The Great Illusion: A Study of the Relation of Military Power to National AdvantageAngell, Norman
History
The Great Illusion: A Study of the Relation of Military Power to National Advantage
Angell, Norman
Commercial policy; Disarmament; Imperialism; War; War, Cost of
If we really examined these questions without the old meaningless
prepossessions, we should see that it is more to the general interest to
have an orderly and organized Asia Minor under German tutelage than to
have an unorganized and disorderly one which should be independent.
Perhaps it would be best of all that Great Britain should do the
organizing, or share it with Germany, though England has her hands full
in that respect--Egypt and India are problems enough. Why should
England forbid Germany to do in a small degree what she has done in a
large degree? Sir Harry H. Johnston, in the _Nineteenth Century_ for
December, 1910, comes a great deal nearer to touching the real kernel of
the problem that is preoccupying Germany than any of the writers on the
Anglo-German conflict of whom I know. As the result of careful
investigation, he admits that Germany's real objective is not, properly
speaking, England or England's Colonies at all, but the undeveloped
lands of the Balkan Peninsula, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, down even to the
mouth of the Euphrates. He adds that the best informed Germans use this
language to him:
In regard to England, we would recall a phrase dropped by
ex-President Roosevelt at an important public speech in London,
a phrase which for some reason was not reported by the London
Press. Roosevelt said that the best guarantee for Great Britain
on the Nile is the presence of Germany on the Euphrates.
Putting aside the usual hypocrisies of the Teutonic peoples,
you know that this is so. You know that we ought to make common
cause in our dealing with the backward races of the world. Let
Britain and Germany once come to an agreement in regard to the
question of the Near East, and the world can scarcely again be
disturbed by any great war in any part of the globe, if such a
war is contrary to the interests of the two Empires.
Such, declares Sir Harry, is German opinion. And in all human
probability, so far as sixty-five million people can be said to have
the same opinion, he is absolutely right.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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