LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE GERMAN ALLIANCE.
[To THE EDITOR OP THR " SPRCTATOR.1 SIR,—Without disputing the general soundness of your condemnation of the Anglo- German co-operation in Venezuela, is it not worth while noting that independent action would have involved contingent disadvantages ? So far as one can judge, President Castro is quite capable of making mischief amongst his creditors. German views and aims might, have so far conflicted with our own as to have raised grave issues between our respective Governments. And if Germany had determined to exact the uttermost farthing, whilst we were disposed to a more lenient course, would there not have been the usual outcry against sacrifice of British prestige: would not the Government have been attacked for showing feebleness where Germany showed strength ? Recent Chinese history affords more than one analogy. Nobody likes the present entanglement, but it has yet to be shown that our policy was easy and obvious.—I am,
[We cannot agree that the country would have been annoyed because we were not as active debt-collectors as the Germane. Alone we should easily have obtained reparation for the per. sonal wrongs suffered by British subjects which were the cause of our action. When once our claims in that respect were mixed with the claims of German bondholders the present "mess," to use Lord Cranborne's phrase, was inevitable. Mr. Lucas writes as if he thought the present entanglement were the result of the operations of Nature, like a thunder-storm,- something that could not be avoided. Instead, it is due to the blundering of the Government. We are in a mess, not owing to a storm, but because we walked head in air into a morass.—En. Spectator.]
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