PREPARATIONS FOR PEACE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 88, 15 April 1899, Page 1 (Supplement)

PREPARATIONS FOR PEACE.

TWENTY SIX MILLIONS FOR THE

NAVT.

ESTIMATES £3,000,000 MORE THAN

IN IS9S.

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, March 10, 1899.

To any of your readers who may have considered me unduly o/nical anent the benevolent Peace crusade of Mr W. T. Stead, I commend a study of the naval estimates as set forth l?y practical Mr Goschen last evening. The- sum of £23,----778,400, voted for naval purposes last year, . was then declared 'enormous,' but this session the First I,ord of the Admiralty has boldly demanded £3,816.000 more. He did so, he explained, becau-se Russian and other naval.jiowerH were rapidly inereas-. ing their armaments, and Great Britain dare not lag behind. Referring to the Czar's rescript with studious respect, Mr Goschen dryly observed that he had net so far seen any reference to it in the programmes of other countries. At this a shout of laughter evidenced 'he House's rppreciation oil the point. However the Right Hon. gentleman went on (still very dryly), an international peace conference would meet in ?lay. 'Would the deiifcerations of thac conference and the action of other nations make it possible for Her Majesty's Government to diminish or modify ■■ their programme for new construction, while maintaining our standard, and.not altering our relative position to other nations? Her Majesty's Government had been compelled to increase their ex.penditure, as other nations had increased theirs, not pressing on more than they, and not taking any lead. As they had increased so we had increased. He had to state on behalf of Her Majesty's Government that similarly if the other great naval powers should be prepared to diminish their programmes of ship building, Her Majesty's Government would, on their side, be prepared to meet such a procedure by modifying ours. (Cheers.) The difficulties of adjustment were no doubt immense. The desire of Her Majesty's Government was that the conference should succeed in lightening the tremendous burdens now weighing on all the nations of the world. The desire of Her Majesty's Government was sincere. If Europe came to no agreement, and if the hopes entertained by the Czar were not realised, the programme he had submitted to the House must stand, because it was constructed on a basis on which the House had always expected them to rest. It was the lowest which could be justified by the existing expenditure on shipbuilding of other countries, the lowest by which they could secure the objects which the people expected them to attain. The hight hon. gentleman tjie member for Montrose (Mr J. Morley) said the other day that their expenditure was £24,000,000 in a time of profound peace. He did not know whether the House, remembering the agitated time of the autumn, would think that the state of Europe was a state of profound peace. He should rather say that It was a state of precarious peace.' Then dropping his tone of concession to transcendentalists and peace faddists, Mr Goschen suddenly turned on the Opposition and asked them sternly whether they seriously meant to 'attack the figures of the naval estimates.' (Ministerial cheers.) He did not care whether they denounced the Government; but do not let them attempt to dissuade the people from, bearing such taxation and such burdens as were necessary to carry on the,, 'duties'S^ the, Empire.* (Ministerial, cheers.) If they; wished to reduce, let it be known in what they wished to reduce. Let them know where they were. (Hear, hear.) The moment had come when perhaps the nation might be put to the test as to paying for this great .expenditure. (Ministerial cheers and counter cheers'.) He believed that the nation would be prepared to bear, it. (Hear, hear.) He did not believe that the nation was satisfied with its position last year; he did not think that hon. members who went from platform ■to platform,' patriotically and sincerely, as he believed, speaking of their predominance at sea, would under the guise of denouncing expenditure and of resisting the imposition of taxation wish that the result of their action should be that we should in the slightest, degree diminish the efforts which we must make if we intended to hold our own. (Ministerial cheers.) It depended, on how they looked at it. If they thought they could have peace without power; if they believed in the sweet reasonableness of Europe, then he admitted that these estimates were a crime. If on the other hand it was not so, then these estimates were a necessity, and they were simply the embodiment of the will of a peace loving but a determined people. (Cheers.) . ,

With these sensible words Mr Goschen practically gave the coup de grace to'Mr Stead's ■ disarmament proposals. The 'boom' has been flickering but feebly for the last few weeks, in fact I am daily expecting to hear that the good man has had a communication from his spirit guide Julia directing his energies Into fresh channels.