IN PRAISE OF GERMANY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1 Sin,.—Having to propose the health of the German Consul at the recent dinner• of the German community in Manchester, I was led to think how Germany is in many respects becoming a model to the rest of the world. All Englishmen who know Germany admit that the Germans merit our admiration and call for imitation. Let me set forth their strong points :- (1) There is absolute unanimity in Germany that it is the duty of all men to be trained and organised for the defence of their country. Until we recognise and enforce this duty our ideal of citizenship is lower than that of the Germans. (2) No other nation has been so successful in adapting scientific education to the furtherance of manufacturing industry. Our technical education is improved, and our local Universities are doing much, but the Germans have had a long start. (3) The power of Trade-Unions has been kept as yet within reasonable limits in Germany, and they cannot block im- provements in organisation and prevent full advantage being taken of new inventions as in this country. This is particu- holy the case in the engineering industry. (4) Owing probably to the military service of the men, the woman suffrage craze has made no impression on Germany. This may be also due to the clearness and sanity with which Germans, both men and women, recognise the basic facts of life. (5) As compared with England, we find that the twin- phenomena, drunkenness and teetotalism, have small im- portance in Germany, which is therefore free from the narrow Puritanic tyranny with which we are familiar. (6) There is a real interest in the serious drama, and every large town and many small towns in Germany have a more or less endowed playhouse where the best plays of all countries can be heard. Shakespeare and Ibsen are seldom absent from the stage. (7) It is admitted that we have to learn very much from Germany in the neglected art of town-planning and in many departments of municipal work. This list could be extended, but it is sufficient to justify our holding the Germans in the very highest respect. My, first visit to Germany was in 1869 before the Franco-German War and in the days of thalers and Silber-groschen. Walking tours on the Rhine and Ahr, visits to Thiiringen, Siichsische Schweiz, and the Bavarian Highlands at an impressionable age, gave me a liking for Germany and for Germans. And I have been doing business with German firms in Manchester for forty years. It is only in recent years that feelings of suspicion or hostility between the two countries have been possible or conceivable. But the increase in four years of the German warship-building from £5,342,000 to £10,751,000, for which no intelligible reason is given and which is carried out on borrowed money, is a black fact. No people would despise us more than the Germans if we hesitate to make ourselves secure by an overwhelming Navy, however burdensome the expenditure. If England and Germany are to preserve their old relations of mutual respect and esteem, England must be safe and strong.—I am, Sir, &c., CHAS. HUGHES.
_Manchester.
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