The Daily News. TUESDAY, JULY 19. INSANE COMPETITION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 85, 19 July 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, JULY 19. INSANE COMPETITION.

Mr. Lloyd-George has mentioned that » ' he ,nsa„e competition of the Powers tbeat e ae h other in the weight of engines' odestruetiou a Sllm of four hundred and Mty nnll.on pounds sterling is sunk i» bu.ld.ng every year. The vessels have to he pai.l for in soli(1 cash; am , much cash is required mav be mor( . read, y understood when it ia'stated that he above sum represents approximately four thousand five hundred million tons of sovereign*. That is to snv, for <letn.et.ve purposes infinitely more cash is expended than for the food and general upkeep of the people of the Powers concerned. The general indisposition of the nations to agree oo a course that would minimise the enormous waste of cash on unproductive building is a reason whyit will continue until the burden becomes too great to bear and the people who foot the bills revolt at the imposition. That they will eventually revolt there can be no question, unless the natioiu agree by arbitrament to decide questions of international importance. There are fashions in warship-building just as there are fashions in hats and trousers, and during the past few years the particular fashion has been to build increasingly large and, of course, more expensive warships. As the ship of the Dreadnought type has never been given an opportunity of showing what it can do as a destructive agent, the leviathans are only supdeadly. There is, indeed, nothing to show that a fleet of Dreadnoughts with their attendant "terrier" type of ship could accomplish a greater result than was achieved by the u<vlv Muff timber vessels that Nelson usld, but it seems likely that one Dreadnought represents a greater cash value than t.v whole- of the great Admiral's fleet. The fact that a Dreadnought is more easily s.nkable than a Victory is a premise that when the modern ships are used for the only purpose for which they were huilt the loss in lives and cash will be appalling. A couple of months ago the ' , French fleet manoeuvred. In the mimic ; war it was proved that four huge ships -each costing as much as a Dread-' nought, the usual price of which is two , mill.on pounds sterling-could have been 1 sunk by submarines. In the space of a few hours, therefore, damage to the I extent of eight million pounds sterling could have been done, and enough men to people a fair-sized town would have been drowned, scalded to death, torn to 1 P'eces, or otherwise disposed of. Colonel Arthur Repington, in the last number of Blackwood," remarks that in the event of a conflict between Great Britain and . Germany the narrow waters of the! North Sea and the English Channel would become practically closed on the outbreak, of war, and possibly throughout the war, to the operations of seagoing fleets and cruisers. Torpedo craft of various types and floating mines would reproduce, on an exaggerated scale, the conditions that prevailed in the China iSea during the struggle between Russia and Japan. "Our great and costly battleships, and cruisers," he l writes, "mm* in time of war be stowed awav m some distant safe and secluded anchora<re-Scapa Flow and Portsmouth to-day, Berehaven and Lough Swilly perhaps to-morrow. The North Sea in time of war will be a desert of waters, in-1 secure to both sides, open to neither commanded by none." Mr. Arnold White who was one of the first men to advocate the Dreadnought type, will not allow that the battleships can find safetv in port. He believes that the submarine contrary to the earlier opinion of the naval authorities, is the weapon of the stronger Power. Enemies' harbors can be "drawn like a rabbit-hole bv the keeper's- dog." Victory will rest with the (Power possessed of the personnel that is the more willing to die-that is, the more skilful in the use of the terrier craft-and that has available the larger number and the better quality of torpedo emit "Is it true," he asks, "that neither the North Sea nor the Channel is a proper place for a well-conducted Dreadnought until the small craft are sunk and the enemy's mines lifted? I gather that it is actually a fact that there is no intention whatever of repeating the tragedy of Port Arthur, when the Russian fleet was irreparably crippled by torpedo craft before war was, declared. Not a Dreadnought will show her nose to the enemy's mines and submarines." Whatever happens when the leviathans and the lesser fry meet, it is certain that the defeated nation will suffer as no nation has ever suffered before. A naval war and the supremacy of the sea might be decided in a few days or even a few hours, and when all is said and done a decisive engagement might be less expensive for the Power than the enormous yearly drain on the pockets of the people. We believe th.it the result of the next great naval war will rest, as heretofore, not with the machine, but with the man, and that the men who count in the matter of naval warfare are silent as to their real ideas and plans for the future. The discussion of naval armaments is largely a matter for people not of the navy. The supreme heads do not advertise; they are not offended when newspaper critics suggest that they are fools, and the policy is never altered because "Paterfamilias" or . "A Constant Reader" writes to the Daily Mail. The points for the citizen are that he gains no real advantage from the insane competition of the nations, that he is being increasingly robbed year ' after year for unreproduetive works, 'that the enormous sums being spent in ' great warships may be absolutely wasted ; ,as soon as a now naval idea is put into ' operation, that if the pride of the na- ' tions permitted it the building programme could be curtailed almost im'mediatclv. and the huge sums being expended could be used for greater pur-

poses than for making destructive ma■bines. As in actual lighting the man is the prime essential, so now is the n:;m necessary who will have the resolution, courage, and genius to undertake an international campaign for the cessation of warship-building. The man who achievos such a result will lie the greatest ■henefacior of modern times.