Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News. TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 1909. THE NEW ZEALAND DREADNOUGHT.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4427, 22 June 1909, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News.

TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 1909. THE NEW ZEALAND DREADNOUGHT.

Ikis above all—to thine oum self be true, \nd it must follow as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

The first question that occurs to any thoughtful mind is : What caused the New Zealand Government to present a Dreadnought to the British Government ?

The Prime Minister of England sounded a note of warning in the House of Commons in the middle of last March. He said : “ Germany had given an explicit and most {distinct declaration that she did not in - tend to further accelerate her naval programmebut the Government found that she had done so. Mr Balfour, leader of the Parliamentary Opposition, the same evening said : Great Britain was facing a situation so new and dangerous that it was difficult to realise all its import.” Those statements were flashed by electric messages all over the world. They created a profound sensation in the United Kingdom and throughout all English speaking communities under the British flag. There was a vein of pathos in the remarks of the First Lord of the Admiralty on that occasion in Parliament. He said : “In case of war it would be impossible to recall cruisers from foreign stations they being necessary to keep open the highways of the sea.” The distant possessions of the Crown were in the First Lord’s mind when he spoke, and we realize vividly how hard it would go with New Zealand if Britain could not protect the Ocean highways. These things so stirred the heart of all loyal persona in the Dominion, that they wondered how they could best help the Motherland in her threatened peril. Many stood aghast at the naval crisis. While others cogitated and wondered, Sir Joseph Ward and the Government proved themselves men of action. Doubtless knowing considerably more than they could officially disclose about the German danger, they decided that the offer of a Dreadnought, and of another if required, would be the most effective way of serving Britain in the enjergeppy. Jt was characterised in London as tf New splendid audacity.” We think our GoyerPfpept Jiff quite right under the circumstances. Although technically wrong in not leaving Parliament to decide such an issue, they were morally right in cabling immediately that New Zealand would stand by the Motherland. The naval effect in the United Kingdom was very great, and it l,ed if) patriotic offers from other British Dominions.

In this Dominion there is a small section that is against the Dreadnought offer ; hut breathes there a man who has enjoyed prjpefess liberty under the Union Jack and who wiff I not now sustain the hands of oqr Government ? The very iact that ! our Motherland is threatened with a j new and dangerous situation, is for every loyal heart and jtrjfe ? pan be thought of a son grown tp maphpod wh° P a P Btand by amoved and pee Iff.s ijiptftejr’js life apff jhofiWf? jeopardised ? Yyftat oo.tffd hp thought oj£ ffiien who wo,pld not bare their breasts to hostile bjfflets apd bayonets rather than let bhejr women and children to the .dreafffril sufferings of invasion ■? Js there a Biitish resident in New Zealand who would like to exchange the Union J ack fa the German flag ? Germany’s past pi Schleswig and llolpteip, pf Austria, Rr Alsace and frpwhje, should warn ye ojf .^j ye may aspect fo the eyeut of way. It is the .opinion **£'eminent men in public and private hif o iff England that her shores ar.e habile tp jnyasjon i by Germany, wfepse payal .programme cannot bp for pe&ceftff objects. And how is it Geruiaoy gets the to build her ships anu to challenge Britain's supremacy in trade and °n the Ocean ? Because Britain sticks to her Free Trade policy, while Germany injures her with prot ( ectiye. tariffs. By insane’y holding on j to a free trade policy, while Germany can dump her manufactures free upon English markets, while British goods have to pay toll in German markets, jgngland is allowing her own artisans to be thrown out of work, and Germany to outdistance her in commercial rivalry. Free i Trade, so-called, lias degenerated into a one-sided arrangement that is unjust, unpoiitio and inexpedient, and the sooner it is rectified the ’better. A protective tariff in the whole of the j British Empire would bo one of the most potent answers to Germany’s Naval menace.