for whom so short a time ago he entertained passionate admiration. I do not think I can be accused of adopting a wild, impracticable, or irrational view in these observations on the house of Schröder and its partner, who is merely taken as an illustration.

We are engaged in a life-and-death struggle with the German Empire, which, according to Bernhardi, has no alternative between "World Power" and "Downfall." We cannot afford to take any risks, nor is there room for divided sympathies. Men either wish with their whole heart and soul that Germany should be smashed and, pace the Westminster Gazette,* that the German people shall be "humiliated"; or with equal fervour, if they are good Germans or pro-Germans or even ex-Germans, they must desire-and neither the German Emperor nor any of his satellites conceal this desire-the absolute annihilation of Great Britain. This is no time for Mr. Facing-both-Ways or for the mugwumps so prolific in the City of London with English hearts and German pockets, or with German hearts and English pockets-the cosmopolitans who are working for a "drawn war," some of whom perhaps may not exactly want Germany to win, and are possibly alarmed at some recent manifestations of the Mailed Fist, but are putting their heads together to save the Hohenzollern dynasty, if not for Wilhelm II, at any rate for the Crown Prince, and to enable the Fatherland to recuperate and resume her evolution towards universal dominion at some less unfavourable moment.

* In a sinister leading article (November 13) this poisonous paper after echoing ecstatic admiration of a German spy who had been executed, added these words which deserve reading and re-reading if we would wish to penetrate the formidable problem confronting us : "But the case of men who have transplanted themselves from one country to another, and who, whether naturalised or not, have enjoyed all the privileges of their adopted country, stands on a different footing. These people cannot sit on a fence between two allegiances. They have made their choice, and they must abide by it. They owe to their adopted country, if not active aid, at least a scrupulous abstinence from giving aid to its enemies. We might make allowances for them if, in case of invasion, they were carried away by their feelings and took sides with invaders of their own blood [my italics], but we see no reason to make allowances for them if, without this excuse, they play the part of enemies and spies, while professing friendship to the country of their adoption."

VOL. LXIV

37

V. DISHING THE CITY

CITY Magnates have so far contributed little to the national cause beyond an organised panic on the Stock Exchange, in Lombard Street, and in Downing Street during the diplomatic Black Week at the end of July, when they sought to terrorise Ministers, who were anything but heroes to start with, by depicting in sombre hues the dire consequences of our departing from an attitude of strict neutrality, while on the other hand they described in glowing colours the enormous amount of money we should make if we stood aside while other nations cut each other's throats. Interest and sympathy were intimately associated in the minds of those who participated in these shameless manoeuvres, which came within an ace of success. The duty of the Germans and the pro-Germans was as clear as crystal. Their regard for the Fatherland demanded their intervention at this crisis of her fate. British business men were in a parlous plight; they were completely in the dark as to the impending war, which the evidence goes to show Germany had decided upon last March. They were caught napping by German finance, as described in a luminous article in the Candid Quarterly Review (see "The City in War"), which suggests that City mandarins are as incapable of safeguarding British interests as political mandarins. The keys of the citadel had been handed over to German keeping, and it will probably be found to remain in German keeping, as the cosmopolitan grip on finance is as strong to-day as it was yesterday.

As Mr. Gibson Bowles's organ observes: "The Germans had prearranged war, and it is a genuine grievance of the City of London, which stands to lose about a hundred million sterling through its contempt of those who guessed the truth, that the Government did not find some means of putting the City on its guard and enabling due precautions to be taken, if only by those distinguished persons who had selected the Kaiser's chosen day as an appropriate moment for leaving the ship in charge of

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the second mate, and going away north, south, east, and west for their accustomed autumnal idling. Luck prepared the Navy." But the Chancellor of the Exchequer told us only the other day that the Government was as ignorant as the babe unborn of the impending and inevitable war. The City should not have required any warning if its faith in its German Jews were justified, because, being as good Englishmen as you or me," and necessarily informed as to the policy and intentions. of the Fatherland, they would hasten to apprise their British business friends so that they might also be "in the know," and act accordingly. What is the use of Germanising the City of London and demonstrating our large-mindedness unless there be reciprocity and our German friends requite our hospitality by giving us the benefit of their superior knowledge of German affairs. The Potsdam Party in the City are anything but fools, whatever they be elsewhere. They will surely not plead ignorance of a storm which had been brewing for many years. The notorious Sir Alfred Moritz Mond, as already pointed out, informed the people of Swansea: "This is a war for which Germany had been preparing for years" (Swansea, October 29). Two days later, at Aberavon, Sir Moritz thus committed himself: "He should advise the people of England, if they wanted to get rid for ever of the German menace which had been hanging like a nightmare over this country for many years, to rally all their strength, might, and courage in order to do the job well and thoroughly." * In other words, Sir Moritz had always known about the German danger which had long been "hanging like a nightmare over this country." It is true he sedulously concealed this priceless knowledge from his political clientele in Wales, in the Press, and in Parliament, and poured no small ridicule upon "scaremongers," while he allowed his partner, Sir John Brunner, to make a perpetual and consummate jackass of himself. Your Radical billionaire has a profound contempt for the common herd. It might not be worth while casting pearls before swine by entrusting the man in the street with all he knew about the German menace. But there is a freemasonry among financiers, and Sir Moritz would surely have shared his inside knowledge with his City

