GUARANTEE OF PEACE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 100, 16 April 1908, Page 2

GUARANTEE OF PEACE

PREPAREDNESS FOll WAR. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S MESSAGE. MORE BATTLESHIPS WANTED. Received April 15, 9.37 p.m. JNew York, April l->. President Roosevelt's message urging '(ingress to provide four battleships ot h e largest type immediately remarks hat China oil'ered an example of peace :t any price, while Britain's naval policy night to be emulated. The Hague Conference showed tlw lations were unable to agree to limit heir naval armaments, and arbitration ,vns mi ineffective remedy if not utilised .0 the fullest extent. While disclaiming any intention to imgage in a war of conquest, President Roosevelt states that America can ill afford to relapse into a position where insult must be borne in silence. If she built only two battleships a vear, America would go baeku aid 'in naval rank and relative power among the "l'eat nations, which would be unwise if she fronted merely one ocean, and doubly unwise when she fronted two. Neither arbitration or any other device (continued the message) can prevent the gravest and most terrible wrong to peoples who lost the capacity of self-defence. . . If America desired to avoid insult, sh e must be able to repel it. If alio desired peace, she must at all times be ready for war.