THE COUNTRY'S DANGER.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 106, 3 May 1909, Page 2

THE COUNTRY'S DANGER.

NAVAL DEBATE OPENED.

SPEECHES OF PARTY LEADERS

' - IMPRESSIVE SCENE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,

(By John Foster Fraser, in The Standard.)

There was a moment when even the vehement economists who sit below the Ministerial gangway made pause. It was when the House collectively understood that the Germans were building battleships faster -than we are, that our maritime supremacy was threatened, and that we stood in national danger. It was late in the day, but the lights had not been raised, and the chamber wrapped in semi-gloom. The House'was full, long benches of men, all grave and rather silent, listening, understanding what the peril was— an emotional thrill running through .the assembly. For the first time .in the life of this Parliament the clamour of party was stilled—men's patriotism rose above party. Mr Balfour was pale with anxiety—he admitted that he was more anxious than he cared to think—and Mr Asquith, seeing the menace from across the North Sea, and knowing that the dockyards of Germany roar with the clang of building mighty warships of the Dreadnought type, cried aloud that the instinct of self-preservation dictated we must maintain our supremacy. The Prince of Wales was in the gallery. By his side sat a former First Lord of the Admiralty, Earl Cawdor. Close by were the Duke of Devonshire, the Marquis of * Londonderry, sturdy old Lord Brassey, and lesser peers. The naval expenditure of the year will be £35,142,700, or £2,----823,200 over last year's estimates. New construction this year is to cost £8,885,194. Four battleships of the Dreadnought type are to be laid down this year and completed within two years. Preparations are made for the rapid construction of four more Dreadnoughts next year. "Not enough!" had Members insisted, solicitous for national defence. ""Far too much; cut down accursed armaments and save the money," had .argued perfervid Radicals. That "was the mood of the House when it met.

The First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr McKenna, made a detailed statement. He spoke for an hour, reading nearly every word from typewritten sheets. He piled these on his crimson despatch-box, stuck his despatch on the lid of the brass-bound chest which buttresses the edge of the table, and so provided a readingdesk. With clear, bold enunciation he preached the need of the money. An occasional tinge of colour came to his mobile, clean-shaven, lawyer's face when he was conscious, as he might well be, of the intense interest which his statements excited. The stillness was impressive, but at long intervals there was a spontaneous blast of cheering when he struck a patriotic chord.

MR McKENNA AND ECONOMISTS His eye went to the Little Navy economists, sitting on a bench below the gangway. He appreciated that they regarded the increase of nearly three millions with alarm; he assured them that the Government had not come to a decision with a light heart; —<»ißeiolly--lio--Mro.o--rcaTed in the school of economy. "Bufc,":}re~expTa!necJ7j straightening his shoulders, "even the sternest economist mus£ make sacrifices, and the safety of the country stands above all other considerations." There was a cheer. He plucked courage and grew stronger. •"No matter what the cost, the safety of the country must be assured." Now the cheer blazed. Swiftly he laid it down that we could not determine in advance any definite limits to .our Navy—those limits must be fixed by the advance of foreign Powers. So gradually he came to Germany. He and the Prime Minister and Mr Balfour recognised the friendliness of Germany; but it was impossible to ignore the strides which ( Germany is making in shipbuilding, and intends to make. Germany has a navy law which will give her a navy larger and more powerful than any navy in existence. Germany is hastening with the building of . Dreadnought ships, and "it will tax all our resources if we are to keep up the same rate." So we had to push on. "We cannot afford to run risks," he said. He worked out statistics, somewhat complicated, but they came to this: that at the present rate of building in both countries we shall, by April, 1912, have twenty of these monster vessels to Germany's, seventeen. This was a rate of progress which Mr Balfour subsequently challenged, and in respect of which he made a comparison to Britain's disadvantage. But Mr McKenna was a Dreadnought man. The day was coming when ships behind the Dreadnought power would have to be relegated to the scrapheap. "We cannot be certain of retaining our superiority on the sea if we fall behind in this type of ship/said he. That was the note that he kept striking: we must keep ahead ' of Germany. He said' we were. Mr Balfour's contention was that Germany will soon be passing us. MR BALFOUR ON A GREAT DECISION. I have rarely seen Mr Balfour so oppressed with the seriousness of an occasion. The.immense fact that a decision on national destiny was to be given by the House weighed upon him. If we decide wrong it cannot be corrected in the future." There wa3 no appeal. However much we might wish to retrieve the fatal step we- could not. "For the first time jn many generations we shall be in a naval position never contemplated." This was his" prelude. He stretched his long, slim figure, and spread out his long, thin fingers, and m a voice low toned and yet with a touch of the shrill of apprehension in it, looked ahead for three years to see how we stood compared with other nations. The two-Power standard! Ha laughed a little huskily. We- had reached a point in regard to Dreadnoughts when the question was no* whether we retained a two-Power standard, but whether we had a onePower standard. "A—h!" cried the Opposition, in a long-drawn shout, f/asfmg the peril of the situation! What was Germany doing, and what did she intend to do? That was the issue Mr Balfour looked at. We checked our shipbuilding, nursing the empty hope that a reduction of armaments would be agreed to at The Hague Conference; but Germany not only went on building ships, but made enormous preparations with docks, slips, machinery, putting Germany in a position whicli, compared with us, no nation has ever yet been. The Germans had justified their boast that they could Jbuild as fast as we could. A year.

