IF THERE IS WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 167, 15 July 1907, Page 5

IF THERE IS WAR.

JAPAN MUST WIN. VIEW OF FUTNAM WEAIE. Mr. F. G. Ewington writes: —While attention is being excitedly drawn to the diplomatic difficulty between the United States and Japan, the following comparison of strength between the navies of the two Powers by Mr. B. L. Putnam Weale will be read by the many thousands of " 'Star " readers with eager interest. Mr. Weale is such an expert in Far Eastern matters that English journals have urged the British Foreign Office to "engage his services. He wrote " Manchu and Muscovite," and predicted things that afterwards happened. He -wrote also " The Ec-shaping of the Far East," and has followed it with his latest book on " The Truce in the Far East." Mi. Weale says:—" Probably the British Navy is the only navy which would be able to detach a superior battle fleet for service in the Far East. France or Germany, or the United States, would have to employ their entire navies to have any chance of success against Japan on sea during the next few years. Until the completion of the new American and European shipbuilding programmes, England will thus remain the only Power which unaided could defeat Japan in Asiatic waters. " The United States has 21 battleships and cruisers ready, and 11 building-, total, 32. Japan has 2ft battleships and cruisers built, and four building; total, 30. But in a few months Japan will have- Teady ■ the Satsuma and the Aki, which will be the most powerful vessels in the ~woTld, displacing tons each. They will then be 1500 tons more in displacement than the Dreadnought Witn the four powerful new armoured cruisers now being completed (the Tsukuba and the Ikoma, both of. 13,700 tons, and the Kurama and the Iki, both of 14,500 tons), Japan will possess a fleet which could only be challenged in Eastern waters by one Power—England."