READY, AYE, READY!

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXII, Issue LXII, 2 August 1911, Page 7

READY, AYE, READY!

TfAVAL PAGEANT WITH A HIDDEN

FIST.

CORONATION REVIEW ON A WAR

FOOTING

LONDON, July 27

Facts are coming to light disclosing that the glamour of the memorable naval pageant held in connection with the Coronation concealed a hidden fist of tremendous power.

. The whole demonstration was in reality nothing less than a mobilisation of the entire British fleet on a war footing.

Every vessel taking part had its coal "bunkers full, and its ammunition stores replenished to war capacity. The immense significance of this warlike demonstration can be best realised when it is remembered that a naval mobilisation is always regarded amongst the nations as an ultimatum.

In the light of,the disclosures in this connection, other incidents that might otherwise have passed without comment become prf^nant with interest. Mr Lloyd Georgg addressed a gathering of London bankers. Though one of the finest impromptu speakers in the British Isles, the Chancellor of the Exchequer for once departed from his custom, and read a carefully-prepared address.

This address differed as widely from Mr Lloyd George's utterances at the time of the Boer war as the Mr-Burns, M.P., of to-day differs from the Mr Burns, M.P., of Trafalgar Square notoriety. ■

In the course of his remarks to the bankers the Chancellor said that the domestic situation in Great Britain was attracting so much attention at the moment, that foreign affairs were apt to become overshadowed.

Nevertheless, it was evident from the guarded nature of his remarks that the Government is fully awake to its responsibilities abroad. He declared that the Government favored peace, but not peace at the price of sacrificing the great place arid prestige occupied among the nations by Britain, and which had been won by centuries of heroism. The address made a great sensation.