The Sea, the Air, and the Nation The Electronic Reactions of Abrams 568 243 230 445 266 756 BURTON, BRIG.-GEN. R. G. K.C.M.G. SIR DRUMMOND, The Flag Question in South Africa COLVIN, IAN D. Germany and the League. Wild Life in a Cotswold Garden 427 845 222 Country Views 950 126 454 . MACASSEY, SIR LYNDEN, K.C., The Executive and the Judiciary MACMUNN, LT.-GEN. SIR GEORGE, The Problem of the Indian Princes 622 ROSCOE, E. S. . RUSSELL, HAROLD RUSSELL, CAPTAIN WILMOT P. M., The Defence of the Peking Legations, ST. GEORGE, G. ARTHUR SANDON, VISCOUNT, M.P. SCHWARTZ, PROFESSOR (Rhodes University, South Africa) TUCKER, A. B. The Chinese Connection with South 610 695 235404 THE GRESHAM PRESS NATIONAL REVIEW No. 517. MARCH 1926 The British EPISODES OF THE MONTH 66 THE Outstanding international event of the past month was indubitably Signor Mussolini's service to Civilization in the shape of a timely reminder of the right way to bring Prussianized Germany to reason. This demonstration caused a severe shock in Downing Street, Fleet Street, Lombard Street, and other quarters that have for various reasons and with divers objects persuaded themselves that post-war Germany is a totally different community from pre-war Germany now that "the spectre of Militarism" is banished and the Junker has become a Quaker and that all that is necessary to induce "sweet reasonableness" in the Fatherland is for other Powers to display that quality and to show Berlin that Europe is now one united happy family which knows neither "Allies nor enemies" and which intends-like a married couple at the end of a novelette-to live happily ever afterwards. Uncommonly little has happened since the Armistice to encourage this sentimental view, while much has occurred to justify the contrary opinion, namely that Germany is unchanged, unchanging, and unchangeable. What she was yesterday that she is to-day and will be to-morrow. She has no regrets about the Great War except that the Allies won, and that she lost, and she means to devote her vital energy and immense resources to retrieving the situation at the earliest practical moment. Germany's hour will sound all the sooner in proportion as Foreign Statesmen play the ostrich and thus enable the Powers-that-Be in Berlin, as in 1914, to convince the German people that they stand to gain more than they can reasonably expect to lose by embarking on another Frightful VOL. LXXXVII 1 Adventure. After all, we are dealing with a nation of realists, and it is not an indictable offence to best other nations for the benefit of one's own country, however incompatible with that Idealism which optimists like to imagine regulates the affairs of the universe. British optimism had a prolonged innings prior to the last Great War and was 66 not out" when the crash came and shattered the laborious superstructure of unreality that Lord Haldane and other simpletons had raised in honour of their "spiritual home.' They never tired of telling us that "the German danger is a myth," that the German Emperor was a Pacifist, that 66 German business men know which side their bread is buttered," that "German Socialists would rise as one man sooner than allow the Military clique to go to war," that, in effect, "Pan-Germanism was "a figment of the diseased brain of professional scaremongers" in London and elsewhere. All we need do was to "live and let live" and credit our good German friends with like motives as ourselves." They had their way-we had the War. Our Optimists have now reverted to type and doubtless at no distant date they will lead civilization to another cataclysm. As the British method of dealing with Germany-which merely consisted in paying blackmail whenever the German Government asked for it-was a tragic fiasco, Mussolini's we have no right to be surprised that practical Way politicians elsewhere reject it and prefer the old-fashioned plan which is usually successful with any bully and almost invariably so with Germany. The Italian Prime Minister gave a brilliant illustration of this system on February 6th, the success of which must have surpassed his most sanguine expectations. The episode has probably contributed more to stabilize the peace of Europe than all our gushing over Locarno and apostrophes to the League of Nations. Our flabby politicians and timid journalists who were badly "rattled" while the Italo-German storm raged should not forget that it was Germany who, as usual, threw down the glove. The quarrel was none of Italy's seeking. The Bavarian Prime Minister (Dr. Held)-not |