GERMAN DESIGNS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2332, 27 October 1908, Page 2

GERMAN DESIGNS.

A MENACE TO ENGLAND

The “National Jteview” for Sep-t-ember declares that it has for several years strenuously labored to open the eyes of the community to its view that “the Prussian oligarchy which governs the German Empire was steadily and skilfully preparing to fall upon Great Britain, as it fell upon 'Denmark in 1564, upon Austria in 1866, and upon France in 1870.” It quotes an article by Mr

H. M. Hyndmann, chairman of the Social Democratic Federation, published in the “Clarion” of July 31, in which the states: “There is not the slightest doubt that Germany, under the leadership of Prussia, is steadily making ready at a heavy cost, which the German -Empire ;at present can ill afforcl, for a crucial naval engagement in the North Sea, followed by an invasion of this country. . . . Our comrade Bebel, expressing the opinions of our Social-Democrat comrades, said plainly more than once in the Reichstag that the German Navy is being built in order to attack England.” Mr Robert Blatchford, another Socialist- leader, has- avowed similar convictions, and has warned the Labor party of the danger which is thus created, “not only to England, but to Socialism, to Democracy, to Liberty.” Another writer quotes statistics showing the extent to which German merchants and l financiers are obtaining influence ovei Belgium, and predicts a move in the distant future to annex that country and make Antwerp a German port.