BRITISH AND GERMAN NAVAL EXPANSION.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12145, 16 April 1908, Page 4

BRITISH AND GERMAN NAVAL EXPANSION.

Although the disclosure of the Kaiser's letter to Lord Tweedmouth was notmade in time to be dealt with' in the

March reviews, still the new German r.aval programme had excited startled surprise in England. The expert whowrites under the pen-name of "Exeubitor". ("The Awakener") contributes a temperate and -well-balanced article^ in the "Fortnightly Review" on the" subject of "Britain's1 Reply to Cr3iinaiw's Dreadnoughts,", in. tlie course of which he compares, the loud demand of the British Navy League for the immediate laying down of six Dread-noughts-and two Invincibles, with the flurry which occurred on Plymouth Hob | when th© approach of the Spanish Armada was brought. -'.Drake's liist-jvic reply that there was plenty of "time to win the game of .bowls and heat the Spaniards afterwards is quoted as typical of the best British temper in time of dangerl. The writer protests that.there" i; no need for fluster and harry. He shows that on ; June Ist, 1907, the r:iargin of strength possessed by "the" Brit- j ish n,avy over the German navy w.ts amply sufficient, England ■having 1,2 battleships, 32 armoured cruisers, TO cruisers, and 142 destroyers; as againir Germany's 22 battleships, eight armoured cruisers, 38 cruisers, and 60 destroyers. England had 47 torpedoboats to Germany's 48,, and 39 submarines, to Germany's one. "Exoubitor" argues that England can well afford to wait for another year before beginning to build in, reply to Germany's programme of four armoured ships to be. laid down this year. "Ail cause of alarm will be removed if il is never forgotten that, while we ana building our ships in two years, Germany will take threa, the United States four, and France at least five. We can still afford to follow cur traditiona» pclicy of awaiting foreign developments and then playing a tramp-card." Having said that much, the writer argues in favour of a "Two-German standard." i.e., the formula of two to 0n,9 against Germany, the ample margin being mad« necessary by the fact that Germany can concentrate -all her fleet in the North Sea, while England must still keep six

battleships in, the Mediterranean, tho same number in the Atlantic, and possibly at (some future date may have I j keep six in the Far East also. "Exci.bitor" pleads for "no hysterical alarm, but the cool, calculating cou"age of Sir Francis Drake."