THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 1910. THE RACE FOR BIG NAVIES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 987, 5 March 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 1910. THE RACE FOR BIG NAVIES.

The United States having decided to become a great naval Power are entering upon the task with characteristic vigour. The naval programme for the current year includes two battleships of 27,000 tons each, and fiev submarines. The total naval appropriations for the year amount to £26,000,000, or only £9,000,000 short of the amount spent by Great Britain. All the first-rate Powers in the world are now engaged in the ominous work of increasing their navies. The value of sea power has suddenly loomed before them like the spectre of the Brocken. It has sumed eigantic proportions in their eyes, and they are all straining every nerve to outpace one another in the race for the biggest navy. Were the interests of each alitce, politically, commercially, and geographically, this fierce competition could be easily understood. But they do not all stand on the same footing. None of them, for example, can claim to occupy a position in any remote degree similar to that held by Great Britain, either as regards her ocean trade or her overseas possessions. In her case a strong ravy is indispensable to her Imperial existence. German shipping it is true, is making rapid atrides, but Germany has no colonies that are worth the bones of a single Pomeranian guardsman. Nevertheless Germany £oeti on LuilJing up a mighty

navy, and lesser Powers are following in her wake. No fault can be found with any of them tor adopting this unprecedented course. If they choose to impose heavy burdens of taxation upon themselves in order to build wai ships, they are at liberty to do so. It is what all these preparations portend that constitutes the grounds for the uneasiness and anxiety that till the minds of so many thoughtful onlookers. Unless we assume that the rulers and statesmen of Europe, of Asia, and of America have become smitten with madness, we must believe that these pre • parations are being made with a view to what they regard as an inevitable catastrophe. At the present moment the world is rapped in profound peace, but there never as a time in its history when the preparations for war were more resounding, more threatening, or on a more appalling scale. Therein lies the gravity of the situation.