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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic
Majesty's Government.]
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17 |
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Sir V. Corbett to Sir Edward Grey. - (Received
January 15.)
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| Sir, |
Munich, January 13, 1914.
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| THE
Chancellor of the Exchequer's energetically phrased denunciation of
the "organised insanity" of modern armaments has excited
intense interest in Germany. Every paper has reported his words, and
also the comments of the British press thereon. |
| But
it is one of the advantages of the Press Bureau that, except in he
case of the Social Democratic journals, it can dictate what events
shall be commented on and what shall not. In the present case those
who direct it have apparantly decreed that comment would be out of
place, and their astuteness has been amply rewarded by the press controversy
in England, which has been fully reported here. |
| Nothing
could make pleasanter reading for the average German than the information,
from English sources, that the British Cabinet is hopelessly divided
on the question of the next navy estimates. In the present instance
this satisfaction has not been denied him. |
| The
Prime Ministers, both of Bavaria and Wurtemberg, have spoken to me
on the subject, and both asked if Mr. Lloyd George's words implied
a split in the Cabinet. I replied in both instances to the effect
that England was the country of free discussions, that the Cabinet
was a large one, and that without doubt differences of view must occasionally
arise between Ministers charged with different functions, but we had
the Prime Minister's assurance that the present Cabinet was absolutely
united, and, as far as I could see, Mr. Lloyd George had done nothing
more than voice the opinion not only of the Government but of the
vast majority of Englishmen when he condemned the present insensate
expenditure. We had, I reminded their Excellencies, for the last ten
years been in favour of calling a halt in naval expenditure, and Mr.
Churchill had even made concrete proposals in that sense. The Chancellor
had said nothing new. |
| It is
perhaps a pity that Mr. Lloyd George should have drawn a distinction
between foreign naval and military armaments with its suggested indifference
to the interests of France, and it is certainly to be deplored that
other public speakers should have dealt on the sixteen to ten standard,
which was never, as far as I recollect, formerly laid down by the
First Lord as a permanently desirable one. Comparisons are always
invidious, and frequently, as in the present case, offensive. The
arrogant talk, in which we used to indulge, of so many keels to one
was not only absurd in itself, but by goading German pride was, I
am confident, one of the most potent causes of the success of the
German Navy League. |
| At
a time when the statesmen of England and Germany have done so much
to bring about a more friendly feeling between the two countries,
when not only the German taxpayer but the various Federal Governments
are beginning to feel the pinch of increased taxation; when, moreover,
the Zabern incident has brought the military and civil, or in other
words the aristocratic and democratic, elements in the Empire into
sharp conflict; at a moment, therefore, which is the most favourable
that has ever occurred for the development of an internal movement
for the restriction of unremunerative expenditure, it would be deeply
to be regretted if the speeches of politicians or newspaper controversies
in Great Britain should lead the Germans to believe that the British
Government were wavering in their determination to maintain at all
costs armaments adequate to guarantee the safety of our possessions
and our trade. |
| As I
have already had the honour to report, no specifically hostile feeling
to Great Britain exists, or has ever existed, in South Germany, and,
since the "Wehrbeitrag" has begun to be exacted, the conviction
has been brought home both to the well-to-do classes, who are our
trade rivals, and to the Finance Ministers of the various States that
some limit must be put to naval and military expenditure. This view
is not shared by naval and military men, and their influence would
again make itself felt the moment there was reason to believe that
the British Government were unable to exact any more sacrifices from
the British people. |
| The
London and provincial papers that proclaim that the supporters of
the Government will stand no more taxation for armaments are so far
from contributing to strengthen our presently improved relations with
Germany, that they only serve to encourage the class in this country,
which I believe to be diminishing, but which is unhappily still far
from uninfluential, that sees in the British Empire an opponent to
German development with whom an armed struggle is sooner or later
inevitable. |
| I
have, &c. |
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VINCENT CORBETT.
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