WHEN GERMANY WILL STRIKE

Evening Star, Issue 15020, 31 October 1912, Page 2

WHEN GERMANY WILL STRIKE

WARNING BY LORD ROBERTS

. The fallowing cable from London appeared in the• Svdncy 'Sun' on October 22:

Speaking in Manchester yesterday at a meeting in support of national military service, Lord Roberts said :—" In 1912, as in 1866 and 1870, war will take place the instant the German forces on land and sea are, by their superiority at every point, as certain of victory as anything within calculation can be made "certain. Germany will strike when Germany's hour has struck. That is the time-honored policy of her Foreign Office. Germany constrains the action of Britain at the present day. The fact in we have lest command of every sea but one—the. North Sea—and our supremacy on that sea is now a matter of dispute._ In the opinion of every practical soldier experienced in modern "war, the Empire is wholly unprepared for war. As a. continental Power we do not exist as far a 6 war is concerned. Our army as a belligerent power in European politics ie. almost a negligible quantity. This Empire, at all times, is practically defenceless beyond ils first line, and such an Empire invites war. Its assumed security amid the armaments of Europe, and now of Asia, is int-olent and provocative. We must possess a paramount Navy, but we also require an Army strong enough to ensure the mobility of the Navy. Compulsory defence is the only solution." Jxjrd Curzon said that one feature of the situation that tilled him with alarm was that the great mlcrs of Europe had established an international tribunal at The Hague, and had built a noble hall, but the moment that a crisis camo treaties and tribunals were alike broken. "We are faced once again,'' he continued, " with the old-world solution of differences by means of the clash and conflict of arms." He was afraid that if anyone visited this world from another place he would 6ay that we lived in an age of colossal hypocrisy.