The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2. INVASION OF CHEAT BRITAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 290, 2 December 1908, Page 2

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2. INVASION OF CHEAT BRITAIN.

Nothing but the prestige of Lord .Huberts' great name, his past services, h:.s high .sense of duty, and v his unselfish patriotism could have redeemed from prompt rejection what we are afra.a will be regarded in many quarters ns an inopportune and unwise resolution. The invasion of Ureut l>vitain by Go;*' many is no new bog'-y. Jt lias been raised in the past, and it has been resurrected more than once during the) last few months; but whenever raised it has been ignominiously llooml, or left to the attentions of the scaremongers of tile Press. \ iewed.soberly, ratio.iully, and free from national prejudice, what does the invasion theory--we cannot lleve call it a bogey, smcc Low KobeiLs has endorsed both iis probability and feasibility— amount to? The Dnncdin .Star, discussing the suhjeH, saysj—We will take Lord Roberts own presentation. He says that there u'r T always available in Comma ports enougii ; ships to convey soldiers tho North S>eaj that they eoul.i b:j eolilected without iuss or that they might be easily landed; and that tha 80,0UU Cermans who are earning an honest livelihood in Meat .biv taia as clerks, barbers, waiters, musicians, and such lUe would gather U»gellier to lielp tnem; iiiid 1.11:1 c \uuui --

Candidly, we are not convinced. ' U " want to know, or, rather, we wish first I to ask: \Vlull sort of government mis Ureal j.iriiain tiiat suggest.ons of this nature are even possible'! Wilcre, lor instance, is the Jintish Intelligence J>! partment'; and what would the Jintish navy be doing 111 the meantime? Two hundred thousand men —that is, four Army Corps are to be silently ami swiftly embarked from a tierman port —"in the dead vast and middle of Ui

night," apparently—and disembarked on the English coast without a soul among those most concerned knuwmg a wum about it! We simply do not believe H possible, or, if it were possible, then. England and the Empire are unworthy of their place among tile nations. There is not a newspaper ullie:.' in the Nortir ein Hemisphere that would not only know the news live minutes after t':e. first ship had left Ornian shores, Inn. some hours before she was under way. 'J It seems desirable to remind -people, Admiral Sir Cyprian liridge recently said, " that war is a two-sided ail'mr. We may therefore dismiss as unsuiiea for discussion outside of a lunatic asy luin the belief that tile British Isavy will go just where it is not wanted, and leave the coast clear to the cncim s fleet." We have already remarked thai, the invasion bogey was recently revned, and, of all people ill tile world, tne great revivalist'was Air. Blatcliford, of the Clarion. That able and militant journalist reaffirmed witli due solemnity and shaking of the head the 200,00(1 arinv of invasion story. It was a tonga story, to boot, and lie duly apologised for having used it when its. origin w.ii pointed out to him. Sir John Fish;i the First Sea Lord, at the Lord Mayor's banquet last year had, Mr. lilatcnion ' was reminded, already exposed the fal sity of his premises. Sir John tne: said: "This afternoon 1 read the effu sions of a red-hot and charmingly inter 'esting magazine editor. He had evident ly been victimised by a Punch corres

pondent, and that Punch correspondent I had been gulled by some Midshipman Easy of the Channel Fleet. And this is wlia't the magazine editor prints in italics—that an army of 100,000 German soldiers had been practising cm- ; barking 1 in the (iermnn Fleet. Tie <• absolute tnitli is that one solitary re>(i j went was embarked fur manoeuvres. i That is the truth. ... I have :io & doubt that equally silly stories are cur i rent in Germany." Lord Roberts is. ol & course, familiar with these simple facts. & The puzzle is, knowing (as he must) £ the innate improbability of a succeia- & ful and permanent lodgment on th'_* | shores of England of 200,000 German ? troops without their movements being I suspected by' the British Xavy, that He I should have committed himself to «" £ extraordinary an argument in support, 5 of his contention for an increased BriZ tisli Army. No eompotent authority questions' the wisdom of greater mrt ])rompter provision for a strong an'l % fully urged by Sir Cyprian Bridge, as % well" as by other able naval conimand%t ers, but so far they liave not baek'.a ® their arguments by an appeal to ui. 6 more than possible chance of succe-w & that would attend a German invasion. # Appeals of this kind, we cannot doubt, % are. in the words of K;ivl Crewe, open S "to grave misunderstanding abroad.