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For the rest, let those who allow passion the mastery of reason remember Goethe's wise words:
Überhaupt ist es mit dem Nationalhass ein eigenes Auf den untersten Stufen der Kultur werden Sie ihn immer am stärksten und heftigsten finden.
Ding.
(From Goethes "Gespräche" with Eckermann.) We do not expect that you will agree with our views in the present state of your feelings and in view of the solidarity of German patriotism which, but for its possible dangers, is truly magnificent.
We cannot, however, allow our own feelings to be misinterpreted, not even by our "friends the enemy," because there are many amongst them whom we esteem and the friendship with whom must not be broken because Governments declare war.
We trust that, after the war, also you will recognise that even if one does not share the opinions of the other it would be unnatural, if not insincere, not to refer to matters which are uppermost in everybody's mind!"
Amsterdam, 11th January, 1915.
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"......... From a copy of a Tientsin letter, I ob- serve that our friends are thoroughly indignant and rightly so at your remarks, which, I believe, are similar to those in your letter to Shanghai of the 11th Sep- tember last to Y...'s firm.
Personally, I do not believe that any person, unless quite demented or utterly demoralised to such a degree as to be unable to distinguish between right and wrong or between honest truth and criminal hypocrisy, can seriously concur with your opinion on the matter or with the remarks made by you.........
London, EC., 19th January, 1915.
As to your query about our letter to your Tientsin friends, if you will refer to my letter to you
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of the 27th September, I gave you a very long extract of that very letter, quite five pages of it.
You rightly assume that it also contained a reference to the matter you now write about, which did not however appear to me of sufficient importance to further extend that long extract.
We were deploring-in the mutual interest—what to us appeared to be a result of the dangerous doctrines of a certain class of people who upset thereby our mutual business, and the letter dealt exclusively with the result of such upsettal. That is the only time we wrote about this, as we have surely something better to do than discuss politics in business letters.
Y..., for his personal glorification, drew quite wrong conclusions from an obviously friendly business letter and we bear with equanimity any prospective harm his action may do us; namely to circulate to all and sundry his reply to this private letter of ours. What vainglorious if not malicious foolishness! That his action will harm us in the eyes of sensible people, we do not believe unless our intentions are wilfully misconstrued.
At any rate, I myself prefer to be consistent. I can sail under one flag only and cannot simulate the contrary, neither can you. You also know that I am the last man to sacrifice old friends, that I always speak up for them and their interests. They should therefore not mind if I also express views which they may not hold about matters on which there are surely more opinions than one.
As to the mere business aspect, if Y.'s firm wants to do business with England after the war-and I think they will-an English firm, even
more than before, will be better able to represent them and to buy more advantageously for them.
We have, of course, eliminated his firm from our intentions in this regard."
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