NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE event of the week has been the publication by the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday of an interview between one whom it described as an ex-diplomatist and the German Emperor. We have dealt with what appear to us to be the most dangerous aspects of the interview elsewhere, but may point out here that, in addition to branding as guilty of a personal insult those who are not willing to attach the same meaning as he does to his declarations, the German Emperor protests very vehemently the warmth of his feeling toward this country. His task, however, is not of the easiest, because "the prevailing sentiment among large sections of the middle and lower classes of my own people is not friendly to England. I am therefore, so to speak, in a minority in my own land, but it is a minority of the best elements, just as it is in England with respect to Germany." It is rather difficult to deal with a declaration of this kind when we are told, in effect, that to call in doubt any statement made by the Emperor is to insult him, but we trust that without exposing ourselves to such an accusation we may point out that, in our opinion, it is not the lower class in Germany who are hostile to this country, but rather the upper class, the official class and the professional class, and in an especial degree what we may term the governing class. This, however, is a question the discussion of which may easily cause ill blood, and we are therefore unwilling to labour the point.
