Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-02-29
HOPE GOOD RESULTS
Expectations of Lord Hal
danes Visit to Berlin.
MAY LESSEN WAR MENACE
Trusted as q Friend by the
Kaiser.
HAS HAD GERMAN TRAINING
Capacity for Detail and Organiza-
ton Of the British Minister
for War.
pecial Correspondence Of The star.


II LONDON, February II, 1912
There is good reason for believing that
Lord Haldane's visit to Berlin will result
in better understanding and friendlier
feelings between Germany and England
and may indeed lead to a lessening in the
speed for ornaments and thereby some
slight relief from the taxation from which
both this country and ermany are groan-
ing.
Lord Haldane has a German and q
Scottish training, and 1t would seem from
what the prime minister said in the house
that the government has utilized both.
While he is intensely neutrality-suspicious.
with all the fervor that belongs to a men,
Der of a family old in national affairs-he
has also the r-sightedness which be-
longs to an education both German and
Scottish. should not describe Lord Hal
dane as q peacemaker in the sense in
which that phrase was used by King Ed
ward. Rather he Is a Smoother down OF
ruffied topknots."
There has been no moro interesting
revelation Of what is lying behind the
scenes In diplomatic affairs than Mr.. As
quith's announcement It lifts a curtain
hidden in mystery. 1t may almost be
said to explain the extraordinary char
acter Of Winston Churchilrs Glasgow
speech. It makes concrete the rather
vague announcement Of Sir Edward Grey
| at the close of the Morocco crisis. when
he enunciated as the opinion of the coun-
try the view that England would not
| stand in the way Of German expansion
titled in the speech he made in the house
Of lords, pleading for efforts at better
understanding with Germany, and de-
claring that there was no reason why diff
CHI {Sf hafU no W.
countries.
A Remarkable Man
Whatever has been done Is without
doubt to the credit Of Lord Haldane
There is no more remarkable man in
British politics today than the present
minister for war. He has one Of those
extraordinary brains which, as Stevenson
said about one Of his characters, may be
described as packed in ice. He unites
long and pure Scottish descent with that
of a Devonshire family. who themselves
bear mixed western and northern
name-Burdon Saunderson. His native
place Is q little manufacturing village in
Perthshire, the name of which is chiefly
known as a stumbling block OF pronun-
citation for others than Scots. 1t is Auch-
terarder. His home overlooks a tiny
taken his title from it. He is viscount
Haldane Of Cloan. He is allied to those
Duncans who produced the victor OF
Camperdown and the present earl OF that
name
i Yet from the first he seemed to set out
in life deliberately to be a lawyer. After
his village training and then q turn at
Edinburgh Academy he went to Ger
many. When he was called to the bar
ne was among the youngest who had ever
been put on the list of his inn. His
success at the bar was not of the type
that strikes the general public, but it was
great for all that. Nothing that he did
was more remarkable than his famous
speech in the dispute between the several
Free Churchmen of Scotland That Is a
monumental performance, and Is regard
ed over the border as a finer achieve
ment than anything he has done at the
war office or is likely to do elsewhere.
The mere report of his speech makes a
document OF portentous size, and to a
southerner one that is an absolute volume
of the .dullest possible reasonings In
Scotland. where they understand these
things. it is, on the contrary. mass Of
illuminating information, quoted and ar
gued over to this day.
| Surprise at Appointment.
This lawyer, with such a tremendous
grip Of theological and historical details
concerning the various Presbyterian sects
cannot distinguish the shadow Of shade
Of difference-Sir Henry Campbell-Ban-
herman selected to be war minister.
Probably no appointment in the liberal
cabinet gave rise to. greater surprise:
Shoulders were shrugged, and the general
opinion. even in the liberal party, was
that Haldane was being shelved, and
that after a little while here was the
end. of him.
People forgot that Sir Henry Camp
bell-Bannerman had himself been war
minister and that the government with
which he was connected had suffered a
bitter and unexpected defeat because of
the lack of organization and up-tO-date-
ness at the war Office. Sir Henry knew
precisely what he was doing when he
appointed Haldane to his old post. Like
Haldane, Sir Henry was Scot with a
memory, and keen on revenge. He knew
Haldanes organizing capacity, his quiet
insistent ways. his power of grasping
Details and he deliberately used him to
bring the war Office to order.
| Lord Haldane went very slow. For
nearly year he simply lived at the
war Office. looked round him. and seemed
to do nothing. He had at intervals gone
over to Germany many and ID in Berlin. the
had made much Of this lacid-looking
unassuming Scottish lawyer who was
. war minister to Great Britain and who
spoke German as they did themselves
They were so delighted with him after
; one Of his visits that they presented
him with some Of the finest cigars that
Cuba had ever turned out. These were
SO good that even LORD HalQane, VINO IL
.. a judge of cigars. spoke eulogistically
: of them.
Would Cut Red Tape.
! When he did move at the war Office h
moved rapidly. The volunteers and tn
militia vanished, and we had territorial
and special reserves in their place. TIL
regular army discovered 1t had q maj
over 1t who simply loathed red tap
and regulations and would get rid Of tn
whole lot of these swaddling bands wer
1t not for the demands of the treasury
The treasury will have red tape, and |
will have regulations Guns, equipment
barracks and pay all came under hi
purview. He roped in the heads o
county families. great merchants ant
) many others whose political Views ar
! not at all those Of his own. He has re
ceived no support whatever in his .worl
at the war Office from the members O
his own party. No member Of the lab
schemes except John Burns
All this has been to his advantage an,
. that Of the territorial force. He himsel
p has stood aloof from the conventional
tiles Of party. devoting himself whole
heartedly to completing a scheme Of lam
defense for this country, which h
, thought best suited for its needs.
Goes al Envoy Extraordinary.
Mr.. Asquith has now made it publi
d that Haldane went to Germany as al
: envoy extraordinary. Whether he speak
in English or German he has an exceed
D ingly persuasive tongue. He is q frien,
n of the kaiser, and one whom his imperia