ushing on towards
the East; but how little will these things satisfy William II! It is
the will of the German Emperor, King of Prussia, to be a law-giver to
the East, to dispute with England the sovereignty of the seas, to take
bites out of China, to display the ever-victorious flag of Germany all
over the world. It is true that, to accomplish this will of his, will
require an additional 500 millions, and it will require, in particular,
that the Reichstag should vote them in one lump sum. William II is
like his teacher Bismarck in the matter of dogged obstinacy. Like him,
he will present his scheme in a hundred different guises, until its
opponents become weary and give in.

Germany has just been giving the European Concert a lesson in the
policy of energy. She displays as much bluntness in her sudden claims
as she displayed skill in having the Concert brought to ridicule by
Turkey. Haiti and China have yielded on the spot to her direct
threats. If they reflect, will not the Powers of the Concert realise
that Germany's every act is either a challenge or a lesson? The German
expedition to Kiao-chao, 4000 strong, is so greatly in excess of the
requirements of her claims to compensation for injuries suffered, that
it reveals a definite intention on the part of William II to take
advantage of the first plausible pretext to acquire a naval station in
China.

Peace has been signed between Turkey and Greece, but let us not regard
it as a settlement of outstanding questions, for the Ambassadors were
only able to come to an agreement by eliminating questions in dispute,
one by one. Germany now appears to dominate the Eastern question to
such a degree that, in his Speech from the Throne, William II did not
even allude to it. What would have been the good? Turkey is already a
province of Germany! William II and his Ambassador are the rulers
there and govern the country as sovereigns. The flood-gate of German
emigration, secretly unlocked, will soon be thrown wide open; 200,000
Germans will be able to make their way into the Ottoman Empire every
year. Before long their numbers will tell, they will assert their
rights, and the Slav provinces in the Balkans and in Austria will find
themselves out off by the flood.

Is Russia beginning to realise that it would have been better for her
to protect the Christians against Turkey rather than to allow them to
be slaughtered--that it would have been a more humane and far-s