48 



The Review of Reviews. 



BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY. 



Mr. Sidney Low, writing in ^& Fcrtnightly Revino 

 on the Foreign Ot^ce Autocracy, makes a reasonable 

 and moderate plea in favour of making a little pro- 

 gress towards the popularising of our Foreign Policy. 

 He says : — 



We do not want to conduct delicate negotiations witli tlie 

 blinds up and the windows open ; but before the nation is 

 irretriev.ihly committed it ought to know what has been done, 

 and how far it is pledged. The processes of diplomacy must 

 usually be conducted in private, but the results should be made 

 public. .Speaking broadly, one is inclined to say that a treaty 

 which ca<inot be disclosed is a treaty which ought not to be 

 made ; and that a nation at our present stage of political develop- 

 ment has no right to conclude agreements which it cannot avow 

 even to itself 



Mr. Sydney Brooks in the same magaznie, in an 

 article entitled " England, German and Common 

 Sense," discusses the possibility of the re-establishment 

 of good relations between England and Germany. 

 He says ; — 



Circumstances are easily conceivable in which Great Britain 

 would not only not obstruct but would gladly forward a re- 

 distribution of some of the European holdings in Africa in a way 

 acceptable to German interests. As much, I think, may be said 

 of German expansion in Asia Minor ; there is no real reason — 

 or there scon will be none — why we should not view it as 

 favourably as Germany has always viewed our policy in Egypt. 

 Good sense, good manners, and a greater willingness than we 

 have yet shown to consider Germany's needs and aspirations, 

 would go a long way in time — providing, of course, we maintain 

 Free Trade— towards restoring sanity, if not cordiality, to 

 Anglo-German relations. 



Root of the AnglO-Germ.\n Truubi.e. 



Dr. E. J. Dillon, writing in the Contemporary 

 Raiieio, thus formulates his view of the situation : — 



The root of the antagonism between Germany and Great 

 liritain is this ; we want to keep what we have, and, therefore, 

 we favour the maintenance of the status quo , whereas our Con- 

 tinental cousins crave for what they have not got, and are 

 minded to wrest it from the hands of those who possess it. 

 That is the fountain-he.id of the streams of bitterness that have 

 been flowing between us of late years, and which went far 

 towards causing a catastrophe last summer. Our policy is, and 

 must be, to hold with the weaker Continental Powers without 

 wavering in our friendship for the stronger. Germany's fixed 

 aim and object, from which she will not, cannot swerve, is to 

 weaken our power, to organise a European coalition against us, 

 unless we consent to such changes in the map of Europe and of 

 Europe's over-sea possessions as could and would be effected by 

 the Kaiser's Governit ent were England's veto overruled. That 

 is the clue to the tortuous policy of the Wilhelmslrasse. It 

 would bew.asled breath to inveigh against it. 



The practical outcome of all this would seem to be that 

 British relations towards Germany should be marked by cor- 

 diality, frankness, and a desire to let live, bounded by the vital 

 necessity of abstaining from everything calculated to give 

 umbrage to our more intimate friends. And in the second 

 place, from this line of conduct we should look for no abiding 

 results, because it cannot touch the heart of the rival nation. 



Keep the Slate Clean. 



Sir Frank Lascelles contributes to the Con- 

 temporary Eevinv an article entitled '' Thoughts on the 

 Anglo-German Problem," which are characteristic of 

 the man. That is to say, they are cautious and 

 sensible enough, but they do not help us very much 

 further towards a settlement. He says : — 



Personally, I have always been of opinion that the English 

 opposition to the construction, or rather the completion, of the 

 Hagdad Railway was a great mistake, similar in kind to that 

 committed by Lord Palmerston when he opposed the con- 

 struction of the Suez Canal. Some arrangement may be come 

 to with regard to the Bagdad Railway, although probably not 

 on such satisfactory terms as we might have secured in 1903. 



For. the present Sir Frank Lascelles does not 

 suggest that any attempt should be made to settle up 

 the Bagdad difficulty. He says : — 



I would suggest that, for the present at all events, the slate 

 should be kept clean. It is generally admitted that there is no 

 delinite ground of quarrel between the two nations, and a war 

 between them would be one of the greatest calamities which 

 could befall the world, and would entail upon both incalcul.able 

 loss ; and yet it appears to be seriously believed that during the 

 course of last summer the two nations had been brought to the 

 very verge of war. Unless some further deplorable incident should 

 arise, the suspicion which in England is entertained of Germany, 

 and the intense irritation which now prevails in Germany 

 against England, will gradually subside, and a situation will be 

 created in which both countries will agree to come to friendly 

 arrangement, based upon the principle of Reciprocity, and to 

 let bygones be bygones, on the full understanding that — to use 

 a phrase which, though illogically expressed, has nevertheless a 

 meaning in it — the Reciprocity must not be all on one side 



A FIFTH LINE OF DEFENCE. 



In Harper's for December Dr. H. Smith Williams 

 describes the latest discoveries in the human body's 

 struggle for immunity. He summarises the findings 

 of modern science as to the real meaning of immunity 

 in these terms : — 



A person is immune to any given disease when his blood 

 serum contains normally, or has had developed in it artificially, 

 a series of specific chemicals which, when calledinto action by 

 the intrusion of the disease germs, are able, acting jointly, 



(1) to neutralise the poison generated by the germs (anliloxities) ; 



(2) to kill the germs themselves (liacU-riciiies), and to remove 

 them altogether, partly by (3) dissolving them (bacleriolysins) 

 and partly by (4) agglutitiating and (5) opscninizing them, so 

 that they re.adily fall prey to the white blood corpuscles that 

 are always present in the blood. 



The fifth line of defence, known as the opsonins, 

 were discovered by Sir Almroth Wright, and are 

 described by Bernard Shaw as " what you butter the 

 disease germs with to make your white blood cor- 

 puscles eat them." It makes the disease germs 

 palatable. According to theory, a leucocyte is power- 

 less to ingest a single bacterium unless a certain 

 amount of opsonin is present. 



The International Jew. 



" Unsuspec 1 ING Radical journalists who ate engaged 

 in this disgraceful business (of attacking Sir E. Grey), 

 which discredits them and dishonours their pro- 

 fession, should ask themselves what they hope to gain 

 by joining hands with the International Jew who is 

 permanently on the war-path in the interests of the 

 most reactionary and dangerous Power in Europe, by 

 a campaign, as futile as it is shameless, and which 

 since the recent Parliamentary debates can only serve 

 to enhance the reputation of the object of their 

 animosity." — National Review. 



