Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



65 



(iKRMANY OUR 1 RIIAI), NOT 



FRANCi: 



In the Morocco Dispute. 



Mr. V. 1). Morel replies trenchantly in the Nine- 

 teenth Century to a French critic of what he said on 

 the Morocco question. .Vt the close he points out a 

 very striking fact which ought to be remembered when 

 we speak of German enmity in Morocco. He says : — 



To what do we owe ihat British financial interests are repre- 

 sented in the future construction of public works in Morocco at 

 all ? To German intervention, and to German intervention 

 alone I It is easy to prove that from the texts. I have already 

 >hown that in the matter of the " open door " for general trade 

 our Foreign (Jtfice only secured freedom from dift'erential tarifts 

 Tor thirty years, whereas Germany has secured that relief for all 

 :ime. In the matter of public works construction the agreement 

 }f 1904 is dumb. Not so the Franco-Spanish secret partition 

 ITonvention. There is no dumbness about that. It literally 

 shouts at you. .-Vrticle 10 of that document provides that all 

 chemes for public works, railways, etc., mineral development, 

 mil "economic «ndertakin{,'s in general" in the French and 

 Spanish spheres— />., in the whole of Morocco — "shall be 

 rxctuled " by French and Spanish enterprise respectively ! So 

 ittle did the Foreign Office care for British enterprise that it 

 landed over Morocco lock, stock, and barrel to a Franco- 

 ipanish economic monopoly for ever ! Now turn to the Franci> 

 Jeriiian Convention of .N'ovember 191 1. The minutest snfe- 



•«.: ,11, 



The Socialist Array against the Army. 



1. Before we fire wc will call 



2. l.iMig live the Finpcror I 



guards are taken therein that there shall be international p.artici- 

 pation in all such works. 'I'here nuist be open tenders for all 

 contr.acls for construction, and even for the supply of material, 

 issued under such conditions and circumstances .as shall not 

 place the subject of any one Power in a position of inferiority. 

 .•\11 nations must be free to particip.ate in the actual working of 

 public undertakings. Industrial .and mining enterprises must be 

 ("ree to lay down light lines of railway from their centres of 

 activity to the coast ports. There are to be no export duties on 

 iron ore, and so on. Of course, Germany has benefited herself. 

 Of course, she has had her own economic interest primarily in 

 view. But the point is that in benefiting herself she has 

 benefited the world, and the greatest trading nation in the 

 world, Britain. .\nd it is this unanswerable fact which crowns 

 the fatuousness of the diplomatic and journalistic spite exhibited 

 towards Germany throughout the whole of this miserable 

 business. 



THE GERMAN MENACE. 



In the Fortnightly Review Mr. Archibald Hurd dis- 

 cusses in accents of alarm the German menacS to our 

 sea supremacy. He exposes the fixed and immutable 

 naval law of Germany, which is used to promote a 

 continuous expansion, thus : a ship of 4,000 tons is 

 replaced by a Dreadnought of 25,000 tons and twenty- 

 two knots, a battleship ; a cruiser of negligible value 

 has her place taken by a Dreadnought of twenty-eight 

 knots, a battle cruiser. Thus a vast fleet is created with 

 an innocent-looking naval law as its screen. The law 

 nominally regulates her naval expansion in accordance 

 with a standard of strength in 1898 of seventeen 

 battleships, while the same naval standard is sixty-one 

 battleships in the present year.. He goes on to say : — 



If the two keels to one standard is to be adopted in this 

 country we must build up to an establishment of 122 Dread- 

 noughts, and on the standard set up by the .Admiralty, as 

 announced already by .Mr. Churchill, we nitLSt be prepared to 

 ailojit an establishment of 103 in Dreadnoughts and a higher 

 standard in cruisers and torpedo craft. Even if the country 

 adheres to the comparatively modest margin of safety which 

 commends itself to Mr. Churchill and his colleagues of the 

 Admiralty, the burden which will be cast upon the country will 

 become extremely onerous, since we must be prepared to lay 

 down in the next six years twenty-five or twenty-seven large 

 armoured ships, each costing two millions, thus spending upon 

 these vessels alone, apart i'rom cruisers and torpedo craft, a 

 matter of fifty to fifty-four millions sterling. 



We are on the eve of a real, continuing, and cumulative 

 naval crisis which will lest our character as a people, our 

 finances as a .State, ami our industrial resources as a manu- 

 facturing community. If we mean to win through in this 

 bliKxIless war we can, but we must begin our preparations at 

 once and determine that, however onerous the burden, it m'.,st 

 be Ixirne if we would not have ili.- trident struck from out 

 hamls. 



.•\ NEW periodical— the journal oj English Studies — 

 made its api)earHncc in .May. Its mission is to endeavour 

 to interest the teacher and student of English in 

 literature generally, to widen the interests of the 

 teacher, and to extend the horizon of the pupil, .\rticles 

 of a literary as well a.s of a pedagogic character will 

 be included in each number. In the present issue Mr. 

 J. M. Robertson begins a study of Bacon as a writer. 

 .Mr. William .Archer deals with " Obstacles to Spelling 

 Reform " ; and .\my Kiinjister writes on Shakespeare 

 in school. (Horace .Marshall, is. net.) 



