The Daily News. FRIDAY, JANUARY 28. THE TERROR THAT LIES ON EUROPE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 300, 28 January 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, JANUARY 28. THE TERROR THAT LIES ON EUROPE.

A rather remarkable article on tlie European situation appears in a recent issue of "World's Work." It is written by Mr. E. Alexander Powell, F.R.G.S. He examines the reasons, the inside reasons, the occult reasons for Germany's hatred of England and England's fear of Germany, why the shipyards on the Clyde and the Elbe are working uay [ and night. "When dinner is over in | the wardroom of every German warship," says Mr. Powell, "an officer rises in his place at the end of the table, and the mess, blue-coated and brass-but-toned, rises with him, as a single man. 'Der Tag,' says the officer, solemnly, as he lifts his glass, and "Der Tag,' repeat his fellows, their drained glasses tinkling in chorus. Whether riding at anchor in the harbors of Kiel or Bremerhaven, whether cruising off the Camcroons or the Carolines, that is the Teuton navy toast, just those two words 'The Day,' that Day when war is declared and German and Briton spring at each other's throats." It is as curious as it is complex, this international tension which menaces the peace of the world. Mr. Powell says that five men—King Edward, Monsieur Isvolsky, William liohenzollern, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and Cardinal Merry del Val—comprise 'Europe'; I these -five and no more. There used to be two others, but one of them, Von Bulow r by name, has passed into that realm of obscurity from which few statesmen return, and the other, the most sinister figure of them all, is a prisoner in a >Salonikan villa. "To-day all Europe is divided into two armed camps, waiting breathlessly for the morrow with its Armageddon. At the head of one party, the more warlike and aggressive of the two, stands the German Michael, and ranged beside him is Aus-tria-Hungary and, perhaps, the regenerated Turkey, in spite of English loans and French sympathy. England is the leader of the other 'party, and behind her, though with no particular enthusiasm, march disrupted France and bankrupt Russia, with Portugal and Spain thrown in to make good measure. Italy, by virtue of the Triple Alliance, is theoretically an ally of Germany and Austria, but as a matter of fact she is in deadly fear of that fleet which Austria is building with such frantic haste in her Adriatic shipyards. So I rather think that when it comes to forming in battle array will go over to England. "There are three causes for the AngloGerman situation to-day: (1) isolation, (2) protection, (3) expansion. There you have it in a nutshell. Germany, it should tie understood, labors under an obsession that slie is in the toils of a vast diplomatic intrigue, in which England is the moving spirit, which is gradually isolating her, hemming her in. She points to the Anglo-French entente, to the Anglo-Russian rapprochement, to the Anglo-Italian understanding, to the Anglo-Spanish marriage, to the AngloPortuguese treaty, to the Anglo-Japan-ese alliance, to Anglo-Turkish sympathy, to Anglo-American kinship, and she asks, not unnaturally, 'But where do I come in?' It is for all the world like a school bully who bullied his companions so long that they became tired of playing with him and left him out of their games entirely. This is what the German bully calls isolation, so he is going about among his European companions, shaking his fist under their noses and saying, 'lf you don't take me back into your games I'll lick the stuffing out of you.' And as he insists that little Johnnie Bull was the boy who planned the scheme of isolating him, he is going to wallop little Johnnie first. "And Germany lias grave reasons for her ill-feelings. She points to the arrangements between England and France, which have opened up Morocco to French 'penetration.'—though Germany claims interests there herself —and have tightened England's grasp on Egypt; to the Anglo-Russian condominium which has divided Persia into spheres of influence—although Germany is herself rushing a railway to the Persian Gulf; to the arrangement between Great Britain, France, Russia, and Japan to guard the status quo in the Far East, in which Germany was not even consulted, although she considers herself, by virtue of her annexation of Kiao-chow, a Far Eastern Power. Now, it is this very policy of ignoring her that Germany most 'bitterly resents. Her aim is to place herself in a position where her approval and consent must be obtained before any treaties are signed, any coalitions formed, any alliances concluded, before any annexations or protectorates or spheres of influence arc made by any European nations. Tin simpler words, and those once used by the Kaiser himself, nothing shall happen In the world without Germany. Therein you have the German policy, -her): and sharp.

