FABLES & WARFARE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1043, 4 February 1911, Page 6

FABLES & WARFARE.

"YELLOW PERIL" BOCEY. • LOOKED AT AND CAST OUT. (By Gvno.) . Forty thousand tons, tho cablc says. to ho the displacement of the next Japanese battle steamer. If 6he co--ts a penny she will cast £3,000,CC5. *n impoverished, almost bankrupt country, building ra such fashion, plainly expects tho contingenev of war. With whom? And when? Tile design of the ships are tho truest indication to those who can read them. Tho strange story of the Yellow Peril was first set afloat by the Sydney "Bulletin." The chimera was considerably enhanced by the "Bulletin's" grip of phrase, and was presently copied by nearly the whole of the Australian press for the world is always full of mere imitators of genius. It is rather dastardly, this story of how the "new boy" in the school of the nations—the small person who assailed a world's bully and won was held up in the most telling of tho world's media of interchange of idea— caricature—as . "The Monkey" and "Tho Yellow Peril."

J-lie torches, with which journalism lights the dark i'ens of this curious world, are probably brighter than others, and sometimes it rather seems as if as' journalism, astonished at its own brilliancy, must needs put up somo bogey man in the tortuous tangle of life, and vaingloriously exclaim: "Aha! Do you see him? But for mo you would have run straight into the monster's arms!"

Now our valorous little friend "Tho Monkey" is evidently expecting a war, and a war not more than ten years away, and it is tho purpose of* this article to indicate, beyond effective contradiction of tho "Bulletin" or anyone else, from which quarter of the compass the blast is coming. With it (somewhat distantly) 'is bound up Sir Joseph Ward's aspiration to further honours for tho Empire is in some trouble _at present, and those who help will, no doubt, bo rewarded. From an international point of view, tho strongly Imperialistic attitude of two of our most rccent Governors— Lord Islington and Lord Plunket—does, or should, tell its own tale. Plates and guns aro eloquent, for, as feir William White used to ho fond of stating in exalted moments (e.g., when the Niobe slid off tho ways amid fumes of champagne), "every ship of war is designed with a truly national purpose. You cannot get everything 011 tho samo displacement. If you have guns and armour you cannot liavo habitability and radius of action, for EVERY SHIP OF WAR, ON A GIVEN DISPLACEMENT, IS A COMPROMISE, AND. 'P YOU GAIN ONE THING, YOU MUST SACRIFICE ANOTHER."

So hero wo have it. Two plates of battleships 'tire produced on this page. Ono is a typically British Dreadnought, fit to cruise and fight anywhere, as the needs of our; Empire demand. The other is a Japanese ship, disclosing far more protection in Krupp cemented plates, and a gun power that would blow any two British Dreadnoughts out of tho , water. What are the yards at Yokosuika, and Sascbo and Kure aiming at? If it were not for our disastrous war literature, and our "Yellow Peril" logends which (mainly on account of the predominance of Chinese fruit shops in our cities) everywhere finds a ready acceptance, it would be very easy to explain. Tho Japanese ship is heavily gunned, and heavily protected as tiio shaded portions of the drawings show and, as we bond over and study theui, it looks indeed like. "Yellow Peril." But it is not so and, if we think again of tho magic sentence, "every ship of war is but a compromise" wo will see that tho Japaneso ships must lose somewhere, and they are indeed losing, for they cannot get that tremendous plating and armhment without sacrificing something. AVhat they aro sacrificing is radius of action, coal stowage, engine space, and all that sort of thing. There is no means of showing that in a. plan, howover real it may be. But tho inference is plain enough: The Japaneso expect their next war l-ight at their own doors. Tho ship will coal to-day, fight to-morrow, and come back to port on the third—that 'is the theory, of their ships.

Who will this strange war of the semibankrupt, but resolute, country bo with? Possibly with an alliance of* America, Germany, and Russia. It may bo explained that in 1894 the Americans, foreseeing no chance of a war abroad (except with Britain) conceived tho idea of over-gunning and over-plating every ship turned out by Sir William Whito on a 14,000 tons displacement. Ho was putting in four "twelves" and twelve "sixes." They replaced witli the same, and four "eights" added. ' Sinco then, however, they have acquired interests in tho Pacific and tho problem now is: What radius of action have our overgunned ships got? They havo been endeavouring to find this out, and that was why tho American licet cruised round the world some littlo timo ago. Behind all this there no doubt sits the great intellect of the German Emperor. It is to be hoped that no one was simplo enough to imagine that that very expensive cruiso.was undertaken merely as a pageant. Wo. know that tho battleship Nebraska broko down half way and could como no further, but the story of tho American engine-rooms, on that arduous pilgrimage, has yet to be told.

Meanwhile it is to bo honed that something will soon ho dono to improve our war literature. Tlio best which Australasia has vet produced is perhaps Mr. Donald Macdonald. Ho wroto "How ivc kept the Flap; Flying" ' (referring to Ladysmith) and tlio book was undoubtedly the work of an honest greenhorn in war. Full of tlio importance of discovery he stated that iio was convinced that "a bayonet chargo could not get homo unless the infantry had been first thoroughly shattered by preparatory fire." And then some wise English -reviewer calmly asked: "Well, what tactician silica the days of Frederick the Great has ever thought otherwise?"