INTERNATIONAL NERVOUS TENSION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 273, 10 April 1913, Page 4

INTERNATIONAL NERVOUS TENSION.

< .'cfmaiiy's stupendous. preparations under the new' Army Bill, France's instant response to the challenge, Russia's extensive inobilisation and rigid- censorship/ Britain's hurried precautions against hostile aircraft, even Mr. • Winston Churchill's announcement' that reserv-, tsts are .to he readmitted to "the'-fleet,' art all symptoms of the nervous tension that prevails among the nations (remarks t]ie. Lyttelton 'Times)-: ''.Even if we assume that the trouble at Scutari will he settled without an extension oi the war area and that the Balkan Allies will proceed quietly to arrange tho division of the territory they have won, the outlook for Europe is dark. The strain imposed upon the resources of the Powers, by the tremendous development of armaments is • threatening to reach the breaking point, and Germany, regarded rightly or wrongly as the most bellicose of the nations at the present time: is tlie one least able to maintain the pace which she herself has set. The new Army Bill, with its vast addition

to the peace strength of the army and its oppressive direct taxation, is the ell'ort of a Power which is setting the stakes high in the hope of a big win. That is not to say that Germany wants war. Probably her responsible rulers have no desire at all to face the risks' of actual conflict, but they obviously are seeking to provide themselves with such a formidable weapon'that no Power will dare to say them nay when next they make a claim to some favored place in the sun. The perils of such a policy are obvious. The position of to-day is not without its hopeful features, it is' true, not the least of them being the natural disinclination of Austria to engage in a conflict that would find her own Slav population in warm sympathy with the enemy. But British people in all parts of the world will do well to realise that apparently irreconcilable national aspirations are swaying Europe and that no Power has yet shown anv willingness to relinquish its own particular ambitions in the interests of the general peace. I