BATTLESHIPS A GUARANTEE OF PEACE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 127, 30 May 1908, Page 6

BATTLESHIPS A GUARANTEE OF PEACE.

(By President Roosevelt.) [The following is the text of the special message to Congress (referred t6; in our cables on April 16th) in which President Roosevelt urged in the strongest terms . the construction of four new battleships forthwith.]

Let me again urge upon Congress the need of providing for tour battleships of the best type at this session. Prior to the recent Hague Conference it had been my hope that an agreement could, be reached between the different nations to limit the increase of naval armaments, and especially to limit the size of warships. Under these circumstances I felt that the construction of one battleship a year would keep our navy up to its then positive and relative strength. But actual experience showed not merely that it was impossible to obtain such an agreement for the limitation- of armaments among the various leading Powers, but that there was no lieldihood whatever of obtaining it in the future withm any reasonable time. _ Co-incidentally with this discovery occurred a radical change m the building of battleships among the great military nations, in which it was apparent modern battleships have been or are being constructed of a size and armament which doubles or trebles their effectiveness. Every other great naval nation has or is building a number of ships of this kind; we have provided for but two, and therefore the balance of power is now inclining against us. Under these conditions to provide for but one or two battleships a year is to provide that this nation instead of advancing shall go backwards in naval rank and relative power among the great nations. Such a course would be unwise for us if, we fronted merely on one ocean, and it is doubly unwise for us if we front on two oceans.

It is mischievous folly for any statesman to assume that this world has yet reached the stage, or has come within measurable distance of the stage when a proud nation, jealous of its honour and .conscious of its great mission in the world, can be content to rely for peace upon the forbearance of other Powers.

For centuries China has cultivated the very spirit which our own peace-at-any-price men wish this country to adopt. For centuries China has refused to provide military forces and has treated the soldier as an inferior. In external affairs the policy has resulted in various other nations now holding large portions of Chinese territory, while there is a very acute fear in China lest the empire because of its defencelessness, be exposed to absolute dismemberment, and its well-wishers are able to hold it only in a small measure because no nation can help at once unless that other can help itself.

The State Department is continually appealed to to interfere on behalf of peoples and nationalities who insist that they are suffering from oppression—now Jews in one country, now Christians in another, now black men said to be oppressed by white men in Africa, Armenians, Koreans, Finns, Poles, representatives of all, appeal at times to this Government. When a nation is so happily situated as ours— that is, when it has no reason to fear or to be feared by its land neighbours —the fleet is all the more necessary for the preservation of peace. The United States can hope for a permanent career of peace on only one condition, and that is, on condition of builfling and maintaining a first-class navy.

There is rank due to the United Staffs among nations which will be withhold if not lost by the reputation of wen kn ess. Tf we desire to avoid insult we must be. able to repel it; if