The suggestion in the Matin that the German Emperor had
proposed to M. Pichon, when they met in England, the formation of a European Confederation was followed by a semi-official dementi on the Emperor's return to Berlin. The North German Gazette said :— " It is true that his Majesty expressed to the French Minister his confidence in the maintenance of European peace and his firm determination to do everything in his power to that end. The idea of tho formation of a European confederation of States was not a subject of conversation, and has not been taken into consideration by his Majesty?'
Yet the report in the Matin had been followed by a plentiful
crop of rumours, all marked by the familiar type of perfectly vague optimism, about a league of peace and disarmament.
It is astonishing to us that the clearly stated policy of Germany, who wants a more considerable Fleet, and has every right to build it, should be so frequently forgotten. From a great variety of German comment printed in the Daily Mail
on Thursday, we take the following from the Deutsche Tageszeitung as characteristic :-
" Germany controls a Fleet which is not nearly half as strong as the English Fleet, by which Germans have, for their part, never felt themselves oppressed. If the English want to bring about a change in the naval situation, let them, as the over- whelmingly superior party, take the lead."
Flom the German point of view that is surely unanswerable.
