SEA POWER

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 4, 6 January 1914, Page 5

SEA POWER

BRITAIN'S POSITION ON MEDITERRANEAN ADMIRAL MAHAN'S VIEWS EMPIRE NEEDS THE WHOLE SEA. (By Telegraph.— Prcs3 Association.— Cop) right.) (Received January 6, 10.50 a.m.) LONDON. sth Januaiy. Rear-Admiral A. T. Mahan (U.S.A.), writing in the Daily Mail, contends that the Navy can abandon the Mediterranean without disaster to the Kmpiie, but can hardly hold the Mediterranean without disaster to Great Britain. The mere security of Britain is considered so imperilled that a majority of the battleships has been concentiated around Great Britain. Subordinate thereto, but directly related thereto, has been the withdrawal of tho Mediterranean fleet from Malta to Gibraltar. Admiral Mahan points out that the Canadian and Australian communities hold tenaciously to certain views for unifying in a common purpose the British Pacific Commonwealth!!, thus constituting a great Imperial interest, dependent in possible contingencies upon naval preponderance in the Mediterranean. He aaks, " How, in the event of a general war arising out of the presentcritical situation on the Levant, can the British Navy secure Egypt and Suez? " Admiral Mahan argues that whether France — alone or with Great Britain's support — can maintain the control of trade security ahd military effectiveness throughout the Mediterranean is a point for consideration. It would not suffice to secure the Western half. He concludes: "The Empire needs the whole sea for the Imperial movement of commerce and for Imperial naval effectiveness, which are essential for the Empire's existence." ARMAMENT QUESTION. BRITISH CABINET UNITED. LONDON. sth January. The Daily Chronicle declares that the Cabihet is united in its arguments on the question of armamehts, and instances Mr. Churchill's speech in the House of Commons on 29th March, and at the Alexandra Palace on 15th November, also Mr. Asqu'ith's Guildhall and Leeds addresses. The paper says that Mr. Lloyd George, though strongly convinced of the value of improved relations with Germany, did not suggest any doubt of the continued efficacy and importance of the Triple Entente. Mr. Chiozza Money, in a letter to the Daily Chronicle, says it is impossible to maintain a supreme navy unless the estimates are increased. If these are not increased contracts must be cancelled, thus trenching on the margin of superiority. He emphasises that Germany's navy is independent of estimates, but she has a permanent law establishing tho maintenance i and perpetuity of the navy, which is enormously bigger than Britain's. He asks, How can the sixty-one Dreadnoughts which German law will certainly establish bo met by continued superiority by t a British fleet founded on reduced estimates ? WILL THE CHANCELLOR BE FORCED TO RESIGN? ROME, sth January. _ Some' of the leading Italian organs consider that since the British Cabinet is united not to abandon the increase in the Naval Estimates, Mr. Lloyd George will be forced to resign, especially as Mr. Churchill is always able to obtain ready Opposition support. Other newspapers interpret the convorsation recently reported as not a promise of reduction, but a warning that it is impossible to exceed the actual limits except at the risk of overturning the national edifice. GERMAN MISTRUST OF LLOYD GEORGE. BERLIN, sth January. Herr yon Reventlow, in the Deutsche Tages Zeitung, declares that Mr. Lloyd George's language only increased the German mistrust. He specially resents hts_ description of armaments, against which the 1 industrial classes of Western Europe have revo.'ted, as "organised insanity."