THE EMPIRE AND THE FUTURE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1486, 8 July 1912, Page 7

THE EMPIRE AND THE FUTURE.

A CRISIS APPROACHING. By Telegraph-Press Association-Copyright (Reo. July 7, 5.5 p.m.) London, July 6. Lord Selborno, in addressing the Imperial Mission, said an Empire crisis was approaohing, and upon decisions made within the next few years the future of the Empire would depend. MEDITERRANEAN CONTROL. (Reo. July 7, 5.5 p.m.) London, July 6. A Navy League manifesto declares that tho safety of. India and Egypt is bound up with tho maintenance of British naval supremacy in the Mediterranean, which must bo immediately re-established at all costs. CANADA AND FOREIGN POLICY. (Rec. July 7, 5. 5 p , mi ) > ~ . „ London, July G. iollowmg the Imperial Conference precedent, Sir Edward Grey, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, will discuss the foreign situation with .Mr. Borden, the Canadian Premier,

A GREAT IMPERIAL HIGHWAY. nr 1 ?! f> y ?°, ta V 10 , nTHol e in the "Daily Mail." Admiral Mahan stated-- * Iho seouritv of the British Empire, taken as a whole with many parts deinrfl! US * h ° corl "*-stone of the fabric; and, .second, the security of each of the nSKi* ? Ms mKuls ' substantially Z£*f h ? n u oh In pon '°f ' f not >n •■presence, of tho communications -between tho control kmgdoin and tho Dominions, in tho present condition of Europe the creation of the German Fleet, with" its existing-..and proposed development; MS necessitated.the concentration m'Bril tish waters of more than four-fifths of the disposable British "battle force. These facts constitute Germany tho immediate antagonist ot Great Britain. I do not say tor-a moment that this manifests Germany 8 purpose; I simply state the niilitary and international fact without inferonce as to motives." The British Navy to-day has in great .degree abandoned the Mediterranean. Over four-fifths of tlio battleship force is fm W Tr $ m( > Wd "Atlantic divisions, Iho Mediterranean has fallen from eleven battleships in 189 Pto six in 1910, and K 8 . 1 a f, a of distinctly inferior power. rP at - ls . n tlle s'emficanee 0 f this fact? J.he significance, as-Tead by an outsider, is that in tho opinion of tlio Government, under present conditions of preparation, the security of tlio Britisb. Islands requires tho weakening, almost to abandonment, of tho most delicate, yet very es. I seutial, link in the system of communications of the Empire. The concentration of the;'battle fleet in homo waters is correct; the relative abandonment of tho Mediterranean for that purpose, if for the moment only, is likewise correct, especially as the "Atlantic" fleet may bo considored tin intermediate body, a reserve, able to move eastward or southward as conditions require; but the olear reluctance to acquiesce in present naval requirements is ominous of a day wTion tho Mediterranean mav pass out of the sphere of British influence, centred round tho British Islands exclusively. This will symbolise, if it does not at onco •accompany, the passing of tho Empire; for a hostile force in the Mediterranean controls not only an interior line—as compared with the -Cape rpute—but an inferior position, from which it is operative against tho Atlantic as well as in the East. ' ' ■ .

, It is- difficult to overstate the effect of this upon tho solidify of the Empire,'for the Mediterranean is, one of tho great central positions of the maritime world, A weakened Mediterranean force ia the symptom that neither as principal nor as ally mar Great Britain be able to play the part hitherto assumed by hor in the great drama of which the awakening of tho East is the .present act; while among the dramatis porsonae are Egypt, India, Australia, and New Zealand. "