Germany And England.

New York Times 100 years ago today, February 9, 1913:
    Peace between Germany and England may be said to be the prime need of the modern world. If it can be assured for even one generation, the forces that make for general peace would be immensely strengthened. For the past decade the two nations have pursued each one a policy that has been taken by the other as menacing. Each has regarded the other as a probable enemy, and each has striven to outdo the other in preparation for the struggle that has been regarded as practically inevitable. It has been a costly rivalry fraught with great peril. The cost to each nation has been enormous in the burden of taxes it has heaped upon the industry of its people and in the constant and permanent withdrawal of capital and labor from production. Nor has this evil been confined to the two nations immediately concerned. The stubborn enmity manifested on the one hand and on the other has stirred the appetites and aroused the fears of other nations until Europe has been converted into a vast armed camp, the maintenance of which has been for the people, and especially for the lower strata of them, a crushing weight.
    It is now semi-officially announced that there is a reasonable and real prospect that the policy of mutual menace will be abandoned and will be replaced by a policy of mutual trust. The source of suspicion and resentment on both sides has been the question of naval strength. The rulers of Germany have feared that England would use her constantly growing navy either to check the legitimate extension of German power in other parts of the world, or, if occasion arose, to crush the expansion of German foreign trade. The statesmen of England, on the other hand, have feared that Germany, as soon as her navy was strong enough, would attack the commerce and blockade the ports of the United Kingdom. So far as the policy of the respective Governments could be shaped by the wishes of their people, we believe that both their fears were groundless. A very small percentage of either Nation has really desired or intended to commit the mischief attributed to them. As between the two nations, it must be conceded that the fears of the English were the more reasonable. The situation of England is peculiar. It is an island kingdom and does not produce its own food, while its foreign trade is absolutely needed for its business existence. Naval supremacy is a matter of self-preservation. Every increase in the potentially aggressive force of a nation not surely friendly has to be met by a corresponding increase in defensive force. Germany, on the other hand, is practically safe from any attack upon its territory. Her increase in naval power cannot be regarded as a policy of defense in any such sense as that of Great Britain is. The possible results of naval inferiority are not the same.
    But the fact of prime importance was the view which the Government of each nation took of the purpose of the other. Assuming that neither really wished to attack the other, the terrible rivalry with all its unfortunate consequences became unnecessary. That assumption must be the basis of the change of policy reported from Berlin. It will not do to accept the report without qualification, but it so clearly corresponds to the known facts that it may be regarded hopefully. That it can receive any attention at all is a fact that must be placed to the credit of the Liberal Government of England and to two statesmen in that Government differing widely from each other. The one is Mr. Churchill, the head of the navy, who, a year ago, stated with such absolute frankness the determination of Great Britain to maintain her navy at least 60 per cent. stronger than that of Germany. The other is Sir Edward Grey, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who secured the Conference of Ambassadors in London as a means of co-operation of the Powers. One fixed the fact on which Germany has acted. The other provided for intimate association of Germany and Great Britain in a common effort for a common and highly important end. It is a striking example of what frankness can do in the most complex matters. If the reports now sent out from Berlin are correct, the peace of the world is greatly helped. No European war of any magnitude is conceivable if England and Germany, united, veto it.