We have pointed out elsewhere the dangers that arise from
want of imagination in handling foreign politics, both as regards our own people and also as regards the Germans. We are glad to note, however, in Friday's Times a "contra-indication" from Germany in the shape of an article from the London correspondent of the .Kreuz Zeigung. The writer endeavours to show his countrymen, what is certainly no more than the truth, that the England of to-day is the last Power in the world to wage a "preventive war "—that is, a war to-day in order to prevent a worse war to-morrow. He also very properly points out that the single foundation of English policy which remains unchanged is England's insular position, and he notes that it is this insular position which causes " the necessity of a strong Navy, the neglect of the Army, and the disposition to lean upon Con- tinental Powers." These results of insularity do not make for a war of aggression or prevention. He then goes on to point out that the German pamphleteers who talk about England's intolerable domination and power to lame German industry and starve German workmen forget that England has more to risk than anybody by a war. Finally, the writer points out that England has never fought a preventive war
in modern times, though she has bad temptation to do so in the case of France and Russia, and adds that the English
Government and the English people are far from thinking of e preventive war, and that a sudden onslaught on Germany is even more improbable.
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