a sensational article
in the _Saturday Review_ of almost twenty years ago. Says the
anonymous author of this article: "In Europe there are two great,
irreconcilable, opposing forces, two great nations who would make the
whole world their province, and who would levy from it the tribute of
commerce. England, with her long history of successful aggression,
with her marvellous conviction that in pursuing her own interests she
is spreading light among nations dwelling in darkness, and Germany,
bone of the same bone, blood of the same blood, with a lesser
will-force, but, perhaps, with a keener intelligence, compete in every
corner of the globe. In the Transvaal, at the Cape, in Central Africa,
in India, and the East, in the islands of the Southern sea, and in the
far Northwest, wherever--and where has it not?--the flag has followed
the Bible and trade has followed the flag, the German bagman is
struggling with the English pedlar. Is there a mine to exploit, a
railway to build, a native to convert from breadfruit to tinned meat,
from temperance to trade-gin, the German and the Englishman are
struggling to be first. A million petty disputes build up the greatest
cause of war the world has ever seen. If Germany were extinguished
to-morrow, the day after to-morrow there is not an Englishman in the
world who would not be richer. Nations have fought for years over a
city or a right of succession, must {101} they not fight for two
hundred and fifty million pounds of yearly commerce?"[1]

No doubt this assertion of a complete opposition between British and
German commerce and investment contains an element of exaggeration. In
1913 England was the greatest consumer of German goods and Germany an
excellent customer of Great Britain and the British colonies. If
Germany were to be extinguished, Englishmen would be poorer, not
richer. Yet the competition between German bagman and English pedlar
is real, and this commercial competition is merely an expression of a
far more significant industrial competition. As German organisation,
science, and technical ability build up iron, steel, machinery,
chemical and other industries, British industry, though still growing,
finds itself circumscribed. If national colonies can be utilised for
special national advantage, financial, industrial or commercial, the
attempt will be made. If trade and investment can be made to follow
the flag, the nation has an interest in securing colonies.