The Progress of the World. 



403 



most friendly reciprocal sentiments, 

 and did materially help to allay the 

 fever of Anglo-German apprehensions. 

 The Labour Members then received 

 invitations to visit South Germany, 

 but were prevented from accepting 

 them by the exigencies of parliamentary 

 and electoral crises until this autumn. 

 Last month thirteen Labour Members, 

 including their Chairman, Secretary, 

 and ex-Chairman, went "on a quest 

 after knowledge and on a crusade for 

 peace " to Munich, capital of the king- 

 dom of Bavaria ; to Stuttgart, capital 

 of the kingdom of Wiirttemberg ; and 

 to Strassburg, capital of German 

 Alsace-Lorraine. In each city they 

 were banqueted at the Rathaus by the 

 civic chiefs, and given a most cordial 

 welcome. Before they had left 

 this country they were assured by 

 the late Baron Marschall von Bieber- 

 stein that he considered their project 

 " very commendable," and hoped 

 that their tour would prove a suc- 

 cess; and from the Foreign Office at 

 Berlin commendatory communications 

 concerning their visit are said to have 

 been issued to the South German 

 Governments. Both in public and 

 in private they were received with 

 overflowing courtesy and friendliness. 

 No pains were spared to show them 

 the municipal, industrial and artis- 

 tic glories of each city they visited. 

 Every win re they were entertained 

 with grateful appreciations of the 

 services rendered by Great Britain to 

 the progress of Germany and of the 

 world. And everywhere they were 

 made to feel that the idea of war 

 between the two nations was regarded 

 as preposterous. 



The Vital 

 Question. 



In private conversa- 

 tions the difficulties 

 that have stood in the 

 way of a completer 

 understanding were frankly discussed. 

 No doubt was ever anywhere expressed 

 as to the friendship, real and deep, 

 which prevailed between the two 

 peoples ; but there was less certainty 

 as to how far the Governments con- 

 cerned had succeeded in making their 

 pohcy accord with the feeling of their 

 peoples. The conviction that we are 

 bent on isolating Germany found fre- 

 quent expression, and the question was 

 asked why all our naval preparations 

 were so plainly directed against Ger- 

 many. What seemed most needed was 

 a frank explanation to each people of 

 the other's naval policy. An eminent 

 diplomat, not himself a German, gave 

 it as his opinion that, despite the 

 effervescence which it had first caused 

 in the German Press, ]\Ir. Winston 

 Churchill's speech on the British Fleet 

 as a necessity, and on the German Fleet 

 as a comparative luxury, had done 

 more than anything of late years to 

 make our naval policy intelligible, and 

 therefore no longer a menace, to thought- 

 ful and level-headed men throughout 

 the Fatherland. A few months pre- 

 viously the idea had been put forward 

 by German friends that it would be 

 desirable to invite certain leading 

 Englishmen to go over to some of the 

 chief cities of Germany and to lecture 

 there quite frankly on our naval policy, 

 explaining at once its necessity and its 

 entirely pacific purpose. During the 

 recent tour this idea was welcomed by 

 prominent Germans with whom the 

 Labour Members conversed. Some 



