indeed, were declared.[1] He added that it was, above all, in the direction of the North Sea that the Admiralty should keep a sharp look out.
These words have created a great sensation in Germany; so much so that an effort was made to gloss over the affair; and they say here that Mr. Lee's language was misinterpreted, and that the two Governments are on excellent terms and mean to remain so. But the spirit of jingoism runs its course unchecked among the people in England; and the newspapers are bit by bit poisoning public opinion, until people have come to believe that Germany has no right to increase her naval strength, and that her Navy Estimates constitute a challenge to England.
Believe me, ete.,
(Signed) DE LALAING.
ANGLO-GERMAN RELATIONS.
No. 2.
Baron Greindl, Belgian Minister in Berlin, to Baron de Favereau, Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Your Excellency,
Having had to make seven journeys since November 15, and to transact any amount of pressing business during the brief intervals that I have been able to spend in Berlin, my correspondence has of necessity been limited to the absolute minimum. This is the reason why—despite the sensation it created—I did not write to you about the interview between the Chancellor and the English journalist, Mr. Bashford, which was published three months ago. In informing the British public that Germany does not dream of any aggression against England, Count Bülow said no more than what is recognised by everyone who considers the matter dispassionately. Germany would have nothing to gain from a contest. Moreover, she is not ready for the struggle. Despite the progress that she has made in maritime matters, Germany's naval forces are still so far inferior to those of England that it would be madness for her to provoke a war. The German Fleet has been created with a purely defensive object. The small capacity of the
- ↑ Mr. Lee, according to the published reports of his speech, said:
"Naval reforms … were the result of absolutely changed conditions, arising partly out of the redistribution of Naval Power in Europe and out of lessons of the present war in the Far East (Russo-Japanese). In the first place, there has been a complete redistribution of the British Fleet, in order to prepare for possible enemies. The balance and centre of naval power in Europe had been shifted during the last few years. They had not so much to keep their eyes upon France and the Mediterranean, as they had to look with more anxiety, though not fear, towards the North Sea. It was for that reason that the Fleets had been distributed to enable them to deal with any danger in that direction … rather than devolving their attention to the Mediterranean. … If war should unhappily be declared, under existing conditions, the British Navy would get its blow in first, before the other side had time even to read in the papers that war had been declared." After referring to the intention no longer to repair ships, but to "build, instead, ships for the future which would be of the biggest and latest type … fewer in number, but more potent for the destruction of their enemies …" the Civil Lord went on to say, "The redistribution would result in great economy. … Yet our fighting strength as a fighting naval power, had been practically doubled during the last few weeks. The British Navy was stronger and more ready now to undertake any task which the nation demanded of it than hitherto."
It is interesting to compare the sentence "under existing circumstances the British Navy would get its blow in first, before the other side had time even to read in the papers that war had been declared," with Lord Fisher's subsequent avowals—he was then First Sea Lord—in his "Memoirs," published in 1919, as to his desire to "Copenhagen" the German Fleet, i.e ., to attack without a previous declaration of war. (See Note 34): also Chronology.
The Berliner Tageblatt (moderate Liberal) commenting upon Mr. Lee's speech asked the meaning of this "threat of war in time of peace." Mr. Lee issued a diplomatic correction of his speech five days later. He declared that what he had said was this:
"The British Fleet is now prepared strategically for every conceivable emergency, for, we must assume that all foreign naval powers are possible enemies. Owing to the growth of near naval powers, we have, unfortunately, more possible enemies thanformerly, and we, have to keep an anxious eye not only on the Mediterranean and Atlantic, but on the North Sea as well." He also added that "his speech had been misrepresented in an extraordinary manner. His statement embodied no threat, and was one to which no foreign power could possibly object."
