WHEN GERMANY WILL STRIKE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 146, 7 November 1912, Page 7

WHEN GERMANY WILL STRIKE.

WARNING BY LORD ROBERTS. ■ The following cable from London appeared in the Svdncy Sun on October 22: Speaking in Manchester yesterday at a meeting in support of national mili-; tary service, Lord Roberts said:—"ln i 1912, as in 1886 and 1-870, war will take place the instant the German forces on land and sea are, by their superiority at every point, as certain of victory as anything within calculation can be made certain. Germany will strike when Germany's hour has struck. This is the time-honored policy of her Foreign Office. Germany constrains the action of Britain at the present day. The fact is, we have lost command of every sea but one '—the North Sea—and our supremacy oil that sea is now a matter of dispute. In the opinion of every practical soldier experienced in modern war, the Empire is wholly unprepared for war. As a continental Power we do not exist as far as war is concerned. Our army as a belligerent power in European politics is almost a negligible quantity. This Empire, at xtll times, is practically defenceless beyond its first line, and such an Empire invites war. Its assumed security amid the armaments of Europe, and noiv of Asia, is insolent and provocative. must possess a paramount Navy, but "we also require an Army strong enough to ensure the mobility of the Navy. Compulsory defence is the .only solution." Lord Curzon said that one feature of the situation that filled him with alarm was that the great rulers of Europe had established an international tribunal at the Hague, and had built a noble hall, but the. moment that a crisis came treaties and tribunals were alike broken. "We are faced onec more," he continued, "with the old-world solution of differences by means of the lash and con-' flict of arms." He was afraid that ii anyone visited this world from another place lie would say that we lived in an age of colossal hyprocrisy.