GERMANY AND ENGLAND

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 332, 7 March 1910, Page 5

GERMANY AND ENGLAND

Will. GERMANY ATTACK EXGI.AXDT PREPARATIONS IX THE FATHERLAX D. (By Arnold M. White, in "Answers.") Russia is stunned. Thirty years ol peace, education, and development are essential to her existence as a Great Power. Her navy is gone, and cannot be replaced with any number ol roubles, beear.-e tradi'.ioiis of discipline, sea aptitude, and u maritime population are indispensable ingredients in the making of an efficient navy, Russia will give Germany no trouble for a generation. As to France, Germany is at ease. Race suicide has driven Franco into the arms of her hereditary foe, England. Since Tsushima, the British Fleet alone has kept German Grenadiers out of Paris. France asks for nothing better than to be let alone. She is now a secendelass Power, inevitably doomed in a new struggle with Germany. France, moreover, taught Bismarck and his Imperial pupil, Wilhelm 11., that if England is to be defeated the would-be master of Europe must concentrate his whole forces on her subjugation, not dissipate them by engaging in other wars concurrently with the struggle with England. The lessons from French and Spanish history have been intelligently absorbed ny the rulers of Germany. For thirtynine years they have improved their army, created a splendid navy, and* kept the peace. Die conditions essential to a successful attack on England now exist, for England herself is unconscious! of her danger, and, s'o far irom strengtnening Jier military position, nas abolished her old constitutional force—tie Militia.

Another point that, weigh? with Germany in her contemplated attack on England is the conduct of the Loer War. The subject is not a pleasant one; but ' the fact of over a hundred surrenders of our troops to the Boers—more especially tho .surrender at Nicholson's Nek—confirmed German public opinion in its' belief that what they call our "mercenary army" is not an army that can face tho Kaiser's troops. As all military authorities kiiow, there are no finer troops In Europe tliau those in our Aldershot command; but tho Germans, all ot whom are soldiers, look upon our small striking force with amusement, now that it is tethered to these slhores, and on our Territorials with contempt. Germans hold the op'nion—which is also shared by the Kaiser—that never in the history of the worid h.'.ve magliiiicemt opportunities been so neglected as England has neglected hers. In German hands the British inheritance will be developed The German Emperor is the eldest child of Queeji Victoria's eldest child. It is significant that his Majesty has never been crowned. For what is he waiting? His grandfather was erpwned Emperor at Versailles. Can it be that he waits for the time when he is, ib fact, Admiral of the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Indian Seas, to be orowned as King of Neue Deutchland—"the United Kingdom"—in Westminster Abbey? If the rulers' of Germany contemplate an attack on England, they are encouraged no less by the magnificent organisation for war at their own disposal than by the aversion of the English people from all thought of serious preparation for war. At the Peace Conference in London, the Rev. Dr. Horton, a Nonconformist divine of great learning and eloquence, who has au enormous following among the middle classes, used these words': "It was the function of a Christian state, whenever it became really Christian, to act on the mighty principle of peace and love which could conciliate the world, not by being prepared for war, but by frankly not being "prenared, and by making it plain that, as a country, it had decided to suffer rather than to fight, or even to contemplate light." Dr. Ilorton's teaching on subject, of patriotism finds 110 parallel among the Germans. Defence of the Fatherland is an integral part of the Teuton's religion, and he is taught in season and out of s'eason by his Pan-Germanic League and his Navy League that England intends to attack Germany. When war comes Germans will regard it as a war of defence, because successful defence is only strategically possible by Sudden, successful, and repeated attackPreparations' for the blow may be seen by all wiho visit Emden and its vieinitv. A little Fresinn town is fitted up with all'the apparatus for sudden and crushing attack on England. Military canals enable the Commander-in-Chief secretly to assemble in an inner harbor as many torpedo-boats as are necessary. Front Borkum Light it is only nine hours? steaming to England at twenty knots. As I write these words I receive a letter from an English correspondent ia Germany who knows all about the German preparations. He savss "1 saw in Bremeritaven wenty large. North-Gorman Lloyd bo-if* lying up there. For a short trip thi - - could carry at least sixty thousand troops with case."