GERMANY AND RUSSIA. [To TIM ICOPPOn or TEE " ElptcarsTon:]
Sul,—Some few years ago a German, who spoke with know- ledge, told me that at that time fear of Russia was the dominant sentiment at his Foreign Office, but that it was hoped by entangling her in a forward policy in the Far East to secure relief for some fifteen years at least from the. pressure of the Russian menace. This policy has been more successful than even its authors could have anticipated, and for some time to come they can afford to regard Russia in ease as a negligible quantity. But Russia in posse has to be reckoned with. Sooner or later the Russian menace will attain its old proportionS, and as Russia's memory is long, her late treatment'by Germany is netcalculated to diminish its eventual gravity.
Clearly, then, there are two things for Germany to do,—one` to placate Russia at any cost and break up the understanding between her and ourselves, and the other to strike the blow she may be meditating before Russia has rebuilt her Navy and reorganised and developed• her• immense military resources.
As regards the first of these, we can leave it with complete confidence in the hands of Sir Edward Grey; the latter, as the Government have shown theniselYea unwilling or unable to grasp the situation, the country iteeltinust deal with. As with the re-establishment of Russia's position as a great
military Power with an adequate Fleet will come the develop. meut of the defensive strength of the' British Empire, the future that sees the realisation of this last' splendid dream will be secure. Our possible enemies are aware of this. They know that time is on our side', that every year-that passes will make our position stronger, and- that within the next few years, if ever, is their opportunity.
To promise "conditional" 4Dreachionglite,' to provide a Home Army which will require six months' training after war has broken out, to make eloquent orations on national defence to the assembled representatives of the Imperial. Press, to dazzle the nation's imagination,, to inflame its pride, to lull. its
misgivings and hypnotise its intelligence by the enthralling spectacle of miles of warships—the Admiralty, " good easy men," playing the part of Xerxes at his grand review—in these directions the path of safety for the Empire is not to be found. It lies elsewhere. It lies in the substitution for the hand-to-mouth policy of battleship construction of a settled programme which would provide us with two keels to each one had down by Germany, and in the adoption of universal military training as an integral part of our system of national education. Our Government must be shown the path and made to follow it.
If this is done and time taken by the forelock, the citizens of the Empire will gain security for themselves and for their children's children, and the peace of the world will be placed on a firmer and more durable basis. If it is left undone, another Gibbon may be furnished at no very distant date with material for the "Decline and Fall of the British
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