New-York tribune., 1914-11-30
ANTHONY HOPE EXPLAINS
GERMAN ANGLOPHOBIA
FnUands Offence Is That She Has Not Kept Prussan Rules
for Empire Building and Has Presumed 10
Be Successful
By ANTHONY HOPE.


80. often have their uses also
~ Germany hated England. The
~n..tiOn is not "why do they hate us =
tn. present situation at once supplies
~ answer TO that-an answer which,
40 not exhaustive, is at least sufficient
pu, whv did they hate us7 And why
10 they taught that it was their duty
.oho,s us? These are questions which
al honesty the average Englisbman
.ons difficulty in answering. just
naI bad n difficulty in believing in the
s.. ~ ~ the hatred, so he has about the
1Ae. ~ II. And still more about what
cau no called the quality of 1t For II
ma. .rs 10 be, in the minds OF those
ny ny jnrulcate Il, regarded as kind OF
100 or holy hntred-a matter or ma
.innsI duty. really religious or quasi
religious IN its nature. n
-. ne tuYn for q moment TO ITO
<..Sor Cramb's book Germany ana
ITnSIsnd" IsSSG John Murray, 1910. In
iLntcb Of the German attitude toward
ErcIsnd. which is obviously well IN
t"r7ned and in a large degree sympa-
.ya.ic ne takes Treitsehke as the most
--orainent and influential inspirer ana
pxOonent of anti-English feeling.
sWbat are the origins" he asks lp. 81,
81 tbis antagonism in Treitschke TO
rnslsnd and to things English? The
-nestion IS worth asking, for there is
So disnutiag Treitschke's immense IN
SUsnrs not only upon his own gem
.rat;on. but upon the whole OF modern
German thought"
Partly Historical, Partly Moral
us gives the answer-or a summary
ot itEthus (p. 92): "The origins or
tbis sentiment are partly historical,
nsrtly moral, and in Treitschke must
ks sought IN his character as man
snd a patriot Britain's world predom-
s,ance outrages him as a man almost
as much as it outrages him as Ger
nan II outrages him as man be-
cspse Of its immortality, its arrogance
ana its pretentious security. 1t out
,sgss him as a German because he at
tributes England's success in the war
for the world TO Germany's preoccu-
nation with higher and more spiritual
ends But for her absorption In those
ends and the civil strife in which that
sbsorption resulted Germany might, IN
tbe seventeenth and eighteenth cen
turies have made the Danube Ger
man river and established a German
nredominance from the Bosporus to the
Indus"
As TO the latter point, II may be OBJ
served that Germany was either rlght
or wrong in her "preoccupation" ana
It's consequences. If she were right,
she ought not to grumble at the price;
e .be were wrong. why blame England
for IL? IL was her own merit or her
owr fault. This Treitschke impliedly
,dmits. So does Professor Delbruek
vhen ne writes in the "Preusslsche
y,hrblcher" in 1899: Germany must
attempt 70 make up that which it has
unfortunately delayed to do during the
last centuries" Bernhard Up. SO Of
the popular edition. is more candid and
explicit at was chiefly our own fault
that we we're condemned TO political
paralysis at the time when the great
European states built themselves up
and sometimes expanded into world
powers"
Cermany's Own Doing.
Well, whether you call it preoccupa-
t,on with higher and more spiritual
ends, whether you call it with SOL
dierly bluntnessl political paralysis, or
whether you leave it at that somewhat
;Orlom unfortunately" Of Professor
Delbrucks, it all comes TO the same
thing. Il was Germany's own doing.
Why must Treitschke "as a German"
hate England for it? Only, apparently,
because out of all the nations mot pre-
occupied, or paralyzed, or Unfortunate)
which engaged in the great struggles
FOR the New World England on the
whole emerged the most successful. II
4 had been Spain, or France, or Hol-
land Treitschke, "as a German" would
have slloeated his hatred accordingly.
Success is the title TO the proud pre-
emlnenee of being the best hated nation
In German eyes.
It may be said that this attitude of
mind in Treitschke and his fellow
Prussians-though Treitschke himself
vas, as Professor Cramb tells us, a
Czech BY extraction, a Saxon by birth
and Prussian only by choice and
tdoption-though hardly a thing to be
proud Of, is, after all, natural enough.
whatever the historical merits of the
case may be England stands to-day in
eesmany's way, across her path, limit
ing her expansion in trade, in the ac-
quisition OF colonial dominion, in the
realization Of that predominance in
Europe and beyond Europe which fig
ufes IN Treitschke's vision, as Profess
sor Oramb interprets II fol US.
Main Charge Undeniable.
This main charge we cannot deny
even II we would. In vain do we plead
before the German tribunal-that we
nave been ourselves one of her best
usoe customers and have given her
many free market-to our own hurt,
some OF our statesmen and econo-
iIhS believe. In vain we point out
mat It has not been at Germany's ex-
pshSe hat We have developed our en-
pre- overseas. In vain we suggest hum
p'y mat, though we may object to Ger
nan hegemony in Europe, we have
"s'er sought hegemony for ourselves
sse must we have added commanding
uy 10 our commanding navy and
Iea al national predominance and
~ az international balance. Say what
e nay we are guilty because we are
Aomit this. But other nations are
~ sseSSnIysenient, too, in the same sense;
ney are not hated with the holy
ea .-s reserved for England. More
w. suen rivalry-such being in the
ssS- .H hardly Of itself enough to ac-
v.nte ior hatred. 1t would Justify
sanee' Preparation, distrust, a sense
se,. s need for counter effort, even a
es'ousness ee,a" that war might have TO
,stI' ~ would, in fact, Justify ex-
es,s Whst we have Of recent years
orr. periorce 70 feel incumbent on
r"ea IN our attitude toward Ger
,bs But all that falls far short OF
pr.,sy hely hatred-far short of that
seSIh,ng Of jehdd II. which Treit-
trI,aook vook the lead and so many other
10 sghs I'M professors hege not disdained
vat Ireitschke Felt az a Man.