NAVAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 1 September 1909, Page 88

NAVAL NOTES.

Contributed by the Navy League (Otago Branch.) A CHAT ABOUT GERMANY. " Did ye see anything in th' pa-apera this morrin' about Germany invadln' Eng1 land?" aeked Mr Dooley. I "D'ye think they'll have a war?" asked | Mr Hen»fssy. "Ye can't tell," ©aid Mr Dooley. " They won't if they're not afraid iv each other. But ye can't tell what a proud nation will do whin it's scared to death." — F. P. Dunne ("Mr Dooley"), on England and Germary. ' The Challenge. What grouaid is there for the suspicion co widespread in England against Gerii.any. and for the imputations to German-y ol evil intentions towards England? Speaking for myself, and making full use of such opportunities for accurate information as I have enjoyed, I cay, with the utmost emphasis and with entire .sincerity, that I do not believe there is any ground whatever for those suspicions or for those imputations. Nor has adequate ground for them been given by any responsible person. — President Butler, of" Columbia University, at tihe Arbitration Conference, Mohonk, New York, U.S.A. ! The Answer. "The Tr^ent of Neptune must be in our- hands." — The German Emperor, speaking at Cologne. The declared object of the German Navy Bill cif 1900, -ras sef forth in the preamble of the bill, was to render a war "against the mightiest, eea Power 6uch as to involve risks threatening the supremacy of that Popper." Th© German people are behind their Empeior. Karl Blind just before his death wrote fch-t if Germany were a republic ' her naval policy would be the same* So far as I am aware, no book and no newspaper has hitherto revealed a fact that Mr His] am discloses on page 75. He shall speak for himself: — "Briefly, the British Governim >at, by those means which are always open to the Power ready to pay for information, came into possession of a matured scheme for the invasion of this country which had not only been submitted to the German Government, but had beeii adopted as a plan of campaign that could be put into operation at almost " any moment with the minimum of ostentation and the maximum probability of success." — Arnold White, Daily Chronicle. I have recently received a letter from a prominent local Presbyterian enclosing an illustration of en© of the money boxes used by the German Navy League in the restaurants, schools, and other public places throughout Germany, being in the form ot a miniature warship aJ*d containing the following inscription (in German) r—^Grve your pennies quickly in order that we may the sooner smash the perfidious Englander.'* — Mr Cecil W. Palmer, hon. sec. Wellington Branch Navy League, in a- letter to Evening Post. Another American Opinion. As between men. we all know that America does not like England and that Americans do not like the English, but no intelligent American, no American indeed whose opinion is worth a fig, would rejoice to see this nation, which has taught the nations of the world the greatest lesson since Christianity, and that is the lesson of law and order and liberty, lose her grip. We, too, are of the Saxon breed, diluted though the blood may be, wad we have our problems and our tasks, and both would be made harder should English civilisation prove a failure. — From Price Collier's "England and the English from an American Point of View." An Englishman's View. "It must be left to those men in each Dominion ,vho are in sympathy with the Imperial idea to see to it that no petty cbjecioris, no narrow particularism x>r antiquated prejudice — above all, no local party ; bickerings — are allowed to prevent their country from taking an honourable part in upholding tho security and prestige of the British Empire." — Lord Milner. A Warning Voice. Eat-1 Cawdor, who was First Lord of the Admiralty in Mr Balfour's Cabinet, laid down a naval programme* which, critics affirm, had it been lived up to, would have maintained British supremacy in Dreadnoughts and have effectually prevented any- I thing in the nature of a panic. A change i of Government pledged to retrenchment and economy led to the discharge of thou- , sands of skilled workmen from the Wool- ] wich yards, and gave Germany a uniquechance to statt, as far as Dreadnoughts -are concerned*, -on equal terms with Great Britain. Writing on this phase of the i question, the editor of the Naval Annual { says : '* We are falling behind owing to the fact that the- shipbuilding programme was unduly out down lust year. We have leeway to make up, and the Dominions overseas have patriotically ghen us the opportunity for doing so. New Zealand and Australia have offered to present battleships to the Imperial navy. It is to be hoped that Canada will follow suit. If these offers were accepted, and the liattleships offered were laid down at once, and if the Cawdor programme of new construction — which ought never to hav<» been abandoned — were steadily adhered to for the next two years, we shouM have in 1914 the number of ships of the largest class which Lord Charles Beresford considers necessary, and there would be no just cause for a continuance of alarm as to our naval position in the immediate future." What LorJ Cawdor Thinks. Speaking at York one day early in July, Lord Cawdor had something to say on the present situation. Whether men accept his view or not, it is at least an honest one, and, though contrary to the unqualified dictum of the president of the American Arbitration Conference, it is also accented by largv numbers of Britons the world over. His Lordship said: "The navy had never been, and he hoped never would be —arid certainly never should be as far as he could help it, — a party question. Our navy was one of defence, but a navy of defence could only be efficient when it was capable of attack as well. We are safe to-day," he said; " we are safe for a short time hence; but, believe me — I say thi3 because I belie\e it to be absolutely true, — if the people of this country and the Government of this country do not put their shoulders to the wheel " at once, if they do not put their hand fr\ the plough, if they do not begin to build ships at once, there will be a time within the next two or three years when you will be holding this country not by your right arm, but at the forbearance of a foreign country. Had all the manhood gone

