THE DREADNOUGHT SCARE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 514, 22 May 1909, Page 11

THE DREADNOUGHT SCARE.

A WOMAN'S VIEW. i Education is the strong key of present position, and education is the ooro of life that England needs to look to, says a writer in the "Queen" who thoughtfully discusses the Dreadnought scare and the real German danger, and Bhows one source of England's weakness. Our educational ideas, she says, need pulling together seriously. Take .women's education, for instance. A certain number of technical schools have arisen in England,/chiefly uuder tho patronage of local and county magnates. No one wishes to underrate'the. valuable work being done, but it is' at present expensive and in-; adequate, and only , whose parents can afford time and, money can indulge in the luxury of, lectures and certificates in the arts of ordinary domestic economy, whereas in tho Fatherland every, woman is taught to.be a .mother, and can housekeep, cook, and make clothes arid mend' thom ; and, this branch ; of the world's political economy is dealt with in a manner'wnich calls forth admiration. Parents in Germany enter into and take education far more seriously than wo. do. •For instance, take the matter of languages, for; which foreigners are noted.- _Why is this?. Greatly because they give their minds to careful plodding and continually learning words. Languages tak|_ time, and the moments given to . acquiring words are tho

"hauptsaclio." ',In ' England, as a rule, merely ihe children try to learn French and German with tho aid of a governess. In Germany the wholo • family, learn together; the language being learnt is' talked, by ; vater and, mutter, as well as by the children, tho results being _ emulation and good progress, and greater interest taken by both teacher and pupil'.' No German family is allowed t to have a foreign mistress, unless the State js satisfied that; the children have also fully

certificated German teachers in all essential subjects. " , . . , IMncation as regards motherhood would fill a column, , and sports, too, are an interesting subject, for in. those ways Germany is fast, (hanging. Tennis, hockey, and moro than nil.' ski-ing— all sports in which "das madchen" is beginning to excel, and. also to change the outlook of ner life.

: Howover, let .me repeat, in • conclusion, it is the systematic German educational life which wo must dread, with its varied and well-thought-out branches.; Wo most go to tho ( root of tho matter, and then never fear 1 tho fact that we can bo caught up. If Dreadnoughts aro our fear to-day, tomorrow Zepplin's airships will be, for it will not be many months before five of these aloiio will be . flying, and if each can carry thirty people, it moans 150, and howmany bomhs, one wonders, could be transported across the Channel to help the' German fleet. This, I fear, mil he England's next panic. Many German papers' take tho view that Lord Roberts's speech and 'these fears are means to arouse our country, and to make England see her own need for more preparedness—not that either country is wishing for war. God grant this may be the casol