GERMANY'S NAVY.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14400, 6 July 1912, Page 8

GERMANY'S NAVY.

MENACE TO BRITAIN

MR-BA FOUR'S REMARKABLE STATEMENT

(FBOM OUB OWN CORRESPONDENT). . LONDON. May 24. , Dr. Ludwig Stein, the editor of the German monthly "Nord und Sud," recently paid a visit to England, when he obtained tlio views of leading men on Anglo-German, relationship. . Mr Balfour contributes a remarkable protest against the increase oi armaments and the suspicions excitedly them. After paying a high "tribute to German culture and to the opinion oi it held in England, he deoldres that tho changed attitude is due to no national prejudice, but to the interpretation placed upon "a series of facts or supposed facts." Tho first of is the German Navy.

"If Englishmen," bo says, "were sure that a German fleet was only going to be used for defensive purposes, they would not oare bow large it was; for a war of aggression against Germany is to them unthinkable. . . . .

There are two ways., in which a hostile country can be crushed. It can be conquered or it can be starved. If Germany were masters in our home waters she could apply both methods to Britain. Were Britain ten times master in the North Sea sha could apply neither method to Germany. Without a superior fleet Britain would no longer count as a Power. Without any fleet at all Germany; would remain the greatest Power in Europe. It is, therefore, the mere inetinct of selfprtser/atioh which obliges Englishmen not merely to take account of the growth in foreign navies, but anxiously to weigh tho motives of those who build them." WHERE THE DANGER LIES. Enlarging upon Germany's naval increase, Air Balfour approaches what ho terms the most difficult and delicate part of Jus task. ''The danger lies," ho maintains, "in the co-existence of that marvellous instrument of warfare in tho German Army and Navy, with the assiduous—l had almost said tho organised—advocacy of a policy which it seems impossible to reconcile with the peace of the world or tho rights of nations. For thoso who accept this policy German development.means German territorial expansion. All countries which hinder, though it be only in self-defence, the realisation of this ideal, are regarded as hostile; and war, or tho threat of war, is deemed the natural and fitting method by which the ideal itself is to bo accomplished. "Let German students, if they will, re-draw the map of Europe in harmony with what they conceive to be tho present distribution:of the Germanic race ; let them regard the German Empire of tho twentieth century as* the heir-at-law of all territories included in the Holy Roman Empiro of the -twelfth; let them assume that Germany should be endowed at the cost of other nations with overseas dominions proportionate to her greatness in Europe. But do not let them ask Englishmen to approve. "Germany has taught Europe much; she can teach it yet more. She can teach it that organising military power may be used in tho interest of peace as effectually as in those of war; that tho appetite for domination belongs to an outworn phase of patriotism; that the furtherance of civilisation, for * whichy sho has so greatly laboured, must bo tho joint work of many peoples, -and that.the task for nono of them is lightened by the tremendous burden of modern armaments or the perpetual pre-occtipation of national self-defence. If on these lines she is prepared to lead she will find a world already prepared to follow.

'But if there'be signs that her desires point to other iobjects, and- that her policy will bo determined by national ambitions of a different type, can it be a matter of, surprise that other countries watch tho steady growth of her powers of aggression with undisguised alarm, and anxiously consider schemes for meeting what they are driven to regard as a common danger?". Lord Haldano devotes his contribution to a discussion of the English opinion of Goptho, whom he says, has spoken for mankind, and whose range of genius is probably tho widest that mankind has known.

"No other writer, ancient or modern (ho contends) had Goethe's power of combining philosophy with art. No Other writer, has been equipped as hewas equipped. That is why the world owes so much to him, and why it appears to.mo to be likely, that as time goes on wo shall.iricrense the depth of our consciousness of the debt.and aro not likely to diminish,it. And that is why Goethe means so. much to many of us-Englishmen. It is another, added to many reasons, why two nations such as Germany and Great Britain should ceaso from mutual Suspicion and realise that their real destiny is to work together to make the world better."

Mr Bonn r Law criticises the idea prevalent, "especially on the Continent," that there is in England a feeling of hostility to Germany. In his opinion; that| belief is entirely unfounded. "1 never believo in these inevitable wars," ho adds. "Twenty-fivo or thirty years ago the same thins was said far more persistently about our relationship with Russia. It is never said now. Why? For,ono reason, because the whole perspective of the world has changed. It is constantly changing, and I see no reason to think that ten or fifteen years hence it may not completely change again. If; thcreforo, war should "ever come between these two countries, which heaven forbid, it will riot, 1 think, bo due to irresistible natural laws; it will be due to the want of human wisdom."