The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY TUESDAY, MAY 31 1910. GERMANY AGAINST BRITAIN.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 31 May 1910, Page 2

The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY TUESDAY, MAY 31 1910. GERMANY AGAINST BRITAIN.

!n the anninl r-'pnrt ol (••;•■ exccu11vc- of .till' British Navy League ■ a ropy "f which has l»£»«u forwarded to the editor of this p;ipt>T by .Mr Cecil Palmer, the secretary for Now Zealand, the following instructive reference appear regarding .the p,Tuitions occupied by Croat: lirit-'ii-i-i. jiv.;i Germany, respac-lively. in reference to maval expenditure: The naval ex jisnrlit u i e of Great Britain and Germany in the two years 1901 a.md 190S) w as follows: BRITAIN. Mxpendit nre Total ~ on new Expenditure ships vote ! e c 190-1 ... .10,-100,000 ... I.'U>oo.ooo 1909 ... 35,700,000 ... 10.200,00!) Decrease C-1,(300,000 £'3,300,000 GEIUIANY. 1904 ... 10,1000,000 ... 4,000,000 1909 ... 19,600,000 ... 10,700,000 rncrei.se €9,500,000 £>>,100,000 Tlie situation in European waters when the British and German ships el the 1910 programme are complete—and Germany, hy admission of her Ministers, can build as fast as we can ourselves—will he this:— "DrradnoiUghts" nnd super-"l)read-nonglits" : Britain, 21; Germany, 17. The British ships will mount. 202 heavy guns, and the Germain 19(5. Three years ago Germany had-not a- single slip on which a "DrtvullTOughit" could he huilt. Last year she had ■fourteen such slips completed la.nd .three under, construction. Her capacity for tunning out warships, armour plate, guns and gun mountings, has heen increased to a truly marvellous extent. Last year her vote for new construction was actulally in excess of that of Britain, and yet itliero are, unfortunately, numbers of our people, both in the country and in the oversea states, who appear to consider that Britain

can afford to keep her hands placidly folded in the belief that .she is to continue undisputed her mastery of the sea I It is also very disquieting to contemplate the fact that whereas "the membership of the German Navy League ivmv toitfcils 1.031,339, and the funds increa. c ed d'Uiinix 1S)0!) by C"2]!),i)-l(), rnnountin<! new t:> til.(> 71,!!)()" (vid<» Preps Asscscinticm eaible from .Berlin on (illi April las I), the figures cf the British .Navy League ar? hut a small fraction part of the above. Th? fund« of our Lein«;uo throughout the world do not run very far into four figures. This is a libting eo'iiniontary upoiii tlie a])athetii 1 complacency of our ]>oo.pli» a.s compared with the patriotic enthusiasm of our vigorous rivals on the ('(;!:tiin-':.! i.f Kurope. wlio Ikiv:> already surpis-wl us in their iiidu 1 :- trial d.'velojio'.ent. and udwso lalion cf 00,000,001) exceeHs by 10,000,000 the t; it a 1 while population of the l.ri'trh Empire througliout tlni world.

pi iiig ;s si!.:• does the most powerful and best-trained army in the W'.'i'H. Clermany's naval expansion undonble lly means aggression. We must oitln-r convince her, onr-e

:;!id 'for all. .{hat her U!idisgmV'"f! efforts to challenge our maritime snprema'-v are in vain, or wo shall have to face the certainty of war at no distant da.ie as the only alternative. Afiar all, it is "the man iu Ihe street" who will eventually decide whether 1 r not Britain is to have su'li 'ienb ".Dreadnoughts" :

and Rrifons .1 he world over must individual! v and collectively realise, before it is too late, that there is no more certain way of courting war than by being unprepared for attack.

The fore.ffoing figures illustrate strikingly the fact that expenditure on war preparation is advisable from many standpoints, and just as much ■from the standpoint of a peace premium insura.nce as from that of safeguarding the national interests by the powers of a fighting fleet, thoroughly fit to fight whenever desperate needs arise.