IMPERIAL DEFENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 9 November 1909, Page 2

IMPERIAL DEFENCE.

OPINIONS FEOM ENGLAND. The editor of the "National Review (_V_.r L. Jj Masse.); discuesing the report of the Cabinet committee which ; inquired into Lord Charles Beresfordi's charges against the Admii"dty, in-dulgea in nis usual violent attacks against t/he First Sea Lord. "Sir John Fisher," he declares, "is above all living Englishmen, respbmsibles for the disastrous position into which we ' aye drif ed vis-a-vis Germany." Then follows a summary of Sir John's alleged iniquities: — "'Hiis first crime-was the reduction of British naval estimates by about £5,000,000 during the last two years at the late Unionist Government — a imoasure for which there was not the sited© of a shadow of a pretext of any articulate demand in any oorner of the country. His vaunted policy of 'scrappdng' was -simply a device to keep down the personnel of the fleet, and. to ilgratiato himself witb dheeseparing po^ticians who, whatever party is in power, are only too £Sff tt !T ias the aervices ' and too indifferently to national security. Wath the same object he has deliberately curtailed -ocr shipbuildigg programmes during the five critical years. His own Cawdor programme was abandoned with his consent. He has enabled Germany to get abec-d of us in the production of modern battleships, while he has beguiLed bluster. Now .thiat the situation is so grave that even the man in the street can no longer be fooled, (Sir John Fisher poses as a Big Navyite and makes a show of clamouring for 'Dreadnoughts,' to the neglect of everything else. It i s as thouneih a general created an army exclusively of artillery. He ds primarily responsible for tihe criminal neglect of fiosybh. He has fought desperately against th* creation of a gCTera V fetaff. Besides being the navy's worst enemy, he is likewise the worst eniemy of the-army, against whidh he has ceaselessly intrigued with the •fcfrcesl" Mr Surd's cautious anh.-. iysis is more convincing than Mt Maoree's unbdddled denunciation . Lieutenant-Colonel Pollock explains in the "Fortnightly" the advantages which Imperial defenco will derive from the Imperial General-StAff wihen rully established as a working com«ern:—"TJlntil now. the .tenure of high appomtm-enits on the staffs of ™ c ™ T j? us .«<>l<>ni.'il foTces % officers of the Btntnsh army has been tacitly Ssf^l..'V\ c unfi tnes s of colonials for the discharge .of the same duties, and (the undeniable fact that very few indeed of < rthe lat£ ? have hitberto^ acquired - : the '■ neeessd-ry qnalificar'ions could BCa rcly be expected to relieve the rather natural fueling of imitation thus- engendered _ Far different will be the SS?*^? „ *,*« Pn«^ded system now prevalent has given placf to condrtaoois ltf.wWeh eteff officers of the. Home and Colonial . forces, nil traced in one great school of tnoupht., though at various staff colnbU '» r€ndersd interchange-