Hevieir of lieiifiii^ 



historv of the Month. 



l.ONDCiN, Jiinr, 1906. 

 Progress '^ '^ ■'^o longer a bitter satire to 



Towards write the chrcuiicles uf the month 



International under the heading '■ The Progress nf 

 Brotherhood, ^i^^- Worhi. " Kor the mareh of pro- 

 gress so fatally arrested in 1899 has now been re- 

 sumed, and every week, sometimes every day, re- 

 cords a frtsh advance from the City of Destruction 

 wherein the Jingoes dwell, towards the Celestial City 

 in which all nieii are brothers. The great event of 

 last month was the immediate and unmistakable re- 

 sponse of the German people and the Gennan Go- 

 vernment to the first popular manifestation of a sin- 

 cere and fervent desire on the part of Britain for 

 friendship and fraternity between the two great 

 Teutonic peoples. When Dr. Lunn — to wht)m we all 

 owe a debt of gratitude — brought over the German 

 burgomasters to study the municipal institutions of 

 England he little dreamed what splendid results 

 would follow. He did not know what support was 

 waiting for him in this countrv ; he had never 

 realised what a potent influence was ready to be em- 

 ployed in the furtherance of his international enter- 

 prise. Biit when Mr. Haldane took the matter up it 

 was like a transformation scene. What a curious 

 irony of fate that it should have been the Secretary 

 of War who rendered such invaluable service to the 

 cause of international jieace ! But so it was. Mr. 

 Haldane threw himself, with characteristic energy 

 and resource, into thr- work of making the visit of 

 the burgomasters a touchstone of the real national 

 sentiment of our people. He not only was the first 

 Cabinet Minister to attend and speak at their re- 

 ception, but in every conceixable way he exerted 

 himself to secure that thev were welcomed with the 

 utmost heartiness and affection by everybo<ly from 

 the King downwards. Our guests were overwhelmed 

 bv the exuberance and the heartiness of the national 

 welcome. Every hour of their visit was crowdeil 

 with offers of hospitality. The Prime Minister, the 

 Irish Secretarv. and Mr. Winston Churchill spoke at 

 their meetings, and all spoke in the same strain. 

 Not one jarring note was heard in the unanimous 

 expression of the national heart-cr\' : Let us be 

 friends 1 



•j|,g The response from German\ was 



Response not less emphatic. The German 



fr»m Foreign Secretarv, speaking in the 



Germany. Keich.stag, <leclared: — 



I think that I am in agreement with the opinion of t.his 

 House when I say that ttie period of estrangement between 

 Oermany and England is past. Tlie warm tone of the words 

 which reached our ears in the utterances of English states- 

 men, on the occasion of tlte recent visit of representatives 

 of German {-ities to England, will certainly meet with the 

 moat cordial reception on tlie part of the Imperial Govern- 

 ment and in all quart<>rB. 



Think of it! Think (jf such a deckiration following 

 almost immediateK the first serioiis attempt on the 

 part of our people and their rulers to silence the sons 

 of Belial whose malignant clamour had for so many 



years fdled the newspapers. The goodwill was there 

 all the time. But not until last month had there been 

 a serious attempt, supiiorteil by the indispensable 

 monev and influence, to enable the better nature of 

 the British people to make itself heard. What an 

 object le.sson is this as to the superiority of the way 

 of friendship and goodwill over the methods of insult 

 and of menace. The recfpticjn of the burgomasters 

 first and last, even if the most liberal estimate be 

 made for all private hospitality, did not cost five 

 thousand pounds. The actual suin raised in sub- 

 .scription.s was under a thousand. Less than half of 

 one per cent, of the co.st of the ironclad that was 

 wrecked last month at Lundy Island has produced 

 a result which the bvildiiur Lif ten iroiicla<ls could 

 not have accomplisheil. 



If the visit of the Gennan burgo- 

 This Month's „-,asters was of international im- 

 Internatitnal ^ • m o • •* c ..u 



Eyent. portance m May, the visit ot trie 



German editors promises to be an 

 event of even more international impcirtance in June. 

 When I first suggested such an interchange of cour- 

 tesies between journalists of the two Empires I little 

 dreamed that the suggestion casually flung out in the 

 columns of the Aiiflo-Clcrman Courier would so 

 speedily fructify and bear such splendid fruit. We 

 anticipated that twelve or twenty editors would ci>me, 

 and that they would be modestly entertained by as 

 many of their English confreres. Instead of which 

 we are now face to face with the most remarkable 

 interchange of international courte.sies that has ever 

 taken place between the journalists of any nation. 

 Never since newspapers were first invented have the 

 editors of so many foreign journals been welcomed 

 ill such princely st\ le as the Gennan editors will be 

 received in England. And the woixler grows when 

 we remember that these honoured guests are not non- 

 political burgomasters concerned C)aly with munici- 

 pal administration which is common ground to all 

 nations. They are the men who for years past have 

 been using their pens with unsparing and sometimes 

 with alniost savage ferocity in the criticism and de- 

 nunciation of British policy and British statesmen. 

 Among all the miracles of common sense and good 

 feeling that have been wrought by the catastrophe 

 which overtook the Jingo Party last Election this is 

 .surely the most wonderful. And the most marvellous 

 thing about it is that not one solitary word of pro- 

 test or of criticism has been heard even in the ranks 

 of the Jingoes themseh-es. Surely it is much better 

 work this entertaining each other in friendly fraternal 

 way than to be engaged in slinging ink at each 

 other ! 



The burgomasters in May, positive ; 



The Event ^^m editors in June, comparative : 



Julv ^^^ superlative will be the visit of 



the Interparliamentary Conference 



ill London in Tulv. For the first time in our history 



