The Daily News. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1912. FOREIGN OUTLOOK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 150, 12 November 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1912. FOREIGN OUTLOOK.

The Ministerial addresses delivered by ; Mr. Winston Churchill and Mr. Asquith at the Lord Mayor's banquet in London fin Saturday are of a distinctly reassuring nature. Mr. Winston Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty, indicated that our Imperial relations with Germany were not such as to cause alarm. He quoted our naval competitor as being possessed of a robust mind and of a high sense of honor and fair play. He added that our relations with Germany had been steadily improving during the last year, as a result of Great Britain's steady determination to maintain her supremacy at sea. More significant still was his indication that the Government realised that the only method of making our relations with Germany "thoroughly comfortable r.nd hearty" was to go on and make our supremacy so absolutely assured that there would be no possibility of our being overtaken. With a view to achieving this purpose be indicated certain lines of reform and improvement in naval conditions that will make it possible for the Government, by next year, to bring into operation a fully-manned sixth battle squadron, thus materially increasing the Empire's margin of naval security. He was not slow to point out that the future was fraught with many untold possibilities and dangers, and that the Mother Country gratefully realised the efforts that were being made by the Dominions and the oversea colonies to strengthen her naval defence, but his speech generally was so cheerfully optimistic and. confident, in view of the European warcloud, as to materially discount the forebodings that have emanated lately from a material section of the press and public at Ho'ne. No man in his responsible position would be likely to make such a public utterance at this critical time unless it were based upon a solid foundation of fact, and it is quite the most reassuring' deliberate Cabinet statement we have had for many months. Equally important and equally satisfactory were the Prime Ministers' references to the war in the Balkans. Mr. Asquith gave an emphatic and deliberate assurance that, without a single exception, the relations of the Powers at a moment when trouble seems to be generally in the air, had never been more friendly or more cordial. His words are worth reproducing:— "The Great Powers are co-operating with a closeness of touch and a frankness and freedom of communication and discussion which is remarkable, and almost unintelligible to those believing 4iat because, for certain purposes, the Powers are ranged in different groups, jhey must, therefore, in the time cf a

European crisis, be arranged in opposite Camps. Nothing is further from the fact. The Powers are blamed in some quarters because they have not been successful in averting war; but forces were at work beyond the control of any diplomatic manipulation. The Balkan States having matured their plans, and perfected their equipment, co-ordinated in a reciprocal action, and decided that force was the only effectual remedy. They alone were prepared to use it. They took the matter into their own liands. Things can never be again as they were; and it is the business of statesmen everywhere to accept this accomplished fact." If this means anything at all, of course, it means that the Powers have come to a decision to be passive spectators in the meantime of a conflict that is purely internal, and this is further borne out by Mr. Asquith's statement that "the general opinion in Europe is unanimous that the victors are not to be robbed of fruits costing them so dear." There is a veiled reference in the Prime Minister's speech to the fact tliat aoqie of the Powers may claim a hand when the question of territorial redistribution arises. But Mr. Asquith makes it clear that Great Britain has no direct interest in "the exact form of any redistribution that may take place." He concluded a singularly frank and reassuring speech by stating that Europe's first and greatest interest was to circumscribe the scope of the war, and that the Great Powers were laboring to that end as with one will. The speech, taken in conjunction with that of Mr. Winston Churchill, indicates emphatically that there is little .or no possibility of the Empire being drawn into international complications, and made, as it was, under thoroughly" responsible circumstances, it will convey a gratifying feeling of reassurance to the whole of the civilised world.