VIII.

NATIONHOOD NEGLECTED

What has been the effect upon Great Britain of the rise of Germany?  Is there any cause of quarrel between the two peoples and the two States?  That Germany has given herself a strong military organisation is no crime.  On the contrary, she was obliged to do it, she could not have existed without it.  The foundations of her army were laid when she was suffering all the agonies of conquest and oppression.  Only by a tremendous effort, at the cost of sacrifices to which England’s experience offers no analogy, was she able to free herself from the over-lordship of Napoleon.  King William I. expanded and reorganised his army because he had passed through the bitter humiliation of seeing his country impotent and humbled by a combination of Austria and Russia.  Whether Bismarck’s diplomacy was less honourable than that of the adversaries with whom he had to deal is a question to which different answers may be given.  But in a large view of history it is irrelevant, for beyond all doubt the settlements effected through the war of 1866 and 1870 were sound settlements and left the German nation and Europe in a healthier condition than that which preceded them.  The unity of Germany was won by the blood of her people, who were and are rightly resolved to remain strong enough and ready to defend it, come what may.  It is not for Englishmen, who have talked for twenty years of a Two-Power standard for their navy, to reproach Germany for maintaining her army at a similar standard.  Had she not done so the peace of Europe would not have been preserved, nor is it possible on any ground of right or justice to cavil at Germany’s purpose to be able in case of need to defend herself at sea.  The German Admiral Rosendahl, discussing the British and German navies and the proposals for disarmament, wrote in the Deutsche Revue for June 1909:—­

“If England claims and thinks permanently necessary for her an absolute supremacy at sea that is her affair, and no sensible man will reproach her for it; but it is quite a different thing for a Great Power like the German Empire, by an international treaty supposed to be binding for all time, expressly to recognise and accept this in principle.  Assuredly we do not wish to enter into a building competition with England on a footing of equality....  But a political agreement on the basis of the unconditional superiority of the British Fleet would be equivalent to an abandonment of our national dignity, and though we do not, speaking broadly, wish to dispute England’s predominance at sea, yet we do mean in case of war to be or to become the masters on our own coasts.”

There is not a word in this passage which can give just cause of offence to England or to Englishmen.