ENGLAND AND GERMANY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3392, 7 December 1911, Page 5

ENGLAND AND GERMANY.

GOOD WISHES RECIPROCATED

[UNITED I’ltliSS ASSOCIATION—COI’YIIICHTr] BERLIN, Dec. 5.

The Reichstag was crowded when tho Chancellor replied to Sir Edward Grey. Herr Beth maun Hollweg stated that the Government had never understood the English suspicions, because they wei e utterly groundless. He sincerely reciprocated Sir Edward Grey’s wish for improved relations. They wanted to livo in peace and friendship with England, but only on condition that the policy towards Germany was marked with some positive evidence of goodwill.

THE INTERNATIONAL OUTLOOK. How many times recently has Europe been perturbed by some unsuspected outbreak? There is tho Moroccan question, in which France and Germany arc mutually concerned. There are the demands of Spain for some recognition on the Moroccan borders. To these succeeds the Tripoli adventure, with all its consequences, which at the present moment, are by no means exhausted. There is the Royalist rising in Portugal, which might in certain circumstances become formidable. And, lastly, there comes tho ominous news from China to convulse the eastern hemisphere, just as the western lias been convulsed by all the competing ambitions of the Great Powers. The only thing which a nation can do in so harassing a period is says a London paper) to safeguard its own defences, to see that its weapons are in good order, and that its powder is dry. Great Britain has to take her share in settling the grave problems on the Continent. _ Sho has to hear her part with her allies, and watch with unceasing anxiety tho changes that are altering the whole complexion of diplomacy abroad. And if sho is to make her voice heard at a suitable moment for the sake of peace, which is our constant pre-occupation, and for tho sake, also, of our very existence as a nation, then we must never grudge the burden.! which secure the efficiency of the navy our first lino of defence. When some political enemy criticised Lord Palmerston, on the' ground that his external policy had been very expensive, that Victorian Imperialist genially replied that lie accepted it as a compliment, because it was the first necessity of a nation to spend money on its army and navy. If such expenditure was necessary in Lord Palmerston’s time, it is certainly no less necessary now, at a moment when anxious prophets are already foreseeing a European Armageddon.