The Marlboroough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 1910. THE GERMAN NAVY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIV, Issue 56, 11 March 1910, Page 4

The Marlboroough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 1910. THE GERMAN NAVY.

"Methinks the lady doth protest too much," is the quotation which must crop up in the minds of many who have read the highly virtuous and pacific sentiments which fell from the mouth of the German Imperial Chancellor when confronted by the declaration of a Social Democrat member of the Reichstag that the Navy caused political unrest, and that Great Britain could only conclude that Germany's shipbuilding was directed against her. The Chancellor seemed to be quite hurt by such an insinuation. Germany's naval policy, he said, was directed "solely to the free expansion of her economic and social forces." "The whole world knows our shipbuilding programme," continued the Chancellor; "nothing j has been done in secret." But is the Chancellor correct when he says "the whole world" knows the German naval programme? In England, at least, there would appear to have been considerable doubt upon that point. .Do we not remember the famous speech of Mr McKenna when j introducing the British Naval Estimates last year, when, on "March 16, he pointed out that "the difficulty the Government were in was that! they did not know the rate at which i German construction was taking place" ? Apparently Dr yon Beth-mann-Hollweg's "whole world" does not include a little place called London, for Mr McKenna proceeded to say that whereas the information upon which the Government had decided their construction programme had led I them to believe that nine German ships of the largest size would be completed by 1910, the fact was that the number would be thirteen! Mr Balfour, who followed Mr McKenna, asserted that in April, 1912, Ger-! many might have 2*l or even 25 "Dreadnoughts" ready to the British 20. For the first time, he added, there was bordering on the North Sea a great Power with capacity and apparently the desire to compete with England in "Dreadnoughts." And why, it may be asked l should Great Britain object to such a rivalry? Simply because whereas Great Brit- .

am needs a mighty Navy in order to protect her oversea possessions, Germany has no great colonies, and it is therefore manifest to any but the; wilfully blind or deplorably ignorant that the war vessels she is building with such feverish haste are intended for use in the North Sea and against the Power concerning the maintenance of friendly relations with which the Chancellor had such nice, mild words to say the other day. It is notorious that the coaling capacity of these big German warships is only such as to" provide for a fortnight's cruise, a fact in itself most sinister in its significance. We detest scaremongers, but it is mere grievous and fatuous folly to disregard plain, outstanding facts, and in this case the facts are dead against the accuracy and sincerity of the German Chancellor's statements. "Fine words butter no parsnips," and Britain's naval policy must continue, whichever party be in power, to be one of undying vigilance and of distrust of her jealous and pjpwerful neighbour across the N«rth~Sea.