The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-01-17

FIilaire Belloc, Noted English Author,
Says Great Britain Object in Pres
ent Conflict Is to Hold Over
seas Commerce
seas Commerce

meet the Russian invasion in force. She
made desperate effort to secure Bel
gian aid. This was very Unexpectedly
refused The Germans are still wonder
ing why Belgium did refuse. English
neutrality, which came very near to being
attained. was lost to Germany by a
foolish blunder. This chain OF events
shows conspicuously what a great part
the Slav menace has played in Ger
man policy. DO not fo.get II!
Now the third reason for the war
well, let'us call 1t the failure Of political
tight rope dlncng! In other words. the
houses of HapsDurg and Hohenzollern re-
pose upon foundations which are un-
stable. The Hapsburg house Is merely
Ink between many different nations.
races. &c And the unstable la sis on
which the frail rule of the Hapsburgs
rests is repeated though in a less de-
gree, in Prussia But the real element
Of insecurity to the Hohenzollern
dynasty was it's inability to incorporate
the people Of Asace- Lorraine and the
rapidly increasing peoples of German
Poland into the empire. This failure
Is perilous because Alsace- Lorraine is
the frontier protection against France.
Further, II is a moral irritant for
forty years failure assumes a failure
forever. While the. constant friction
caused by the dissatisfaction OF the
Poles with Prusslan rule-that again
makes for instability"
Il do not Sec" | said. "how this
friction on either end Of the German
empire, this preoccupatton with domes-
tic difficulties. counts as one OF the rea-
sons which have caused the war"
1T is like this: Each Of these dynas-
ties wishes to show by a great military
success that II is hopeless for the dis
satisfied elements in their empires to at
tempt further resistance. They wish to
show those elements which, though
small in number, are a powerful dis
inegrating influence in the two en-
pires, the impossibility OF rebellion by
proving their unquestioned superiority
in war Therefore after you have
counted in the feeling of the Russian
menace and the German desire OF ex-
pansion in Europe and OF a colonial en-
pire as causes Of the war you must
also count the desire of two by no
means secure dynasties TO render them
selves secure against internal revolt in
the future"
IF these are the reasons why Ger
many and Austria fought, why did Eng
land and France and"
"One minute Let us take them each
in turn. Let US begin with Great Brit
ain. Perhaps the best way to deter
mine the object Great Britain has in
this war Is to determine what her OBJ
Ject Is In time OF peace. Her object In
time OF peace, her main business, is
commerce supported by sea power The
industries OF Great Britain depend as
much on foreign markets as they do
on the home market. We are in the
same position as Venice and Carthage
We'll. Powers OF this sort have for
their main political object the proven
ten Of other Powers threatening their
supremacy at sea or attacking their
lands by raid. Any nation therefore
that creates a great fleet with the object
of rivalling England's is Englands
| enemy-is al least her potential enemy
AN attack on the soil Of England can
! only be made from France or Holland
| or Belgium. England would prefer. OF
| course. 20 have all the coast oppo-
| site her shore in the power OF small
and subordinate communities and to
| prevent any part OF that coast being
| controlled by a single great Power. But
she has never had her wish. France has
always controlled at least half Of the
| opposite coast. But the less one great
| Power owns OF that coast the better
for England. and 1t would be fatal for
her IL al. the coast were in the hands
| Of one great Power.
up till recently we Engllshmen have
! always felt that France, through the
control of a large part OF the coast OPP