The Dominion. THURSDAY, SEARCH 21, 1911. THE NAVY AND GERMANY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1394, 21 March 1912, Page 6

The Dominion. THURSDAY, SEARCH 21, 1911. THE NAVY AND GERMANY.

The speech in which Jin, Winston Churchill introduced the Navy Estimates will not satisfy cither of the two sections of extremists. The Navy League will be disappointed with his statement that he cannot recommend the two-tc-one standard against Germany, and, on the other hand, the Daily News, which is all for reduce tion, is not satisfied with the "olivebranch" passages, and will probably not withdraw its remark of last week that the Estimates are "rather worse than the most pessimistic forecasted." The fact isthat the new First Lord of the Admiralty has steered a middle course, and for that reason, if for no other, his policy will doubtless be well received by a public which realises the vital importance of supremacy at sea, and yet cannot forget that it-will have to foot the bill. _ He has made a (rood beginning in his new office, and it is somcthi"to have elicited from the Times the declaration that his speech was the best exposition of naval policy since 1889. It was certainly a striking speech, remarkable for the unconventional frankness of its references to Germany, for its suggestion of an understanding with that Power, and, best of all, for its firm announcement of_ the British determination to re tain the existing superiority whatever the cost. Mr. Churchill said that the Admiralty's present standard, compared with Germany, was a sixty per cent, superiority in battleships and Dreadnought cruisers. That, he explained, would involve the construction of four battleships and three Dreadnoughts alternately during tho next six years; but "if Germany increases her construction we must meet it upon a higher ratio of_ superiority by four additional ships, spread oyer the sexennium." Any reduction in the German shipbuilding programme would meet with a prompt response _ from England. Germany would gain nothing by accelerating her naval construction nor lose anything by retarding it. "Supposing both Powers took a year's holiday, three ships would not be built, and Germany would save nearly £7,000,000 and automatically wipe out five potential British superDreadnoughts." All this is in accord with Mr. Churchill's Glasgow speech of naval supremacy, the speech which won the approval of Mb. Bonar Law, who said that if the policy enunciated in it was carried out in the same spirit, the Government could rely on Unionist support. It is also in accord with that desire for the establishment of Anglo-Ger-man relations on a better footing, which has been expressed by Mr. AsQUHH and other Ministers, and which led to Lord Haldane's "frank and full conversations with exalted persons" at Berlin. Mr. Churchill has combined conciliation and firmness to a very remarkable degree, and it is rather envious that, while Lord Charles Blresford regards the speech as a threat to Germany. Hip first newspaper comment which reaches us from Berlin calls i( a decisive step in the direction of a naval understanding. There have lately been_several indications that Germany is more favourably disposed towards such an tinrlot'Etanding than nhe has been for some time. The. Berlin Fast wrote

the other day of the possibility of I discussion with a view lo e.n under- I standing on armaments, and slated that it could never be concludjd on the basis of a relationship of naval strength of two to one, but only on one of three lo two. The Merlin correspondent of (he London Daily Teleytapli thought this idea may have had some kind of official origin. Now, the ratio of three to two is roughly what the British Admiralty has adopted, as staled by Mi:. Ciiuicmu, —a sixty per cent, superiority in battleships and Dreadnought-cruis-ers. The financial and political situation in Germany may also dispose the Kaiser's Government to accept what the Daily Xeir* calls Mn. Churchill's "equivocal olive branch." One of the Berlin newspapers published last month a communication from "a very well-known and prominent German diplomatist," advocating an all-round understanding between the two Powers. Having pointed out that Germany was essentially a Continental Power, and could only be mortally wounded through her Army, this writer proceeded : "Much as German oversea trade has expanded, and important as our colonics and export possibilities may appear, our means do not suffice to support a sea power equal to that of the first fleet, that of England, in addition to the first Army in the world." At the close of a message, comprising further extracts from the same article, the Berlin correspondent of the Telcr/raplt stated that there were good reasons for believing that the anonymous diplomatist was not alone in his profession in that country in holding the views he had expressed. One at least of those opinions, it now appears, is shared by Hekh Wkrmctk, who has just resigned the office of German Imperial Treasurer. A cablegram states that the retiring Minister had repeatedly opposed projects put forward by the i Minister for Naval Affairs, on the ground that Germany's financial position did not justify the maintenance of both a sum-erne army and a navy rivalling Britain's. According to.another cable, the German Gov--1 crnment intends to_ finance its proposed increases of military and naval armaments out of anticipated surpluses of existing taxation, a project for which Herr Wermuth, as a financier, declined to make himself responsible. Evidently the Government docs not care to venture upon asking the. Reichstag, as at present constituted, to grant fresh taxation for Army and Navy increases. Thus there is some ground for hoping that Germans will not force Britain to go beyond the programme provided for ' the Navy Estimates. It is, however, reassuring to British subjects everywhere to have the assurance of the First Lord of the Admiralty that the Imperial Government will be ready for either event. Everyone agrees with Mr. Churchill in deploring "the strange spectacle of the world devoting its wealth, manhood, and science to producing gigantic military machinery which is obsolescent as soon as created, and meanwhile draining its coffers and stinting the needs of the people." Nevertheless, as he said in his Glasgow speech, the competition is there, and we have to face it.