The Progress of the World. 



509 



and confidence between the peoples : 

 pronounced the German Navy necessary 

 for German influence and independence, 

 but not for war : argued that Anglo- 

 German competition might benefit the 

 whole world and save England from 

 materialism. To a Berlin interviewer, 

 after his appointment, he announced : 



Germany knew that for Great Britain it was a vital 

 necessity that the British fleet should be stronger than 

 any other. Nobody in Germany disputed that or pro- 

 posed to build a fleet equal to the British. That was 

 absurd. 



A Better 

 Understanding. 



Yet more remarkable is 

 the appearance in Die 

 Flotte — the organ of 

 Admiral von Tirpitz and 

 the Naval League — of a paper which 

 declares that no German will deny that 

 England's position and needs " demand 

 a fleet of pre-eminent strength " : 



England may never allow her naval power to fall so 



low that Germany or any other naval Power would be 



likely to obtain the mastery over it. All this we Germans 

 readily agree to. 



Germany, the writer proceeds, must 

 have a navy strong enough to make 

 England think a war undesirable : even 

 now England alone could, by blocking 

 the North Sea, bring German sea trade 

 to a standstill. Yet just at this 

 moment, when a better and franker 

 understanding is at hand, and even 

 the fire-eaters of the German Naval 

 League are talking reason, Lord Roberts 

 thought fit to make a solemn Germano- 

 phobe speech at Manchester. His 

 motives are transparent. He wishes to 

 frighten us into adopting universal 

 mflitary service, which he, with all 

 sincerity, beheves to be our only way 

 of escape from the ruin of the Empire. 

 So he portrayed the German peril in 

 the blackest colours. He predicted, 

 with the most dogmatic assurance, that, 



just as in 1866 before Sadowa, and just 

 as in 1870 before Sedan, 



War will take place the instant the German forces by 

 land and sea are, by their superiority at every point, as 

 certain of victory as anything in human calculation can 

 be made certain. 



A vigorous protest against this ill- 

 timed utterance was promptly signed 

 by a large number of members of 

 Parliament ; and Sir Vezey Strong added 

 his testimony to the excellent feeling 

 shown to the people of this country by 

 representative pilgrimages of peace from 

 Austria and Germany. The Anglo- 

 German Congress, which is meeting in 

 the Guildhall as the month ends, has 

 further helped to clear the air and show 

 the friendly spirit of the two peoples. 

 But the grim Realpolitik of the Bul- 

 garian victories has done more to knock 

 the bottom out of the German peril, 

 real or supposed, than Lord Roberts's 

 alarms on the one side or Guildhall 

 pacifism on the other. 



Mllitantrums. 



The woman's cause was 

 further advanced last 

 month by the Danish 

 Premier announcing the 

 intention of his Government to enact 

 female suffrage. In the sister land of 

 Norway only propertied women as yet 

 have votes, but the general election 

 there is said to have ensured an exten- 

 sion of the franchise to working women. 

 The principal event at home has been 

 a split between the leaders of the 

 " militant " body known as the Women's 

 Social and Political Union. Mr. and 

 Mrs. Pethick Lawrence met Mrs. and 

 Miss Pankhurst after their compulsory 

 severance. Each pair had resolved on 

 a policy to which the other would not 

 agree. So the Lawrences left the 



