The Daily News. FRIDAY, MAY 17, 1912. UNGERMINATING SEED.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 275, 17 May 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, MAY 17, 1912. UNGERMINATING SEED.

There does not seem to be any likelihood of an agreinent being reached between Britain and Germany to call a halt in the insane competition for armaments. Wednesday's cables told us that the Reichstag had passed the Navy Bill, the Socialists alone opposing it, and how comes news that the First Lord of the British Admiralty (Mr. Winston Churchill) proposes bringing down supplementary estimates to meet the new condition created by Germany's extra naval expenditure. The olive branch held out by the British Government, per Lord Haldane, has been without result, except to make the Germans more suspicious of Britain and more determined to build a navy strong enough to enable her to try conclusions with the world's strongest naval power. Anyone who wants to see what Germans think of Britain could do no better than to order a bookseller to send him everything which appears on Anglo-German relations during a given month. Judging by what a Berlin writer to the London Spectator says, one would be surprised at the amount and at the uniformly "educative" note of the literature. The writer, without making any special search and no doubt missing many, came across ten works issued during the one month; all of them he describes in detail, but their general tendency is the same. It is that Great Britain is determined to destroy Germany; that the way to meet the peril is to arm more strongly on sea and land ; and that the German public must be impressed with the peril, and must call for a patriotic policy should the Government fail in its patriotic duty. The best of these books is the Navy League's "Deutachland sei Wach!" It is an admirable compendium of British and of world history as seen by a Navy League, and deals forcibly with the rise of British supremacy at sea; the growth of Germany's world-interests and worldclaims; the impracticability of compulsory arbitration and of disarmament and other matters of weight; and also lays down a general armament policy for the Imperial Government. The Navy League historian warns Germany that owing to the enmity of Austria and Italy she must be prepared to face alone the navies and armies of France, Russia and Great Britain, and that it is on that basis that she must arm. In particular Germany must be strong enough at sea to prevent a British army descent. The pamphlet by "Look Out" is interesting for the data which it marshals against the belief that active ship-building does not improve Germany's position relatively towards England. , "Look Out" is sure of the contrary. lie calculates that in 180S (the German Navy stood to the British I in the relation of 1: 6.3; that in 1900 the. disparity was only 1:4.8; in 1901, 1: 3.5;

in 1006, 1:2.0; in 1911, 1:2.5; and in 1912, 1: 2.1; so that from being six times the stronger Great Britain is now only twice as strong. Ami "Look Out" is sure that, despite British assurances, the two-to-ono standard is doomed. He foresees ' a time when Germany will possess sixty Dreadnoughts (thirty-eight only are pro■iled by present legislation), and predicts that when that stage is reached England will not have either men or money to maintain the necessary 120. The views of the authors of "England unci Deutschland" are substantially the same. "A Sea Officer" warns his countrymen that Britain will deal with Germany as unceremoniously as she dealt with past rivals; Baron von Mackay citeg Immanuel Kant as to the turpitude of British policy; Professor Schaefer reasons that battalions are wanted as well as Dreadnoughts, and asks: "Why should we not impose a two-Power standard on land as England has done at sea?" Rear-Admiral Stiege recommends "the adoption of an unscrupulous aggressive," which means, he explains, that "when, John Bull is reading the next speech of a Lloyd George in the Times he must hear the thunder of German guns in the Thames." And Professor Wagner—who is indeed an excellent authority—says that Germany can bear the cost of the needed armaments, a cost relatively lower than was borne for national defence in the past by the poor Prussian State. A brochure, "John Bull und Wir," predicts the continuance of the existing Anglo-German antagonism and stands for armaments as "the only peace policy which we can pursue." Dr. Hartmami also wants the army and navy made "as strong as possible," but he admits that it is no German interest to overthrow the British Empire, which treats other nations so well in the matters of commerce. Count Gersdorff is frankly anti-British. He believes in the aggressive character of the Anglo-French entente; believes even that we sent Italy to Tripoli "in order to destroy Germany's predominance in Turkey and in all Moslem lands"; and he consoles himself with the belief—probably well founded—that at present the German public stands solidly for armaments. Objectively regarded, this educative literature seems to have little substance. But it is a symptom of growing anti-British sentiment in the German people. It is not a new thing that professional agitators should bombard the public with incitements to patriotic sacrifice. But many of these publications have humbler origin. When every other educated citizen who can handle a pen thinks it his duty to appeal for fur- !» ther armaments against Great Britain the seed cast by Lord Haldane in Berlin cannot have fallen on very favorable ground,