* See the South Wales Daily Post, November 9, containing a scathing exposure of Sir Moritz.

friends? And what of the other "friends of Germany"? What did they know before the event? We are all wise afterwards. It is only intelligent anticipation that is of any use in politics or in money matters. They were the City's chief channels of communication with the Fatherland, upon which their word was law. They were always trotting backwards and forwards. At last they were in a position to demonstrate their real value to their adopted country and make some return for all they had received.

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Not at all, if we may credit the Candid Quarterly Review, whose facts have so far remained unchallenged. I would call them to the attention of that microscopic, insignificant, and impotent portion of the City which remains British at heart as well as in name and is growing increasingly restive under the encroachment of the alien, to whom naturalisation is frequently a jest, being nothing but a scrap of paper which affects neither his effectively German status nor his scarcely veiled German sympathies. There is such a thing as dual nationality, not that I contemplate argument with any international lawyer, as one is always worsted in controversy with a lawyer, however right one may be in substance or in fact. Acts of Parliament are deliberately drafted so as to be unintelligible to laymen in order to give employment to lawyers. They alone can settle as to how far British naturalisation affects the allegiance of German subjects. Several correspondents have called my attention to the ambiguous jargon of the Act of 1870 (ch. xiv. sec. 7), which is understood to govern this question and is reproduced in the Globe (November 7) with appropriate comments. I only know enough about the law to realise that my opinion is valueless, so I reproduce this section for the benefit of experts as a matter demanding further investigation. It would seem to suggest that our naturalisation arrangements are worthless and that there is nothing to prevent a German who has taken out English naturalisation papers fighting for Germany-like Baron von Schröder junior. Indeed, when caught, he is forced to do so, as Germany refuses to relinquish her subjects. If a naturalised German is called upon to fight for Germany against England, a fortiori he is called upon to work for Germany against England. Here is this amazing provision:

"An alien to whom a certificate of naturalisation is granted shall in the United Kingdom be entitled to all political and other rights, powers, and privileges, and be subject to all obligations to which a natural-born British subject is entitled or subject in the United Kingdom, with this qualification: that he shall not when within the limits of the foreign State of which he was a subject previously to obtaining his certificate of naturalisation, be deemed to be a British subject [my italics] unless he has ceased to be a subject of that State in pursuance of the laws thereof, or in pursuance of a treaty to that effect."

That was a brief but not irrelevant digression. Whether naturalised or unnaturalised, the Potsdam Party in the City left its British friends in the lurch. We shall probably never know which among them participated in the prolonged financial preparations for the Great War and to what extent they were able to feather their own nests and to help the beloved Fatherland. But according to the Financial News, and this must be one among many instances: "If report be true, and it is generally credited, the Director of a well-known financial institution in London was summoned to Germany a month before the outbreak of war, and received his instructions as to what steps he was to take, and was ordered to remit at least twenty million pounds to the Kaiser's Government. The gentleman in question recognised the difficult position in which he was placed, but nevertheless was compelled to fulfil the behest of his Royal Master. Hence the severity of the attack on the London Stock Exchange." The Financial News is not given to irresponsible gossip, and we may be sure that the actingEditor, Mr. Powell, would not have made this serious charge unless he had strong grounds for believing it. It is pleasant reading for Englishmen, but it is only what is to be expected you throw open the London Money Market to whoever may choose to come along and, like the Belgians, allow gentlemen of German extraction to penetrate and permeate La Haute Finance. Let us economise our epithets. We need them all for ourselves; it is our own folly that is at fault. If we allow German banks to establish themselves in our midst without any control; if we hand over British banks to Germans; if British financiers are so incapable that practically the whole

if