BERLIN TO BACIHDAD.t
Ise this useful book Mr. Lewin examines in detail the development of Germany's ambitious designs on the Near East, typified in the phrase "from Berlin to Baghdad." Every one, we suppose, now understands the German desire to absorb the whole heritage of the "dick Man," but it is convenient to have the diplomatic and economic history of the German schemes during the last twenty years set forth in this readable form. Mr. Lewin,' we think, exaggerates English ignorance of Pan. Germanism. We may be permitted, for example, to remind him that the Spectator in 1903 published a series of letters on " German Ambitions as they Affect Britain and the United States," by a well-known journalist signing himself " Vigilans sed &gnus " who has since passed away, pa which a mass of Pan-German publications was dispassionately analysed and the seriousness of Pan-Germanism and its overweening ambitions was clearly pointed out. Those letters were ropy nted at the time by Messrs. Smith, Elder and Co., and are well worth reading again to-day. As a nation wo were not ignorant, but Englishmen underestimated the political influence of the half-crazy Pan-German fanatics, and wrongly credited the German Government with moderation and good sense, and a desire to maintain the peace of Europe. It was perhaps per as a natural assumption—on the old English legal principle that a man is held to be innocent until he is proved guilty—that Germany would act as a civilized Power, until we had found her to be nothing of the kind. In any case, ber grandiose schemes are slowly being brought to the ground. Grasping at Baghdad, she has put Berlin itself in peril, • Elegant Extraets in Prose and Poetry ; AntoIoea Neese con Note Italians. Per 5ra di A. Valgirn1111. Milan : Braectforte. [4 lire 50.] t The German Road to the East. By P. ECRU Lewin. Londeat : W. Betnelnilin. Ts. ed. net,]
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