Feb. 28. cally opposed to that of Prussia. He might have shown, for example that, lacking a Nietzsche, we have no administrative maxim which says, Justice is a crack-
Por the third time Mr. Asquith brained idea, invented and foisted has reiterated British determina on the world by a phantom. It is tion to place ''on an unassailable "0 importance to me whether an foundation,"' the rights of the, action is just or unjust. If I am smaller nationalities of Europe. powerful enough to perform any He is reported to have referred deed whatsoever, then ea ipso, I bitterly to the statement of the|am justified in doing it." He German Chancellor that Ger- might have referred to the long many was not the enemy of these continued alliance between our-small nations; and, of course, had Selves and Portugal, to the share no difficulty in proving the un- We had in securing the freedom truth of that assertion. The at-lof Greece and the independence titude of the German Govern-/of Belgium, to the general ex-ment to the smaller nations could pectancy of the smaller nations of not be better shown than in its Europe that Great Britain will reflexion in the attitude of the always be found a friend should smaller nations to Germany. If their independence be threatened. Germany can point to a single|He might have been perfectly one of these small nations, to open and honest in confessing Poland, Denmark, Norway, Hol-that such independence is not \land, Belgium, Switzerland, Por-only a matter of justice with us tugal, Greece, Servia, Mon-but one of interests also, and euch te negro, Bulgaria or Rumania, a confession would but have and can truthfully declare, ''Here strengthened the belief that 60 at least we have a friend who beneficial a policy is all the more loves us for ourselves alone," the likely to be tenaciously held. He world will be at once surprised might even have dipped into more and delighted. Poland has been recondite reasons, He might have under the Prussian heel too long told his hearers that long after Denmark and dread are almost} we had developed a Cabinet sys-synonymous terms: Holland tem of Government tempered by fears compulsory absorption; of communications to the press, and Belgium it is unnecessary to were in consequence playing our speak: Switzerland knows full, game with our cards more or less well that she might very well 1 exposed the German people re-have met the fate which has overtaken the Belgian people. It was not out of regard for her that she did not. Servia and Montenegro have for the moment been wiped off the map. Thanks to German bullying and bribery, Bulgaria came unconstitutionally into the war, and Greece remained unconstitutionally out of it. Rumania has, so far, successfully resisted similar intrigues. But there is one small nation—outeide Europe this time—which provides the best of proof as to German love for the lesser States. That nation Armenia. So horrible has been the treatment of the Armenians by the Turks and their German jollies, that what amounts to a threat of war has already been received in Constantinople from the United States on account of If in his speeches Mr. Asquith could give in a word the essence of a sentence, and in a sentence the gist of a volume, he might have been abl the remarks he has made on this subject to show why, with regard to all these lands, the attitude' of Great Britain has for centuries been practi-mained in the darkest ignorance—ae indeed they still do—regarding the inmost' secrets of their foreign policy. Bismarck was a great revealer in this connexion. But in our case, as in all others, publicity led the way to truth and honesty, and though diplomacy still has some of the instincts of the cuttlefish, recent Governmental publications prove that no European Government surpasses our own in candour. As a further evidence of a very pointed \kind with regard to British respect for small States, Mr. As-quite might have taken his hearers—including the Imperial Chancellor and his reptile press \agents—with him to India, and there have shown them in that vast continental land more than six hundred independent states living their own quiet life under the ggis of the Pax Britannica, sight which might, possibly, have gone far to explain to the astonished Germans why India has remained so magnificently loyal.
But all this would not have disposed of the practical question how the rights of small nations
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.