NAVY LEAGUE NOTES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10038, 12 July 1910, Page 3

NAVY LEAGUE NOTES.

J Mr H. Nevins has donated a guinea towards the funds of the Masterton branch. Mr H. G, William', .resident of the Masterton branch, has been elected a member of the Grand Council of the Navy League. The capital value of the railways in the British Isles is represented by a sum equal to the annual value of the sea-borne ttaue —namely, £l,398,101,142 —and on the railways are employed 621,341 men, a number equal to the peace footing of the German Army. j i Mr Ward, M.P., speaking in the j House of Commons, said —"An island country like ours, with its frontier the sea, must think tw'ce before it does anything to weakenjjts first line of defence. It is on that ground that I am going to vote in favour of the Government, and for building the extra Dreadnoughts." "Our Navy is so essential to us, so much more essential to us than the navy of any other country is to them, that we cannot afford to play - tricks with a question that is really vital to the very existence of this country."—Marquis of Lansdowne. "That service," (the Navy,) "is the safeguard and bulwarks of England, and ought to be cherished beyond all others."—General Sir George 1\ Napier, K.C.8., 1828. Lord Charles Beresford says—".This Empire was mainly created, and is only maintained, by the power of the British Fleet, and the Navy League would have fully justified its existence had it never done any other work tha>i tu bring this fact home to the youth of our public schools." The following Empire statistics have just been compiled by tho. Navy —British Empire—Area, 12,000,000 sq. miles; population, 400,000,000; coast line, 43,000 miles; seaborne trade, £1,400,000,000; Mercantile Marine, 17,702,714 tons gross register; food imports into United Kingdom,, £4OO per minute; Naval expenditure, 1909, £35,142,700. German Empire. —Area, 1,236,971 sq. I miles; papulation, 74,000,000; coast ine, 4,300 miles; seaborne trade, £700,000,000; Mercantile Marine, 3,8«9,046 tons, gross register; Naval expenditure, £21,700,000.

Commenting upon the present Naval situation several London papers are recalling the fact that Sir Joseph Ward, in laying tne resul s of the Imperial Defence Conference before the members of the New Zealand Parliament, stated that all the oversea representatives were of one mind in their willingness to take some share in the Imperial defence, though they differed as to the form which it should take. Some preferred local iiavies, other 3, among whom was the speaker himself, thought the most excellent way was to contribute a quota to the British Navy, and for the purpose of doing so he proposed to ask the House for authority to raise a loan up tu two millions at a rate of interest not exceeding per cent.

Mr Meredith, a great literary authority, who, unhappily, passed away recently, wrote before his death|to Mr Haldane a3 follows—"We should be grateful to the their crusty candour in telling us of their designs upon us. They stir a somnolent people; and without stooping to regard them as enemies, whose aim is to be the first of the World fowers, chiefly at our expense. The Kaiser, an estimable gentleman, but not yet a fully tried Sovereign, has drawn in a deep breath of briny air, and would give it out in warships. Germany, once foremost among the nations for intellectual achievements, now spouts pan-Ger-macism over Europe, and seek& to command the North Sea. Fur our part, we have to take the warning ihey give us, and toa armed, stationed, and alert. That ?s the way to preserve peace."