On Monday the British Ambassador, Sir Frank Lascelles, was the
guest of honour at a banquet given by the Berlin Chamber of Commerce, and delivered a speech on Anglo-German rela- tions. He rightly insisted upon the fact that any other friendships the two nations might have contracted were no bar to friendship between themselves. He also urged that com- mercial rivalry should not necessarily lead to estrangement. "Each party must desire the prosperity of the other, if only that they may have security for the payment of the goods they deliver,"—a. sound Free-trade doctrine with which we have every sympathy. At the same time, he admitted the existence of a general atmosphere of suspicion between the two peoples, which could only be removed by time and by better knowledge. The British Ambassador's speech was adroit and tactful, and seems to have been enthusiastically received. We have cer- tainly no desire to see anything but cordial relations between ourselves and Germany, but Sir Frank Lascelles's first point goes to the root of the matter. We can be friends only so long as Germany respects our other friendships.
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