The Dominion TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 1909. GERMANY AND THE NAVY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 480, 13 April 1909, Page 4

The Dominion TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 1909. GERMANY AND THE NAVY.

A curious feature of the cable news received here in tho exciting days that followed the debate on the British Navy Estimates was the absence of any notable German opinions upon the situation. This fact, which was doubtless the reflection of a'general reticence in the German press, probably assisted ..the public to believe that Germany, having had her naval activity- made plain to the world, was pushing on with her'programme in deadly earnest, too intent on the • business of overtopping British naval supremacy to care whether the people of' the British Empire were excited or not. Yesterday, however, our cable news tained a reminder that public opinion in Germany is as much divided upon the naval question as in Great Britain. The Socialist newspaper Vorwaerts has been warning the Beichstag that "unless an agreement is reached with Great Britain on the question of naval armaments, there will be a fearful disaster sooner or later." That the Socialists in Germany should object to the growth of naval armaments is natural enough, since the Socialist, in Germany as in England, regards every pound spent on the Navy as a misappropriation of money that should be expended in helping on tho Socialist programme. But the Vossischc Zeilung is not a Socialist organ, and it is saying that "reasonable Germans arc aware that owing to her colonies and commerce, Britain is bound to' have, and will have, a superior Navy." Whether the opinion of reasonable Germans is hero correctly stated or not, it is noteworthy that at any rate a section of German public opinion has reconciled itself to the inevitableness of Britain's naval superiority. Of the many reasons for Germany's intense anxiety to possess a very powerful Navy, the final and supreme reason, as the London Spectator pointed out recently, is her desire "to be in a position to talk diplomatically with Britain on something like terms of equality wligh matters involving sea power are concerned." The German argument is put thus: "We do not want to invade Britain merely for, tho sake of invading her, but wo do want to sec her placed in a position in which fiha will not fool hor-

self, as now, absolutely invulnerable and therefore above the reach of our diplomacy. If we have a force sufficient to make Britain feel extremely uncomfortable on the score of invasion, we should bo able to talk with her on terms of equality and do a reasonable 'deal' with her. That is, we should, without actual war, be able to take advantage of our opportunity, and thus be able to fulfil our destiny as a world-Power. As long as Britain feels invulnerable she can veto our ambitions. Therefore we must build up a great Navy." The Spectator proceeds to show that with Britain every other consideration must give way to the necessity for keeping Germany always in this state of relative inferiority. The question is how to keep the command of the sea "at the cheapest rate and with the minimum of sacrifice." A policy of "naval driblets," of doing only just enough to keep the command of the sea, would only lead Germany on by encouraging the belief that Britain was fainting in the struggle, and that a special effort by Germany would destroy Britain's superiority. The wise policy, therefore, and, in the long run, the cheapest policy, is "to increase our pace so much as to place a very great distance between ourselves and our German competitors, and at the same, time show unmistakable powers of staying." The confession of the Yossische Zeitung confirms the Spectator's suspicion that people in Germany are saying: "The game is not worth the candle. We shall never catch up with the British, and we are therefore exhausting our strength uselessly in trying to do so." It is surprising that the British, opponents of naval expansion do not realise that by one huge effort now, even at the cost of postponing necessary social reforms, Great Britain may prevent the everlasting bleeding away of the nation's resources on naval armaments. What the Spectator calls the' "driblet" policy has a very close parallel in the old woman of the fable who burnt her faggots one. by one without heating her pot, whereas' if she had placed them all on the fire at once she would have had her dinner cooked in half an hour. We must not omit the significance of the Vossische Zeitung's recognition of the weight of Britain's colonies in the scale of sea power. The fact that the British dominions oversea are ready, to take their share in the work of naval defenco is a very momentous thing indeed to Britain's rivals. At the present time .these dominions, contributing at such a rate on a basis of white population, as would require half a million a year from New Zealand, could furnish three Dreadnoughts annually. Moreover, the dominions are growing fast.