THE BRITISH NAVY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 284, 28 May 1912, Page 5

THE BRITISH NAVY

( THE FRENCH ENTENTE. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Received 28, 12.20 a.m. i London, May 27. The Times' Paris correspondent says that after Mr. Asquith and Mr. Churchill have conferred with Lord Kitchener they proceed to Bizerta, where they will be joined by the Admiral commanding at the French naval base. The visit is regarded as of special importance, with a vierw to the strategical problems which the British and Trench naval authorities ■re considering. ' Berlin, May 27. Professor Delbrueck, interviewed, said that when a statesman like Mr, Balfour cherishes such inaccurate suspicions and conceptions of the German policy, the Banger of a clash is plainly inreased. England compelled Germany to build her fleet. The Germans gradually reached ft determination not to permit a division of the world among other nations without demanding her share. Since 1871 enormous productive territories had been seized by Great Britain, France, Russia, the 'United States and Japan. The French were supreme in Morocco, Russia and England were expanding in Persia, while Japan and Russia were settling the government of Mongolia and Manchuria. That is a natural process, and Germany has no reason to oppose it, but she wants to participate in it, and therefore needs a fleet. England and the other Powers refuse to recognise Germany's natural demands for full equality in world politics. This has been proved by, the Moroccan incident. Germany answered by strenthening her' army and navy. Mr. Balfour does not believe that our armaments are not directed against colonial acquisition, and . suspects that they are for the acquirement of European territory. There are fools in Germany, obessed with the phantasy that Germany must conquer the territories of the Holv Roman Empire. Germany would meet Xapoleeon's fate if she undertook any such inconceivable Yenture. When England realises that Germany seeks only to maintain her European position and to have a fair participation when changes in colonial ownership occur, the danger of disappear. AGAINST BABY NAVIES. THE DUTY OF THE DOMINIONS. • "SPOON-FEEDING" REBUKED. London, April 3. A plain-speaking article appears in the Fortnightly from the pen of Mr. Archibald S. Hurd, who is on the editorial staff of the Daily Telegraph, and is regarded as one of the leading authorities on naval matters. The following extracts show clearly enough the importance of the article:—

"It; has been the fashion in Downing Street and at the Admiralty and War Office to treat these growing countries as spoilt children to whom th'e undiluted tjuth must seldom or never be told. When has the British Government, for instance, suggested to the Overseas Dominions, enjoying the fullest freedom compatible -with Imperial unity, that the greater part of the \ast burden of debt ■was incurred in large part in securing those favored lands in which Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans live and prosper'' When has the British Government ever had the courage to remind these citizens of the Empire Overseas of the many years during which their territories were defended by the British army stationed, at least in part, within their borders, without payment in money or kind for the service rendered? When, again, has a British Government ever reminded these Oversea Dominions of the heavy expenditure incurred for many years in the upkeep of the extra-European squadrons •which have patrolled the outer seas and defended their growing ocean-borne wealth in the past?

MAKING THE MOTHERLAND PAY.

"During the period when thqse daughter lands were grappling with the problems which face every new community, it would have been ungenerous to remind them of the price at which their freedom had been bought; but now the situation has changed. . . While they 'have been permitted to enjoy all the privileges ■which the British connection confers, and have been enabled to go about their business on the high seas in the full confidence that the British fleet is not less their defence than the defence of the people of the British Isles, the latter pay, practically unaided, for the maintenance and defence of the Imperial system. "It is in the spirit of spoon-feeding, unfair to the British taxpayer and derogatory to the dignity of self-governing countries, that the Admiralty in 1909 met the representatives of the great oversea nations. There is not a naval . officer in the British service who does aot realise that a single navy, with the concomitant unity of training and unity of command, is the reasonable and economical and sound principle upon which ] to defend the united people of a united Empire. Sea power in the Mother Country is cheap, cheaper by 30 or 40 per cent, than in Canada, Australia, New Zealand or South Africa; sea power in the Mother Country, with its teeming population, is easily created; sea power in the Mother Country reaches a high standard of efficiency, because the sea habit is an inherited instirict. . ... The motto of the responsible representatives of the British fleet at that conference appears to have been this: to be pleasant and tactful whatever might befall; to admit the/existence of a naval crisis, but not to press upon the representatives of the ■elf-governing Dominions the real solution of the crisis, lest the solution be unpalatable." NEW ZEALAND COMMENDED. Sir Joseph .Ward, Mr. Hurd says, "brushed aside the tactful reservations" of the Admiralty regarding the form in which the Dominions might care to help, and announced that the Dominion would abide by her tangible offer of Dreadnoughts. It may be assumed, he says, from recent distribution of ships, that New Zealand is prepared to make a furr ther sacrifice on behalf of the Empire. New Zealand has "set up a standard of patriotism reached iby no other daughter land. ... In the history of the world there is no more splendid illustration of devotion to a sound political and strategical ideal than the people of New Zealand by their words and acts have furnished."

Australia's '"baby navy," we are told, "does not represent as high an Imperial endeavor as has commended itself to the people of New Zealand; it contains ■within it seeds which may bear sour fruit in the future." Mr. Hurd considers Australia has no more to fear from Japan than New Zealand has, and offers a suggestion jthai Australia's Dreadnought cruiser -should also be kept in European waters as an effective reply to the new challenge. What the British navy needs is not men but ships, and the Dominions can aid in providing ships to strengthen "the metropolitan fleet."