In the meantime Italy has wisely seen her way to
withdraw her threatened reservation about the Austro- German Zollverein, and to make her sacrifice with a noble air. In this country not a complaint has been heard of our shouldering our loss of £11,000,000 from our Allies or Dominions or from Reparations. There has been one bright gleam which, without going far in financial relief, does cheer our hearts beneath the load. The Union of South Africa, at the suggestion, we believe, of General Smuts, has said with pride that she stands in no need of a moratorium for her debts, and therefore she has no desire to avoid them. We are to expect her due payments. They are not very substantial as such debts go between Governments, but it is a pleasure to receive anything -given in a spirit both honourable and daughter- like by those who give so willingly. The German Government, of course, is anxious, not least because they always have at home so many of their countrymen who must say or write the wrong thing. Let us here express our deep regret at the death of the most tactful of Germans, Herr Dr. Sthamer. His arrival in London to represent Germany after the War might have made any man quail before the difficulties, known and unknown. He met them with courage and succeeded quite admirably in restoring relations. We and Germany owe much to him directly. Europe owes indirectly to him more than it probably knows.
Previous page
