THE HAND OF THE KAISER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7257, 19 November 1901, Page 2

THE HAND OF THE KAISER.

— ♦ — MR HALES ON THE GERMAN FLEET. A WARNING TO ENGLAND. Last week we reproduced an eflfciole ■written for the "Express" by Mr A. C. Hales, th« WestraJian war correspondent, as a result of his visit to Danzig* to watch the recent manoeuvres of the German N^vy and Army. We now give Mr Bales's article upon the Naval 1 display. The Bay of Danzig is the bey to Prussia. Onoe let a hoetil© fleet enter from the Baltic Sea, pass tthe headts, amdi enter 'toe miaigDifioent stretch. 6f -water where ?my navy in, the world might be secure, and the German nation would rally from the fertile fields of the south to the oomparaltively barren Prussian, soil. That part of Prussia whioh, owns Danzig as jt« great waterway <toes nob produce anything very remarkable except men. The men are a stronibg type—bog., atLMetio, sullenly fierce-looking buimaas, just fit to make good soldiers. Ido not wonder that they dominate tihe softer southern. Nature has filled the veins of the floqtitem with wine and corn an<s oil, but the veins of the Prussians ore filled 1 with, molten granite. In Southerns Germany tihe jpeople tmeeft you with smiles; they are wry gracious, very kindly. The milk of human kindness is the milk of life to them 1 , but tihe West Prussian is not fashioned upon those lines. He is not rude, but be is grimily reserved); he does not meddle wil& you for good or evil. He simply stands off the grass and expects you to <fo the same unless you are looking for trouble. FOBMIDABLE DANZIG. A hostile fleet might win its way into Danzig after desperate fightfojj, but I doubt it. Ido not thing: any Gtetroaan Admiral would be insane enough to give an enemy battle outside the bay, whm, by passing inside that narrow throaJb whicn divide* the Baltio from the bay, he could force his opponent to iwroain outside, or come in and fight tuider terrible difficulties. The Germain fleet dirawai up in line of battle across the throat of the bay, a little way inside the heads, just as they were during the recent (manoeuvre*, would effectually block any inward ruefa of an enemy, no mblfrter hVw strong tiha/6 ©nemy migiht b»j while %he 'batteries on shore at both sidw of the throat could: sweep the seas. \ Before an en«ray oou!^hope te do any good here the German Fleet would bare to be sunk, and that, if tfc« Germans handled their warship* properly, would be- an absolute impowlbJUty. Jb the fired place, the attacking force would have to be overwtbelmingly strong to make the. a*, tank ait all feasible—^hree to csue at the very least | and where is the nation in exi*tence that in time of war wuild afford to send such a fleet aAo&g the Baltic for the purpose of paving the way for the landing of an army of invasion? When I saw those grim sentinels of the sea, grey, gold and watchful, with the Emperor's standard flying proud «id high in thie evening breeaa, it wa* borne kx upon. me that Prussia at this end & safe from any combination the world can produce. Let France and Russia shake hands and strike at Germany, they must strike somewhere else than at Danzig. A LESSON FOR RUSSIA. And where else can Russia strike to hurt? Two and twenty torpedo*hoat» and twenty-five great battlesiMpß 1»H that waterway when I looked upon them, and that they are well-found I know, because I was on board and all over one of then*, and that not the best battleship in the grim line of defenders. Three times that number will have to meet them if Danzig is to be won, if the German, fight on the defensive, and what Power could- throw such a fleet at such a hazard? Not only would, tbe German fleet have to be sunk, silenced or driven inward, but the batteries on shore would have to be reckoned with. If the enemy succeeded in sinking some of the defenders and driving the rest down the land-looked bay, they would then have to run the gauntlet of the coastal defences. What those defences are only the German military omd naval authorities know, but that they are terribly strong is certain. At the far end of the bay, facing the entrance, so that they can sweep the middle of the bay, guns are placed — guns as perfect and as terrible as the ingenuity of man can devise, big enough and heavy enough to sink any ship that float*. Should the German fleet be defeated at the throat of the Bay of Danzig in a pitched battle, which is almost impossible, the commanders of the vessels still left afloat would drop back amdl run along the coast under the protection of the shore batteries, and also keep up a running 'fight. They would have to be destroyed in detail before the army behind the hostile fleet jould land ; and, in the meantime, Germany could and would mass an army strong enough to drive the invaders into £he sea. THE STEEL WARNING. \ It was nob for nothing thai) the German Emperor showed his hand to his cousin of Russia. Every ship that lay so peacefully upon the waters when the two xnonarohs clasped 'hands on deok, spoke to the Russian in language that the dullest could understand. Their silence was eloquence petrified ; beneath the friendly grip of flesh and blood which the Emperor gave the Cxat ran the steel warning. No need for the young Kaiser to e&j in public words which he had written on the waves. No need to tell the Czar and those who travelled with him that Germany was watchful of the growimg friendliness between France and Russia. No need to speak of friction in the East or of distrust borne of the battlefield of 1870. No need to talk of things which both knew well^while his warning lay writ large and deep "across the broad face of the quivering waters. It was a warning and a welcome to Russia, — a warning as a 'friend, a warning and a welcome either as friend) or foe; for in that spectacle Germany said to Russia:—Come to us here with "the silken glove or the mailed' hand and you will find us ready and eager ito welcome you. It was th« hand of the Kaiser pointing a lesson. He knew that in a fe\fc days the Russian Emperor would meet the leading statesmen of Franoe, the hereditary enemy of Germany, and he- meant to put a 'keener edge upon the Russian's caution bsfore +11© meeting and its results became irrevocable. That wae the lesson contained in the manoeuvres of the German fleet in the Bay of Danzig ; what does it matter that one ebip of war ran across the bows of a eiister ship and rakecß 'the decks with leadless gunnery, or that a torpedo-boat, taking advantage of the dlense cloud' of smoke that hunff over one of the ships of the line, delved forward) and! hurted a barmlesw missile into the very ribs of the iron giant? What do you who read want to know of tactics wiiiohi were simply lessons in seamanship, experiments in naval warfare? Ha<d' 'the guns been shotted and the decks run blood); had the torpedo exploded in the very belly of the great warrAip, sending her and) her crew to this bottom ; had men fallen dying on the decks amid th© thunder of the guns and 1 the erime of the smoke— then «v«ry move would have interested you, for you be* lone to a nation that rules the seas. But this mimic war has iw> salt in it for you ; nil that you want to know is, What was th* fesson that the HWJKeuvres taught, and who was the lesson intended for? I have told you tlhis in part; let me tell you a little more-— md I write as one who loves the British Empire. THE LESSON IT TAUOHT. To. France and Russia the lesson was luld out— the leastm o£ U-exma-ay's rea-di-

