The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, JULY 16, 1910. THE NATION'S PERIL.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 16, 16 July 1910, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 1910. THE NATION'S PERIL.

Vor the cause that laeZs α-isintance, For tbe wrong that.needs reeiataaoS, For the future in the distenca, And the good that wo can da.

"Certainly the nibst' remarkable Ministerial utterance on the vital question of National Safety . since the . late "Naval Crisis" is the speech Mr. Asquith has just delivered in reply-to the proposal to cut down the naval Estimates-for the year. No one can fairly accuse Mr. Asquith of desiring to stir up strife any-; where, and his amicable feelings toward Germany hardly require advertisement. | But the British -Premier now frankly admits that he has been at least brought round to the point of view taken up by the "scare-mongere -, and "alarmists,"

who have so long preached the "German peril" doctrine in vain. We are at peace with Germany, and long .may we remain at peace. But no matter how well we may be disposed toward other nations, Mr. Asquith has at last been persuaded that the steady growth of Germany's fleet constitutes a serious menace to England, and that we cannot safely allow ourselves to be outstripped in the race for the control of the seas. Th 6 Prime Minister knows and confesses that "every new Dreadnought delaye some social reform," and that the bur-den-of. the Naval. Estimates is .almost more than the country can T>aar. But he lias now at last made up Ms mind that "national security" is the first- of all considerations, and the huge majority' which supported him in his refusal to cut down the shipbuilding vote is a, proof that in this particular at least the. Liberal leader has Parliament and the country behind him. The statistics, -which are supposed to indicate the naval strength of the various Powers, aTO always an. excuse for endless controversy, and there is nothing to be gained just now by -discussing at length the precise num<ber of -warships that Germany is openly or secretly engaged in building. But, assuming that Mr. Asquith is correct in his data, we aTe tempted to suggest that he is "very easily satisfied. If, a3 he states, England will have only 27 Dreadnoughts, including the two colonial Dreadnought cruisers, ready for service-by the spring of 19-13,. and if Germany and-Italy together will have 25, while- the Austrian warships, now building will certainly he at the service of the Triple Alliance—if all thfs

is. literally true, it seems to.us. to indicate that even the desperate efforts that England is now putting forth to make up her leeway arc not enough to meet the emergency. This is the opinion held by many of the foremost advocates ol naval extension at Home. Thus Mr. H. -W. Wilson, one of our ablest authorities on naval questions, points out that,- putting the most favourable construction upon' our building facilities, we cannot possibly j have more than 37 -warships of" the Dreadnought and Lord Nelson types ready hy 1914, and Germany, Austria and Italy -will have between'them at-least 33 warships equal, it not superior, in fighting strength to our own. Is this margin of superiority sufficient to satisfy those responsible for the safety of the country and to enable the English people, to follow Sir John Fisher's advice, and "sleep quietly in their beds"? In an able article on "the Real-Crisis," contributed to a recent issue .of the "National Review," Mr. Wilson states at length his reasons for answering this question emphatically in tie negath'e. He points out that quite apart from. England's, failure to maintain a "two-Power" or a "two-keel" etandard in shipbuilding, she has no naval base on the North Sea that could resist submarines and torpedoes, and not a single dock capable of accommodating damaged Dreadnoughts. . Seven years have been wasted over the works at the Rosyth base, which cannot he ready before 1915, and .by that time Germany will have at least one impregnable North Sea base and three separate dock 3 ca.pa'ble of containing the largest warship yet conceived. Already the first division of ■ the German High Sea Fleet has been transferred from Kiel to Wilhelmshaven; the second division is to follow; and eventually Germany ■will have concentrated 3.4 battleships and S great cruisers of the Dreadnought super-Dreadnought and super-Invincible types on the North Sea, within 24 hours' steam of England's shores. But this is not all; ior ibehinid the fleets of the Triple Alliance are its armies, amounting in all to four million ■ men. England's only prospective ally is France, and why should France help England, with, her fleet if England can do nothing to prevent France from being overran by tbe German, Austrian, and Italian forces? Nothing but compulsory military service, Mr H. W. Wilson holds, can enable England to back up her navies with an adequate reserve of military strength. And while we are making no effective attempt to create a large army, we "are letting Germany and her allies- outstrip us in every .type of preparation and equipment for naval warfare. From this point of view, even Mr Asquith's programme appears to Mr Wilson hopelessly inadequate; and it is beca-use of the general -sense of insecurity that the facts have produced that we find the .proposal for a huge defence loan of perhaps one hundred millions gradually gaining ground and securing popular -sup port at Home. y