Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1908-12-26 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

LIEUT. A. C. DEWAR,  —: o  has  ften  of aggrandisement and aggression. War. drifted down on Britain, but Prussia!s policy in the past has been to prepare for war and then manufacture an excuse for it. Her rulers have too often been imbued with the spirit of the military caste, and it is hopeless for such a type of really earnestly love peace. A soldier may fallow peace as a policy, but if he can see a fair chance of success will manufacture an excuse for war. The real peace lover is the easy-going man, cordial, hospitable, unversed in the military art, something perhaps of a bon vivant. A Pan-Germany stretching from the North Sea to the Adriatic is a dream on the same large scale as those of Napoleon which drenched Europe with blood for twenty years. The general motif of German diplomacy emanates from the military 'caste, and is one. sinister to Peace. The Pan-German thinks that Germany would govern :the British Empire better than Britain. But British . does not govern her Empire; she lets it govern itself. If, however, the German is successful abroad it is because he deserves success. The German at school learns how to work. The Englishman learns how to play. The German boy, Perhaps, does not compare altogether favourably with his English cousin, but, after all, a nation depends on its men, not its boys, and the German boy when he has grown a man is fully equal to his English contemporary. The Englishman is perhaps more energetic and intelligent, but he works in order that he may play afterwards. The German is a plodder and finds his play in his work. Play is excellent in its way, but golf sticks and cricket bats are no match for the pen, the rifle, and the sword. The German lower classes are a great asset to their nation; they .work hard, are more temperate and ii tore docile, and the disruptive force of Socialism io counter-balanced by the spirit of patriotism. This has an important bearing on national policy, for a nation which starts Socialism before all other nations are prepared to adopt it is committing suicide.  Peace and Patriotism. The Germans are, however, becoming bitten with the idea of Imperialism and a great Navy; many of them look on the British Empire as an unwieldy, top-heavy structure which cannot bear the strain of a great war by sea.and land—as a federation of peace with no reserve of power behind it. They believe that if some years hence some other great ses. Power would only attack the British Navy, the whole structure would collapse with a titanio crash *ere Germany to come in on our flank, and our Liberal and Labour regime meets with their highest approval, as it tends to stint and economise the Army and Navy. Germany is a suspicious nation, too. For centuries the small German Powers maintained their relative position by intrigue, and the German smells intrigue at every point of the compass. England never looked on the Triple Alliance as being directed against herself, but our friendly approaches to other nations have roused a bittei feeling of sensitive antagonism in Germany. Our Peace Society preaching is looked upon with amusement. At the, time of The Hague Conference the German papers were full of derisive comment at our proposals, the keynote of their argument being "England has all she wants, and all she Wants is to enjoy it in peace." Feeling against England in Germany is far stronger than that agamst Genitally in England. This period of bitterness and strain may peels away, and the in-feeling may gradually evaporate as it has done in oui relationships with Russia and France, but there is etill a vast gulf between the Englishman and German. The fanner koké, Or is supposed to look, on Military service as a transgression of his liberty; flue latter koks on it as an almost sacred duty. It is clear that if home service is necessary, the moat agreeable method of enforcing it is univereal service. This need not take the form of barracking young men-tegother. I: could be superimposed on etir chbol ystene A boy. could be taught'drill every aftCrnoon for three Months on leaving school, could do ninety days' afternoon instruction at the age of eighteen, nlnetocri. twenty, and a fortnights camp yearly for hare three yeaes. If other nations i..e4'ent the burdee of rnintary service cheerfully ms  a duty, and Fcrtgliehmen will not do so, then England remett go' the way of all people and nations in advance of or behind their times—into the great limbo of past umpires on the path trod by Egypt, Assyria, Greece, Rome, and Spain. It is a monstrous fallacy to imagine that the German looks on his Army as an intolerable burden. He looks on it with pride, and it is no more a burden than children are to a proud father. Our sports are sup-. posed to give the physical exercise which a German obtains in his military service, but our sports Aster a gladiatorial not a military spirit. The gladiator and soldier were two quite different types in old Rome, and always will remain so. No one preaches peace in Germany. Every school preaches patriotism. Compare the doctrines tanght by an advanced text-book of history (12th edition) in England: "The Mandi War was a justifiable effort on the part of Arabs and Soudanose to throw off the Egyptian yoke." This monstrous domination of slavery, lust, robbery, spoliation, and murder, which deporknlathil the Soudan and turned it into a wilderness, is called a justifiable effort.  —: o :  14 t ~ R3QL ceti f,,) 00110 `D`;.'''ff:--Pregy-w-gitzt-sswt-w, 179" tdOe-- - 41- el :e. detWO.