Letters and Papers Concerning the Trans-Persian Railway and Other Railways in Persia [‎159r] (317/442)

1995 Supply (Committee).
ment stocks stand at a lower figure than
those of most European States. The dis
satisfaction expressed last year at the
strained condition into which Anglo-Ger-
• man relations were allowed to drift is not
so widely expressed to-day, but I am afraid
that the silence does not imply a complete
return to confidence.
_ Eet us for a moment review the objects
which all will admit the Foreign Secretary
has in view in this matter. First, we may
say it is to keep to the lowest point the
Xaval Estimates necessitated by those
other Powers; and, secondly, it is to re
store correct relations with Germany; and,
thirdly, we may say it is to place the Anglo-
French entente on its correct footing; and,
fourthly, it is to satisfy the feeling of this
country as to what policy meets with the
widest approval. I do not refer to the
idealistic motives which attract some few
people. I freely admit that the nation at
large does not agree to take national
security on trust at all. I am not opposing
the French entente, by no means, but per
sonally I must admit that I myself cannot
agree with those who would rely on any
security less material than adequate naval
^ superiority. Let us confine ourselves en
tirely to the aims which are incontro-
vertibly held by the whole country, and
exclude by all means complaints against
the motives of the diplomacy of last year
* and the much-debated delays and negotia
tions of last July, and the tactics adopted
in the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s
speech, and confine ourselves to the un
controverted aims of the Foreign Office.
In doing so it is worth while to consider
whether the public do not really now de
sire that some more vigorous attempt
should be made to show better results.
Whether it is quite satisfied that the
general wishes are being expressed in
diplomacy. I think I may say, and in this
we shall all agree, that our success in
achieving those avowed ends should be
decided by actual facts. That surely is a
fair test. All this confidence on the part
of the public may or may not be inside the
mark. Things may be entirely re-estab-
lis*hed, but the public and the House are
only able to judge by what has happened
' in the past, and the rather distant
past. We have no information, even
in detail, of what happened last summer,
and we do not know the present situa
tion at all. I only wish to express an
* opinion widely held by the public, who
judge by the events of recent times.
Foreign Office. 1996
In regard to the Fleet, can it be said in
this matter of Naval Estimates that the
Foreign Office has met with success? We
were officially assured not so long ago
that the reduction of Naval Estimates
would soon become possible. The
Moroccan problem coming up last year
made it naturally the aim of the Foreign
Office to get the tangle officially un
ravelled without such an increase of
friction as would lead to an enlarged
German naval programme. In other
words, the problem was to avoid supply
ing the German Navy League with the
material which it wanted, and particu
larly wanted, for the recent election.
Can it be said that we succeeded in this ?
It appears to me, on the contrary, that
no one gained more by the events of last
year than the German Navy League, and
no one secured more value than German
Chauvinists. Whether events could have
been guided more successfully or not our
failure to avoid an increase is an ascer
tained fact. I am not disputing the need
of keeping ahead, and' I think the First
Lord’s statement of a definite ratio is not
at all resented in Germany, especially
when expressed in restrained language,
but it emphasises the loss we sustain by
the mutual increase of armaments, which
yield not in the end any more security
and rather less, because irritation is in
creased on both sides. Another attempted
aim, my hon. Friends will agree, is the
avowed aim to improve the relations. If
w r e have succeeded, I think the public
feels why there are no more signs, why
have royal visits been postponed, and
there is an uneasiness which ought to be
realised by the Government. I think a
very considerable section of the public
feel that efforts towards friendlier rela
tions are not perhaps as whole-hearted as
they might be, and that friendship has
not been so vigorously tried as would
have been possible in other circum
stances. The Prime Minister at the
Lord Mayor’s banquet last autumn made
a very remarkable reference to what he
called “ the legitimate aspirations of
Germany.’ He said that those were
aspirations which we desired to recognise
and not to stand in the way of. Those as
pirations, I think, refer, among other
things, to the Colonial question, and the
public naturally ask themselves has every
opportunity been taken to recognise those
aspirations of which the Prime Minister
spoke in recent history.
10 July 1912