ness for almost any action or combination; but there is something' for U» to learn, something we Brttons will ido well to keep in sight— Germany is faart be. comiite a mighty nav«J Power. If her shipa to-day ■are not as good as oun«, they are so little inferior that the difference is not wwtib counting; and behind that fleet, re*dy to spring to anna at an hour's notice, stand nearly two million trained soldiers. On this manoeuvring- fleet alone there are--8500 seamen, who have 600 guns to handle on aad between decks ; an'd thi« only represents a portion of their seagoing fighting foroes. Are their sailors as good as ours? No ; they ane not. Man to man, or even with odd* against w>, I would stake my soul's salvation on. our bluejackets. Are , their officers as good as ours? No; they we not. Our naval officers are better ; they have the gemus of battle printed 1 all over them in deeper, truer Sines, for the German sailor and fois offioer is half-sailor half while our " Jacks" and their leader* are «wto«9 from. «tem to stern, and the be«t on tba world of waters this day— .the best with this single reservation—they ere not better than the Americans, "but they are a* good. This glanoe at a German fleet has caused me to do some thinking 1 . I wish halt England couUd have eeen it, too, that England might leave off dreaming and etart thanking also. The dfey is very near when the amen who live under the Empire's flag will have to make a . superhuman effort to lift our fleet sfajr higher than it is, or a rifle will have to hang over every fireplace in Merrie England., ready to the band of | farmer am} artisan, merchant prince > or 'prentice l*d 2 for our rivals are not deeping. .