-Lot lis look at the situation tww through the British monocle. Tim foreign ]iolic3 r of England is summed up in tin; old motto 'What we have we'll hold,' and the afterthought is 'lf wo ('.'in.' And there comes the rub. Every thinking Englishman is convinced that nprmnny meditates a sudden attack on Knglnnd. and when the attack comes, us it surely will, Britain's only hope of salvation lies in her lleet. That is why the TiritHi shipyards and arsenals are ringing, day ami night, with the clank of tools: why every increase in the npn»:m Naval Tsud:'ot is met bv a cor-

responding increase by the Lords of the

Admiralty; why the British taxpayer fumes and gruuiules, but still his income tax of thirteen pence in the pound. We do not even faintly realise the cost of this desperate struggle for naval supremacy. It is staggering. This year the British naval estimates call for an expenditure of £10,000,000, and Germany spends more. There can be but one end to a race which is impoverishing both nations, and that end is war. If England wins she will have secured herself for half a century to come. If Germany triumphs, her victory will give her the position which England holds now, it will make Ikt mistress of Europe, it will place her in a position where she can make free trade in England one of the terms of peace, it will give her a free hand in the Balkans, in Mesopotamia, and in Persia, will give her the pick of England's colonies oversea, and a billion dollars indemnity with which to build a navy that will overawe the world. "If England's battleship bulwarks hold, then all is well, but if her fleets are out manoeuvred, or meet with disaster in battle, then the game is lost. 'The world has moved since Napoleon's day: the invasion 0 f England J»y a Continental Power is not as formidable as it seemed in other centuries. A famous British general oilce sajd, "There are seventeen different ways by wincn a German army might get into England, but no single way by which they could get out again': to which the German General Staff will add, 'But we don't want to get out again.'

The writer continues: "All tilings considered, I think that England has good cause to lie awake o' nights. Twice has the Kaiser declared in public that the future of Germany lies on the sea. Repeatedly has Germany refused to discuss her vast armaments, or to give any reasons for the frantic haste with which they are being increased; the whole of her shipbuilding yards are engaged in an unparalleled scheme of naval construction; scores of her leading writers make no secret of her intentions; history has shown that on previous occasions she lias made unprovoked and sudden attacks on other nations, and, most significant of all, the coal-carrying capacity of the ships she is building .so hurriedly, and which, she insists, are designed solely for the protection of her trade routes, limits their radius "of action to the North Sea. There is the disquieting fact. It is not that Germany is building a new fleet which disquiets England, but the conviction that she is building it against her. It is not the British armaments which incite the Germans to emulation, so much as the new British policy of concentrating their fleet within striking distance of the German coast. The Germans will tell you that they aim at constructing such a fleet that even the strongest naval Power will not venture to attack them without grave risk to itself. The English will tell you that their aim is to prevent Germany from acquiring a predominance in Europe—and that is precisely what Germany is determined to do. "'Austria has no navy.' There, my friends, you are mistaken. Because Austria has not been a sea-power in the past is no sign that she is not going to be one in the future. You are not aware that within two years Austria I will have available thirteen of the most ■powerful 'battleships in the world? And | do you appreciate that these thirteen ! battleships will be at the service of Germany? And do you appreciate what ! such au Austrian fleet can do in' the ■ Mediterranean, with no force to hold it in cheek? It would have Malta, Cyprus, ; and Egypt at its mercy. Austria would | not find the slightest difficulty in de- ! spa telling an expeditionary force to any I of these points, and once in control of j Egypt, and dominating the Suez Canal, I she could despatch her smaller ships to ' attack commerce proceeding by the | Cape route to India. Thus, it is clear j that in case of war a powerful British I fleet must be stationed in the Mediter- ' ranean, unless the British people are prepared to see their commerce deI stroyed, their communications with the | Eflst interrupted, their fortresses in the I Mediterranean one by one attacked and j captured, and staggering blows struck j in every quarter against their Empire. "And now we come to the strangest part of all this complex tale. With the ! aid of Austrian battleships and bayonets | the German War Lord might well look j for success in a war with England. But | with those .same battleships and | bayonets against him he would certam--Ily be lost. For Germany or against •her? That is the question that Austria has to decide. life will not be dej cided for her by the old Emperor, tot- , tering under his weight of fourscore I years, for his breath of death is already | on his face, and the physicians say he j may not live out the year. Not by Von Aehrenthal, that Foreign Minister who ! sprang to fame in a single night, for he ; is but a puppet in the hands of a more daring, more far-seeing, more ambitious : man—and that man's name is Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and ; heir to the dual throne, j "In Franz Ferdinand yon have before ; you one of the most remarkable, as he j is one of the mos tmysterions figures in the Europe of to-day. Forty-six years I old, a student, a thinker, horticulture ! his only hobby, married morganatically jto the Countess Sophie Chotek—there you have all that a curious world has j learned about him. But, above all else, jho is a cleric of the clericals. If lie had j not been born an archduke he would j have been a Jesuit. Whether Austria i throws in her lot with Protestant GerI many, whether she goes to war with I Catholic Italy, or France, whether she gives her assistance to her ancient ally, England, depends ultimately on the ; subtle and brilliant diplomats who direct the destinies of the Ihurch of Rome. What they suggest, that will Franz Ferdinand do. And now I have shown you, as best I could, the real ! European situation of to-dav. Out of I tlie nick two figures stand forth sharp j and clear: William of Hohenzoliern, I pompous, theatrical, ambitious, and | Franz Ferdinand of IJapsbursr. silent, crafty, and pious. Was ever a more j ill-mated pair? But between them lies | the fate of Europe."