Sir Charles Dilke and Lord Brassey.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 286, 1 August 1888, Page 6

Sir Charles Dilke and Lord Brassey.

An article by Sir Charles Dilke on ' The State of Europe and the Position ot England ' appears in the first number ot the " Universal Keview." The writer supports the view that there is a real danger ot England having to light Russia and France together, and .°ays in the course of his paper : — 'Supposing that our na-\y is, as &eems generally admitted, 30 or 40 per cent, stronger than that oi France, and about equal to a combination of those of France and Russia, our ocean trade being enor mously great, I must agree witli JLord Brassey that there ought not to be room for much reduction of the expenditure upon the navy. Yet, as Lord Brassey show?, while improved administration counts for something, the chief reductions of the last two years represent a diminished purchase of ships. We have ceased to lay t down a single ironclad, but Russia is rapidly constructing them ; andin faceof theinventionof shells carrying high explosives which can be fired from quick-firing guns, we may have to return to a system ot complete armour. "Our available supply of heavy breechloaders" is pronounced "lamentably insufficient," and we are told that we have to face a large expenditure to bring our store of guns for service afloat and ashore to a level with our requirements. Yet at the same, in face ot these v» arnings, which it is impossible for the experts to pronounce not justified, we are attempting to decrease our estimates instead of trying to spend the money to a greater advantage than we have done in the past. Although our naval requirements have become enormously greater now than they were 28 years ago, we are spending only about the same money upon effective service that we were spending in 1860 and 1861. We may have been extravagant then, but it certainly looks as though we were trying to save money in the wrong place now. '

Modern Agnosticism. — Judge: Do you know where you will go to, little boy, if you swear to what is not true ? Boy : No ; nor you neither.