THE ROAD TO RUIN.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 888, 6 August 1910, Page 5

THE ROAD TO RUIN.

COLONEL GADKE OUTSPOKEN

GERMANY'S HUGE NAVAL BURDENS.

FIFTY-EIGHT SHIPS BUILDING,

By Telegraph—Prc66 Association— Copyright.

Berlin, August 4.

Colonel Gadke, tho well-known writer oil naval and other matters, declares that Germany is marching to-economic ruin and war through refusing to consider the question of limitation of arma.ments. She has, he asserts, 58 ships building, and is deceiving public opinion by ignoring the Navy Bill. GERMANY'SsNAVY AND ITS PRICE. AN EMBARASSED EMPIRE. It was stated with the utmost frankness in the preamble to the Germau Navy Law of 1900, which declared that "Germany must have a fleet of such strength, that, even for the mightiest naval Power, a war with her would involve sucli risks as to jeopardise its own supremacy." "The meaning of that declaration," says "The Times," "is clear to the humblest understanding. Ihe defence of trade routes, the protection .of the German coast-line, the inviolability of the German territory against maritime attacks aTe subsidiary matters. What we have to note is the expressed purpose of achioving for Germans such a degree of naval power that the British Empire shall hesitate in all events to face the risk of a collision with it; or, in other words, that Germany shall be secured on the seas the samo position which the German army has secured for her on the Continent of Europe. . . . The preamble of the Navy. Bill excludeb the possibility of an agreement for the limitation of armaments, which we could only accept on the very basis against which that Bill is directed—that is, the recognition of British naval.supremacy as beyond challenge; and it, therefore, affords at the same limo the measure of naval power which this country must preserve at all costs." The German finance reforms of _ 1009 have proved a failure, and there is reported to .be a shortage of 500,000. • The finance reform of last year brought down Prince Bulow from the Chancellorship, and imposed new taxation to the amount of .£25,000,000 on the German people. Two-thirds of the new taxes were indirect, and the whole constituted a grievous addition to the already heavy fiscal burden. Even so the problem was in no way solved. The National Debt, which had increased from .£115,000,000 m 1900 to .£212,000,0(10 in 1908, was furtbur swollen by deficits in the latter year, and last year, each exceeding .£12,000,000. After the great effort of the past twelve months, the position is now apparently worse .than ever. The chief ltjin responsible for ■ these difficulties is, ot course, the cost, of armaments. Tlie German is to-day less heavily taxed than the Englishman, the Frenchman, the American, or tho Italian. Per capita estimates prepared last year by the Kater's Ministry of Finance' are: Great Britain, 95.80 marks; France, 82.70; the United Stales, 30.80; Italy, 48.10; Germany, 48.17; Austria-Hungary, il.jO; The disparity between ■. the tax burdens* of Germany and Great Britain is especially notable. Local taxntion in the latter is two anil a half times what it is in tlio former. , . _ , , Financial, conditions Germany to-day are unsatisfactory enough, writes, F. ._A. Ogg, in the "American Iteview ot Reviews," but manifestly in no wise perilous. The Empire has committed itself to gigantic enterprises, the cost of which was not so carefully weighed in the beginning as.it might have been. A new and virile world-power has been driven by the circumstances in which it "lias found itself, as well as by the'rest'ess aggressiveness of its political iind industrial leaders, into paths of which the founders never dreamed. The consequence lias .boen deficits,, debts, embarrassment. But never fo'r' a''iftoment'h'as'.the solvency ot the Empire been in question. _ 'the federated States stand constitutionally bound to maintain it,'and the assets ot theso States are .vastly.-in..excess of their liabilities. Though' it is the professeddesire of the: Government to increase Gorman credit abroad, that credit js already second to none. At the same time, the prevailing fiscal system is admittedly antiquated and awkward.