The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5. DISPELLING THE MISTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 270, 5 April 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5. DISPELLING THE MISTS.

Here is a syllogism: "Man has always fought. You are a man, therefore you will always .fight." Here is another: "War is wicked. The British Empire has been established by war. Therefore the British Empire is rooted in evil." If we submit that the methods employed during the stirring history of our race are reasonable, natural and excusable, we must also admit that similar methods used at the present day by another nation would, be equally excusable, equally natural and equally reasonable. The Empire has reached the summit of its power through the enterprise of its traders, but the Empire's, sword cut the track by which the' trader reached the summit. The .success of the British Empire is the Inspiration for all other Empires and nations. It is also the envy of them. Herr Bethmann Hollweg's recent speech is the most notable one coming from ,the lips of any European statesman during this century. The philosophy of it i.s summed up in his expression of the truism, "The weak must always be a prey to the strong." At the instigation of idealists, the British nation has been asked to believe that limitation of armaments is possible and desirable. That is to say, idealists are willing that the building of engines of destruction shall cease as long as Britain is allowed to retain a navy stronger than any combination likely to meet it. Britain says to Germany, "We have obtained all we want. We have wealth, territory, dominion. We are insular. We have vastly the most powerful navy in the world. You are hemmed in. You desire to expand beyond your borders. It is very wrong of you to seek by the means that we ourselves have always taken, to obtain those things that were necessary to our existence, but not to yours. Agree with us that we remain unassailable in our might. Give up this mad idea of seeking territory for your crowded millions. At any rate, arbitrate and don't fight. Now we have obtained nearly all we want by conquest, we shall be willing to arbitrate and give other people what they want in reason." Germany, through Hollwcg, replies without heat: "Have done with ideals and poetry and visions! Get down to facts! You make us laugh when you say, Britain is powerful and must remain so. Kindly knock off building warships in order that she may always be so.' You are entitled to aim at keeping your fleet stronger than any combination. Why suggest that it is wrong for Germany to have a similar aim?" Germany refuses to recognise the principle of setting up an international land board, whose members would be entitled to give somebody else's land away. She sticks to British systems of the past—"lf we want anything, we will take it, if possible." And so the dream of the idealists who desire the other fellow to make all the concessions are "dispelled like a mist," as it was certain thev would be. The German Chancellor has shown that it is impossible to peacefully distribute pieces of the earth to hungry nations like lollies out of a bag at a children's picnic. He has shown the childishness of the personage who, like a school boy, asserts that he is "cock of the walk" without physical demonstration. Tt may be so, of course, but assertion is not proof. "War could only arise where nntagonism had rooted itself in popular sentiment," said the Chancellor. Similarly interna"Monal arbitration could only be effective if it had its root in the wishes of the nations. Tt is not a matter of sentiment, but of selfishness. Eliminate -■' fishness and you kill war. There does not exist either an unselfish naTumTfr an unselfish individual. The person who be-

lieves that human nature is to-day what it was in the time of the Roman Conquest, must know that British people wilfully deceive themselves at the instigation of idealists. They are aware of the truth, but avoid meeting it. It is bad policy to allow the sword to rust in the scabbard because somebody says he hopes it won't be needed. Nobody is throwing away the bolt of his rifle because Mr. J. C. Watson, of New South Wales, says there is a bright prospect of 1 peace among European nations. Germany has distinctly said, "As you were!" It is the most friendly thing she could have said to Britain, for if there is any slackness of preparation—and especially in regard to the Army the evidence is all in proof of slackness—the warning may lead to a return of the national spirit. Germany flaunts her ineomparabale army in the face of Britain, whose people have not yet decided that national defence is the business of the nation—every . able-bodied man in every portion of the Empire—and not the business of a proportion of striplings. In British countries it is the fashion to pander to the people's idea of individual freedom in regard to military service. The man who cannot be persuaded to do his small bit for his country does not deserve to be free. Even in New Zealand, which was held by aggression, we have spineless persons who could not be here but for that aggression, praying the State not to teach the boys to defend their mothers and their sisters. These people do not know what war is and what a very good thing it will be for their useless selves to have somebody capable of looking after them and theirs when the hellish forces that are gathering strength break in storms of metal on the bulwarks of the Empire. It is no time for idealists or thumb-twirlers or the merely scornful. It is the time for every person in the Empire lo help dispel the mists.