Hungary and Bulgaria will protect Turkey against Russia, and Germany on her eastern frontier can continue to be a menace to Russia, but against the Anglo-French danger Turkey, after Germany's retreat from Africa, will stand alone as Germany will stand alone against the European Western Powers. Against these forces only a strong German Africa can give security to Germany. The Bülow period made it possible that in the beginning of 1914 no one ever remembered to get arms and ammunition quietly to the Cameroons and to East Africa. Had these colonies only been armed in some degree, they would now have kept busy some 200,000 of Germany's enemies. A great consolidated SUBMARINES THERE is not much sign of jubilation in the German reviews after two years of war. Dr. Delbrück begins his article in the August number of the Preussische Jahrbücher with the question, Peace prospects? May such words even be spoken at the present moment? He is evidently anxious about the attitude of Roumania, for he says that, should the successes of the Russians end in getting Roumania to join on the side of the Allies, Germany will indeed have a serious struggle before her. Speaking of peace, he appears to think it very important to sow discord among Germany's enemies during the negotiations. Later, he refers to the future influence of the submarine on the dominion of the sea. He is of opinion that the number of submarines which Germany possesses is too small to achieve success with the rapidity and the certainty necessary to counterbalance the disturbance of Germany's relations with neutrals. But within a few years he believes Germany will have increased the number in a manner which will enable her to blockade England as effectually as the English are blockading Germany at the present time. The conditions of naval warfare have been fundamentally changed by the submarine, and in Germany's favour. In the Deutsche Revue for August ViceAdmiral von Kirchhoff, writing on the exploit of the Deutschland, says that German naval and merchant submarines will see to it that in future wars there is a freedom of the seas which does not depend on the goodwill of England. Lieutenant-General von Reichenau, who writes in the same review, presents us with a German Africa would render immobile France and England with their black troops, make Turkey safe against the Egypt-Sudan menace, and give Italy and Spain freedom of movement. African possessions give Germany importance and friends in Southern Europe and harbours on the Indian coasts. The question for Germany is how to prepare to change the aspect of her world-position, which before the outbreak of war was extremely unfavourable to her. It will not be by leaving Africa out of the reckoning. Prince Bülow, to whom Africa is still terra incognita, does not appear to the writer to be the proper guide in the new Germany of the future. Germany needs new ideas and fewer winged words. "The Best Yet." T HE idea that the Infinite Ruler of the Universe was interested solely with questions of human conduct, and that all the infinite variety of other manifestations of human activity were matters with which He had nothing to do, is a heresy which still lingers in certain quarters. Although a heresy, it is but the exaggeration of a truth, 'like many other heresies. For there is nothing comparable in importance to character and conduct which is the result of character. The Book of Books, therefore, deals primarily and chiefly with moral questions. But although character affects all questions, it is now generally recognised by mankind that the law of God is exceedingly broad, and that no revelation of the Will of God can be regarded as even aiming at completeness, which does not touch upon all phases of human conduct and of human knowledge. The revelation of God to man is progressive, for every fresh advance in our knowledge of the world in which we live contributes to our knowledge of our Maker. In 1890. If we cannot by searching find out God, nevertheless, by careful study of His footsteps in the world which He has made, we can form some conception of His being more adequate than we should have possessed had we never made such observations or used them for material for framing our ideas of the Infinite. There is a right and a wrong way of doing everything. The right way, which is in accordance with scientific law, is in accordance with the Will of God. That which is opposed to the natural law is contrary to the Divine Will. Take, for instance, the simple question of building a house. If the wall is out of the perpendicular, gravity, which is the manifested Will of God in brute matter, pulls the wall down, and against that inexorable law there is no appeal. All Divine laws do not exert themselves so immediately and imperviously as the laws of gravity. The best that mankind has achieved or imagined marks the nearest approximation of the imperfect mortal to the Infinite Divine, and the Scriptures of the World are a record of such approximation. It is from these starry mountain-tops we are able to gaze, as from Mount Pisgah into the Promised Land. The man who has the clearest insight into, let us say, the making of steel, and who knows the best way to manufacture steel at a minimum expenditure of sweat and cash-that man is for the manufacture of steel, for the moment, the most authentically inspired Prophet as to the Will of God in relation to the making of steel that is to be found on this planet. No Divine Revelation in material things is final, but progressive, and the inspiration of yesterday is continually superseded by the newer revelations of to-day. But "The Best Yet" that the mind of man has conceived represents the latest, most up-to-date revelation of the Will of God in that particular department. From "Mr. Carnegie's Conundrum," "Review of Reviews" Annual, for 1900. William T. Stead |