ego Mr Asquith did not think the Germans would carry out their "paper programme" ; that had been falsified, for not only had they car- > ried out their programme, but had so accelerated the speed of building that they had laid down four Dread- j noughts in November which were not , due till April. Calculating on this \ accelerated speed in Germany whilst ■ building in England continued at the i present speed, Mr Balfour worked ; out that in December, 1910, we shall j have ten Dreadnoughts, but the Ger- j mans will have thirteen. By April j Ist, 1911, whilst the Germans will have no more, we will have raised our number to twelve, and by July of 1911 we shall have fourteen. But the Germans will have seventeen. ItGermany lays down eight ships this year, then by April Ist, 1912, she will have twenty-five —in any case twenty-one —and we shall have twenty. It was this prospective state oi affairs that filled Mr Balfour with concern. "I do not," he said in sad voice, "approach this in an alarmist spirit, but most reluctantly I come to the conclusion that now, for the first time in modern history, we are face to face with a naval situation s?o new and so dangerous that it is very difficult for us to realise all that it imports," So far as naval construction till 1911 went, it was too late for us to do anything: no activity on the part of our dockyards, no generosity on the part of the taxpayers, woulcl make good the deficiency, "itis not "the two-Power standard, but the one-Power standard in the matter of ships of first-class power which seems to be slipping from our grasp, '

said he,

MR ASQUITH ON NATIONAL SAFETY. '

Mr Balfour's manner, the deep significance of his words, touched the House The strangejthing was tli3 overhanging silence. Mr Asquith was moved. He spoke slowly and impressively, agreeing that we were face to face, 'not with a party issue, but a matter which affected the wellbeing, and indeed the safety, of the Empire as a whole. He pressed the pofet that the diplomatic relations between ourselves and Germany were never more friendly than at present. Then jyhy should armaments go on increasing; why was there no mutual arrangement? Germany — and he spoke with solemnity—had made it clear to our Government that their expenditure was according to their own needs,"and their programme did not depend upon ours. They had made it quite plain that if we build a hundred Dreadnoughts we must not assume they would add to their programme, and if we built none they would go on with their programme just as it is. This sent a quiver of sensation through the Chamber. So Mr Asquith turned to critics of the Government on his own side of the House and denied that England had been setting the pace. But in view of a contingency which might be a menace we, in no hostility to another nation, but with the instinct of selfpreservation, must build. He disputed Mr Balfour's calculations on the strength of Dreadnoughts in 1912, and said that it was a physical impossibility for the Germans1 to accelerate speed in building and get ahead of us. Mr Asquith's own calculation was that on April Ist, 1912, we shall have twenty Dreadnoughts and the Germans seventeen.

DECLARATION OF GERMANY

Then came a striking statement. "Wsl have_ iad __the_-most .distinct declaration from the German Government," said Mr Asquith, "that it is not their intention to accelerate their programme." That was not a pledge or an agreement, and he could not accuse the German Government of anything in the nature of bad faith if they altered their intention. He admitted to the full that he was wrong a year ago in the assumption that the Germans, would not carry out their programme; they had, and we could no longer take to ourselves the comforting reflection that we had an advantage in the rate of shipbuilding. He shuddered at the horrible, devastating, sterilising expenditure—but it had to be.

Barely has the House been so chastened. It looked as though no Member dared venture to speak. For a while there was a momentous pause. Professor Lupton got to his feet. When his voice was heard Members, with one accord, bolted. For the first mir.ute o.v two it was impossible to hear what the Member for Sleafprd was saying, so great was the turmoil of men escaping to the lobby.