The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1917-01-24
GEORGES
VIEWS IN 1903

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Breda Correspondent Quotes Ex
tracts From Lloyd Georges
Speech of July, 1908.
ENGLAND STARTED TO PREPARE
Says Germany Commenced to Prepare
After England Started Building
Dreadnaughts and Other Ships
BREDA, Ia, To the Editor: The
writer of the article: mo peace is
yet Possible" published in The
Register of Jan. 6 takes the view
that peace now would leave Ger
than militarism master of Europe.
am certainly longing for peace and
do not share the views of the writer,
but must admit that the statement
made by him is very significant,
considering the fact that for several
months last fall we have read OF the
British and French victories on the
Somme. The writer of the article then
gives brief review of the history of
Germany and on the facts there given
he bases his conclusions. But in this
historical review we find so many
errors that the deductions made there
from cannot be of any special value.
1t will give only a few examples.
The German confederation was not
composed in 1S4S-it dates back from
1915. Referring to Schleswig the ar
ticle states that Prussia conquered
this Danish territory for herself alone.
The fact is that the province of this
Schleswig Holstein has never been a
Danish territory. It is said that after
1886 the north German parliament
embodied all the thirty-eight states of
the old confederation. The fact is,
that it did not. of course, include Aus
tria, but neither did it include the
kingdom of Bavaria, the kingdom of
Wprtemherg or sthesgrand duchy of
BADEN toRether q1its sa portion ot
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1870 we are told that France wss.
wholly Sunprepared for war and saw
no cause for war, but Germany without
any real cause threw half a million! OF
men upon her. The fact is that France
declared war upon Prussia, in all pro-
liability, because Napolean sought to
save his tottering throne by a sue
cessful war with Prussia. Again we
read that ut has been said that in the
march upon France not a shoestring
was wanting to any soldier in the
Prussian army" Here reference is
probably made to an expression which
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report of the French minister of war,
Leboeuf, to the Emperor Napoleon,
stating that not shoestring, ETC., was
wanting. But itrefered to the French
army not to the army of Prussia.
Again we re.d that shortly after 1864
the great Kiel canal was built to let
Germany's dreadnoughts into the
North sea. But the fact is the canal
was completed in 1894. And it did
not take the Germans twenty years
to build it and shortly after 1864 none
of us had ever heard of a dreadnaught.
The article tells US that the present
emperor sold a large province in AZ
frica'' for a little island, Helgoland,
only a few acres in extent. The inhab-
itants then were removed to the main-
land and the island was converted into
a regular Gibraltar. The. facttis the
inha abitants were not removed and
they or their descendants are still liv-
ing upon the island, and as far as the
work done on the island is concerned
it would seem after selling "a large
province in Africa" for only a few
acres of a rocky isle the emperor
should have the right to make the
most of his new ACQUISITION.
From 1870 or 1871, so the article
continues, Prussia has been prepar-
ing for the conquest of Europe and
the overthrow of England's superiority
on the seas. And yet for over forty
years Germany has been at peace with
all the world while all the other great
powers, Great Britain included had
their war or wars. Z Would not Ger
to go to war with England at the time
when the latter country needed all
her resources to subdue the Beers in
South Africa? Why should Germany
have waited until she had been encirc-
led by British diplomacy and until the
of the entente between
Great Britain, France and Russia 1t
Is true, however, that in these forty
years of peace Germany had made
such great commercial progress that
other nations began to look upon her
as a formidable commercial rival. And
herein we may find reason for eX-
pressions like the one found in an
English paper. the Saturday Review
Of Sept. H., 1897, where we are told:
"If Germany were extinguished to-
the day after to morrow there
Is not an Englishmen in the world
who would not be the richer Nations
have fought for years over city
or right of succession; must they
not fight for two hundred and fifty
million pounds of yearly commerce?"
But such extreme views were not
held always by men in high positions.
And for this reason we submit an ex-
tract from speech made by Lloyd
George, now prime minister Of Eng
land, at Queens Hall, London. July
1908, as quoted in the New York Am
erican by the Rev. DR.. Charles F. Aked
himself an Englishman. Lloyd George
then and there said:
There are people in this country,
and people in every exalted position
and neople of great eynerience who