists between England and Germany. It is satisfactory to learn, on the unimpeachable authority of Lord Loreburn, that such a war would be not only wicked, but also impossible. I have before me a recent Cobden Club publica- tion entitled "The German Panic, by J. A. Hobson, with an Introduction by the Right Hon. the Earl Loreburn." His Lordship (p. 7) observes :— " That any British Government would be so guilty toward our own country as to take up arms in a foreign quarrel I cannot believe ;"
and, as he says (p. 9)
"Time will show that Germans have no aggressive designs against us, nor we against them ; and then foolish people will cease to talk of a future war between us which will never take place."
Mr. Hobson pitilessly exposes the origin of these false reports. After denouncing " stimulative Jingoism," &c., he proceeds to reassure us by pointing out that
"the organized portion of the working classes, again, sees in the German scare nothing but a familiar move in the high game of politics, by which the employing and possessing classes endeavour to divert the force of popular demands for drastic social reforms by thrusting to the front of the political stage one of the sensa- tional issues of foreign policy kept for that purpose" (p. 29).
Will not the Cobden Club reissue and widely circulate this valuable pamphlet P It is interesting to note that several of the Cobden Club publications advertised on the back of the pamphlet are by German authors. It would be still more interesting to know the names of the persons who provide the funds for the broadcast circulation of this patriotic literature.
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