The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-19

of mischief by having a good hard col A
 nial problem to tackle. Unfortunately, | however, Germanys way of urging her
 right to a larger field of expansion is so
 provocative and raises such aalrms and
 forebodings that it is tar more difficult to
 satisfy her than if she had approached
 matters in a less sensational way. Take, LOT example, what has lately happered.
 'use before the Panther was, contrary
 'o all ddiplomatic conventions, sent to the
 eioseo port Of Agadir. conversations were
 proceeding In France for a rectiication
 oi irohtler which would have increasel Gerihanys African spheres of infiuence.
 The general desire here would in all prob, aoihty have been strongly in favor 5f iooklng With friendly eye on such .nego- < nations and indorsing very heartiIy, wb.,t ever France felt capable of doing No,y 2 however feelings have been SD ssti,,.sd a,,,I 4 fears for the future so keenlv aro,,se,lF that 1t is infinitely more difficult than it was before to find "oompensation,, for Germany. So obvious is this fact that we are not surprised, though we do not sharo the view that people are saying that what Germany wanted was not eompensation but an opportunity to parade a grievance and to pretend to be so sore and bittar about it that she would at any time have good excuse for declaring, after the manner of he wolf in the fable, that sho had endured the tyranny of the lamb long enough and that the point had come when she could bear such oppression no long.r.
 We will take yet another example of the harm that has been done to Germany and to her claims for reasonable expansion by recent events For many years we havs urged in these columns that 1t would be a very good thing if the great powers con- cerned could resort their possessions along the coasts of Africa. Those possessions are interlaced in the maddest way, owing to the casual manner in which from 1880 onward the various powers descended upon the African coasts or made good their shadowy claims. We find Spanish possessions, German possessions, French possessions, British possessions, alI>set crisscross, and the confusion on the eoast Is doubled, now quadrupled, by the inter laeing of the hnterlands. With a little good will and a little willingness to make sacrifices for the general benefit we hava always thought it quite possible that what " iN0 Salieu feSOrtlng or Africa might take place. Such a policy, however. could only be carried out when the powers concerned were in a good temper and lad not had their fears and suspicious vioen. iy aroused. In concrete form what would nave been possible three months ago would be quite impossible now. At pres ent all the powers will do or can be ex pected to do Is to try to steady the boat and keep II from upsetting. They would at once reject madness the idea of carrying out the complicated maneuvef of large number of the occupants of tho boat changing places and altering their positions. She most that can be hoped for now is to restore the equilibrium with the least possible amount of change No doubt something will be done to save Germany's face and to compensate her, as she would say, for not upsetting the whole boat. But even if this takes place and Germany does come out of the crisis with better place in the boat, we may feel sure that her loss on he whole will be greater than her gain, for she will have managed to inspire all the powers, and her own allies as much as those on the opposite side with sense of insecurity We must never forget that in the long run this was one of the factors which led 10 the overthrow of the Napoleonic empire Napoleon was no doubt great at triupmh- ing over those who crossed his path, but he was even greater at raising obstacles to his own advance.