out of this country that we should be haffg ing ana thinking. and wondering what an* , other country was going to do: Had we not 'got our own Tight hands 'and our own right arms?- (Applause.) The navy was short in destroyers and cruisers, and from the informilion which reached him short in stores, in coal, and in ammunition, although he could not pledge himself as to the last-named itemj. There was po need for panic, but there was need for something besides words." A Submarine Dreadnought. A few years ago the Holland submarine was adopted by England, and was continually improved on and enlarged, until today it is an enormously powerful vessel — a veritable submarine Dreadnought. Big guns and little guns are alike useless against these '* hit-below-the-belt " weapons of wholesale destruction, and a fleet of 20,000-ton Dreadnoughts in thn act of bombarding a town could, in spite of torpedonets, be destroyed by them piecemeal, the submarines being in absolute safety so long as they kept a few feet of water over them and did not run foul of a floating mine. They carry no guns, of course, being? arm.'jd only with torpedo-tubes -and Wttitebead torpedoes. Their real value in tfotu'al V'arfare has yet to be tested, but it is not difficult to imagine the , moral ■ effect on a \ battleship's crew when it is known that submarines arc in the neighbourhood. \ "Mr Dooley Sums Up. Two : near^ neighbours are building against each oiher in the strength and number of thoir vfeanons. of naval destruction. That is self-evident ; but whether, in an unlookedfor moment. *ach will launch his own .against those of the other depends not so "much on the will or the desire of any Government or Kaiser as upon the people themselves To quoto Mr Dooley :~" lt'a like havin' a life-long inimy sleepm' in th' same room with ye. Annything he does ye take fV a threat, an' ye're lookin' f'r him to -go to sloop an' give ye a chance to kill him. I'd nivir be comfortable a miiiyit if I lived in Europe. Supposin' Saint Joe Mitchigau was our deadly inimy an' 'spoke a language di^'rent frm ours an' was jealous iv our thrade with Sheboygan an* Fonjewlac, an' had. a navy that was liable to sail over army afthernoon an' dhrop a bullet as big as a thrunk into our cup iv malt as we, sot here playin' forty-fives, d'ye suppose I wudden's be onaisy an' be oallin on ye as a heart iv oak. to sthrike with ye'er shovel home? I wud so, brave man that I am. But, here I set with three thousand miles iv dhrownin' wather, mountain peak.«, rivers, swamps, barbed-wire fences, bad hotels, an* millyons iv inthrepi<*> youth between me an' harm, an' I yell defiance to th' crownded heads iv Europe." All of nhich in difficult to reconcile with the confident cocksureness of President Butler, of the Columbia University.