British Distrust of Germany.

The Power that the British have reason to distrust most, and whose ambitious aims in the direction of its own imperial expansion they have undoubtedly to guard against, is Germany; particularly Germany under its present Kaiser. Ever since the Franco-German war, and the consequent unification of Germany through the confederation of the German States, the Teutonic Empire has progressed by leaps and bounds Not only has it increased in military and naval strength, but the growth of its manufactures, the expansion of its trade and commerce, the increase of its population and of its wealth and material resources, have been wonderful. Within the confines of the European portion of the German Empire lives a population of 60,000,000. This population is increasing rapidly. The German birth-rate is higher, and its death-rate lower, than those of Great Britain. Just across the border, in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, are another 16,000,000 Germans, one in blood, descent and speech, which a turn in the wheel of fortune may at any time place at the disposal of Germany. Besides these there are 25,000,000 Germans, or page 9 people of German descent, settled in the United States of America, so that scattered over the world there are some hundred million Germans, one in blood and speech—the great majority of them being under one flag. Leaving out the foreign and coloured elements of America, this number almost equals the Anglo-Keltic population of the globe.

Whether this is so or not, or whether it is of importance to us, or not, from an Imperial point of view, we cannot help noticing the following significant facts:—The population of Germany during the last fifteen years has increased by over thirty per cent, and it is still increasing in a similar ratio. Its present population of 60 millions is crushed into an area only two-thirds that of New South Wales, or twice that of New Zealand. This vast, and ever increasing population, if it is to go on growing, must find an outlet. Just as our English forefathers, through pressure of population, and stress of war were forced to leave their pleasant pastures in the heart of the peninsula that separates the Baltic from the northern seas, or to quit their black-timbered homesteads, and prim little townships, nestling near the purple patches of water at the mouths of the Weser and the Elbe, and betake themselves to the great waters, to become in time colonisers of other lands; so the modern Germans are looking out for other territories beyond the sea, vaster and more spacious lands, where their race and nationality may bourgeon, and blossom, and fructify, until the Teuton shall possess the earth, and all that is therein.

What wonder, then, that the Kaiser and his people cast envious eyes upon the prosperous and spacious over-sea colonies of Britain, and perhaps cherish the wish that these ready-made examples of successful colonization may some day soon drop into the rapacious German maw.

Germany's own over-sea colonies have not been a success. Like the colonies of old Rome, the pestilent, poisonous breath of militarism has breathed upon them, and prevented any true colonization, any genuine extension of the Fatherland. But for all that the Teutons have the example of history before them. Just as the great colonies of France fell before the prowess and organization of British soldiers and sailors, and became absorbed into the Empire of the Free; so, the Germans feel warranted in believing that a turn of fortune's wheel may bring about the annihilation of the British Navy as a fighting force, with the possible transference to their own government and control of the principal gems in the crown of the empire upon which the sun never sets.

The dream, too, is not impossible of realisation. Given supineness and continued indifference on the part of the British Government, sinful neglect in not guarding against the compassing of what are undoubtedly Germany's secret hopes and aspirations, or the failure to keep pace with every extension of the German navy; and the realisation of the dream is only too possible.

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And the dream is no idle one, either. Mark what strenuous efforts Germany is making to oapture the trade of the world, to find new markets for her produce, to obtain new territory for the settlement of her own over-crowded population—territory that will remain German, with a German people owning fealty to the German flag. Already her over-sea colonies, as we have seen, extend to a millon square miles in area. She has set her foot in the Pacific, and has apparently taken root there. She poses as the friend of the Mussulman, with the hope of obtaining concessions in trade or territory from Mahommedan countries. Fortunately her scheming bore no fruit in Morocco; but she is still persistently striving to obtain control of Persia and the Persian Gulf. She is seeking to establish great interests in Egypt and the Lower Nile, with the object of preventing the British from keeping possession of north-eastern Africa, without granting the Kaiser concessions elsewhere. She has even been coquetting with America as witness Prince Henry's visit to New York with a German fleet—but solely with the view of lulling Monroeism to sleep, while she devises some pretest or excuse to exercise some measure of military control over her large South American commercial interests, aud thus obtain a permanent footing in the great southern continent.

Spain, France, and Britain have, each in its turn, exercised an almost world-wide supremacy. Germany alone of the great Empires has not been a world-power; but she believes that her time coming, and desires it to come quickly. She is for ever scheming extend her power. Even the other day the cable news announced covert attempt on the part of Germany to obtain a footing in the New Hebrides, by the purchase of large estates there, before the new agreement between Great Britain and France in regard to a joint Protectorate over the islands was completed. The British Government, however, was for once on the alert, and the scheme for affording Germany an excuse for intervening has fallen through. The Convention between the two Powers directly interested was hastily signed, before the Commonwealth and New Zealand could be consulted in regard to the terms. This, at least, is the explanation offered, to account for the failure of the British Government to allow Australia and New Zealand an opportunity of considering the terms of the Convention before its final completion. It seems, therefore, that Germany's latest attempt to further increase her interest in the Pacific nas been signally defeated; but the episode serves to show how keen and alert she is in her attempts' to carry out her scheme of expansion.