THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1909. AUSTRIA'S PRETENSIONS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3171, 23 April 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1909. AUSTRIA'S PRETENSIONS.

Second only in significance to the feverish haste of Germany to turn out capital ships of war is Austria's newly-found naval activity. Probably, indeed, the maritime designs of the two Powers cannot be dissociated. The Germans themselves claim that Austria Hungary is doing for Germany what the British overseas dominions are doing for the British Empire, and they are not unlikely to be right in thair estimate of the situation. The success of either Power means the aggrandisement of the Teuton, since, for the time being at any rate, the heterogenous peoples which go to make up the population of the Austro-Hungarian Empire are content to co-operate in carrying out the ambitious foreign policy of the comparatively small but all-powerful Teutonic ruling class. When recently it was stated on the authority of a newspaper in Vienna that Austria will build four Dreadnoughts for completion by 1912, the "Spectator" declared, without apparent fear of contradiction, that a consequence must be a departure from Great Britain's present policy of concentrating all her great fighting ships in Home waters, and the detachment of four Dreadnoughts from the North Sea fleet for permanent service in the Mediterranean. A prompt reply to a direct challenge from the German race to British naval supremacy must be read between the lines of these announcements. It is undeniable that Austria's rise in maritime importance adds a new menace to the peace of the world. Hitherto direct apprehension as to her naval p-oajramme has been confined almost wholly to her neighbour across the Adriatic. Although bound by the ties of the Triple Alliance, Austria and Italy have watched each other with eyes from which no written words could remove the gleam of suspicion. After making a late start in her bid for sea power, the former country has within the past ten years so developed in this respect that recently Sir William H. White, the ex-Director of i Naval Construction in Great Britain, j was constrained to say:—"The dej velopment of the Austrian navy during the last few years, and the increased expenditure on new construction, are proportionately greater than the corresponding movement ii

any other country except Germany, a.ad it is a significant fact that those two countries are closely allied." Four Dreadnoughts, on top of three battlfiships of great size and heavy armament already in course of construction, for a country which has only the minimum of oversea commerce, and no oversea territory to protect, cannot be justified except to aid in some such bold policy as the neighbouring Teutonic Power has entered upon. Prominent Austrian politicians agree that the active foreign policy of the Empire must continue. The unscrupulousness of that policy, backed by the mailed fist of Germany, has been displayed already in the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in direct breach of treatyfprovisions. Where the next blow will be made who can tell? Will if'be designed to further the Kaiser's desire to extend German influence right down to Salonica, or is "Britain's traditional friend" on the other side of the Adriatic to be the victim? That treaties do not avail when they sTandTrTthTway of Austrian ambition we[have lately seen. On more than the one hand, therefore, there is in the present Dreadnought-build-ing campaigns of the Teutonic Powers a menace to British Imperial prestige and safety which must be prepared for. It will be noticed in our cable news this morning that the Royal Colonial Institutejhas adopted a resolution expressing grave concern at the Government's disclosures regarding the British Navy, and asking that the present year's shipbuilding programme be augmented forthwith. The colonies are to be thanked for their "gallant and spontaneous offers of battleships," and Mr Asquith's proposal for an Imperial Naval Conference is welcomed by the Institute.