NAVY LEAGUE NOTES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10069, 17 August 1910, Page 7

NAVY LEAGUE NOTES.

Specially Contributed

Peace Conferences are good in theory, in practice rubbish, The first Peace Conference in 1899 was followed by two of the greatest wars known on the planet, viz., the South African War, and the Russo-Japanese War; also Germany spending £67,000,000 on her Fleet. After the second Peace Conference of 1,907, Germany immediatly increased her Naval Estimates by £3,000,000.,

Austria has already a considerable Mediterranean fleet, to which, pos sibly, in 1912, will be adied four Dreadnoughts built by Germany's order. Although no money is as yet voted for these four ships, it would be a great mistake to take it for granted that work on them has not commenced.

***■ * * * The secrecy which has for yearß been the rule in the German Government yards has now been extened to the private yards such as Blohm and Voss at Hamburg, so that it is almost impossible to fi i out accurately the rate of German warship construction.

' * * * # * * The training at Osborne and Dartmouth, and the outlook on life obtained by the Uadets at these magnificent establishments, is in my ion far wider than that obtained in any other training establishment in the Kingdom, and I should fancy that one, visit to these places would be sufficient to convince any one of the fact. * * * * * * We are training 8,000 German seamen in the British Mercantile Marine. ****** The vessels passing through the Kiel Canal in 1908 were 34,121, of a total tonnage of 6,012,178, and in 1909, 35,326, of a total tonnage of 6,267,805 tons; * * * * * * Turkey has voted £7,500,000 for Naval Construction, the sum to be spread over ten years. ****** Germany is to spend £750,000 on submarine boats in 1910. We have not completed a single torpedo-boat destroyer of the 1908 programme. Every destroyer of the German 1908 programme is in commission. ****** "We have settled our accounts with Austria and France. The last settlement—the settlement with England —is yet to come."—TREIISCHKE. ******

Whenever the health and luxury of a nation stand in inverse ratio to its military strength, the hour of deso lation, if not at hand approaches.

* * * * * * Those who are indifferent to their country's welfare in peace, will be of no use to it in time of war. The deterioration of military forces of a nation and the consequent destruction of the militant spirit has been concurrent with national decay. # # # # * In the military or naval sense distance is not measured by miles. Napoleon found all the capitals of Europe closer to Paris than the sea coast of England. On the other hand, in the Boer War England discovered that the 6,000 mile 3 from Portsmouth to ■'Jape Town were shorter than the few hundred miles from Cape Town to Pretoria. The first branch of the Navy League in Ireland was recently opened at Londonderry.