BRITISH NAVY.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9089, 7 March 1908, Page 5

BRITISH NAVY.

the kaiser and lord tweedmouth. AK ASTOUNDING' STATEMENT. Press Association— Copyright. Received March 6, 10.58 p.m. London, March 6. The Times states that the .Kaiser haS written to Lord Tweedmouth (First-Lord of the Admiralty) relative to the British and German naval policy, and asking for a reply to be despatched. It is affirmed that the Kaiser’s letter amounts to an attempt to influence in German interests the Minister responsible for the Naval Estimates. The Times urges that the letter be made public, and insists that if the complimentary title of Admiral in the British Navy can be held to warrant a foreign potentate in interfering with our domestic affairs by secret appeals to the head of a Department on which the national safety depends, it becomes an urgent necessity to abolish dynastic compliments. The Times asserts that if King Edward similarly communicated with the head of the German Naval or Military Department there would he a universal cry of anger from one end of Germany to the other, and the world would hold Germany within her rights. If the Kaiser had anything to say to Britain tending to a fair understanding about armaments, he could use the regular official channels of communicating with the British Government. No private relations with members of the Government can excuse a departure from the regular methods and recourse to private influences, to which some men are amenable when coming from an exalted quarter.

FACTS ABOUT THE LETTER. HAS THE TIMES FOUND A MARE’S NEST? Received March 7, 9.47 a.m, 'London, March 6. Lord Tweedmouth authorises the statement that the Kaiser’s letter was purely personal aud did not contain '[any reference to the British naval setimates. Further information will he given in Parliament. Lord Tweedmouth added that the letter was not addressed to him in his capacity of First Lord of the Admiralty. Lord Tweedmouth’s Secretary when interviewed stated that the letter did not contain any reference to the British naval estimates in the way suggested. The Secretary declined to say whether the letter referred to the German naval policy. The Westminster Gazette agrees in the general principle that it is inconvenient for a Sovereign to correspond with Ministers of another Power, ; but the Kaiser is unconventional and when he departs from tradition it must in no wise he assumed that he is guilty of some Machiavellian design upon the innocence or independence of his neighbour. Nothing could he more absurd than the suggestion that Lord Tweedmouth would he influenced towards economy by the Kaiser’s representations. Other newspapers ask for more light.