THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1905. NAVAL DOMINION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13029, 21 November 1905, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1905. NAVAL DOMINION.

A The determination of \\ie German Federal Council—whiclA represents the individual States-' of foe Empire, as the Reichstag represents the nation—to make further larg<\ increases to the navy is a warning tdall other maritime Powers that Germany's ambition for naval domi\iW lias still to be reckoned with. Tye German naval Estimates for 1% were £10,216,900, so that the increased expenditure of one million sterling is equal to 10 per cent. The inWloy- ! ment of 126 additional officers'; and 5463 additional warrant officers men is a still greater proportionate increase on the present strength, i The numerical strength for 1906 \as compared with that for 19041: aid I 1905 ' shows plainly the sustained eft>-ts being made by the Kaiser in tit*?...- direction. When we further c«fcs»sje the strength of 1891 we k&*f: an idea of what Germany is aittHßx at. The figures are : \ 1 IS?*-. ... 20,498 officers and men 19IU\. ... 35,352 officers ami men 1906... ... 38.025 officers and men 19<&.„. ~ 43,641 officers and men When vhe arrangements for the coming y*.ar tfbe completed Germany will have .more than doubled her ac- j tive naval -jst siiwe 1891. In addi-

lionshe has son|oo,ooo men liable for service in th Reserve, and can draw in an eme%ency upon every man in her .'mercantile marine. For, unlike the United Kingdom,- Germany not only reserves'■her merchant ships exclusively! for her own seamen, but enforces, by conscription, compulsory naval service upon her maritime population as ,she enforces compulsory military service upon her landward population. That she is wisely national in doing so goes without saying, but our appreciation of her methods in thus preparing and maintaining a great body of capable defenders against her hour of national need does not affect the threatening aspect of a naval development by which over 40,000 seamen are now held in active service during a time of peace in order to man a fleet entirely uncalled for if designed for defence only, and therefore necessarily to be regarded as a weapon preparing for offensive use. For it is not only preposterous to assume that one of the most prac-tical-peoples in the world would withdraw:.;'such, a number of men from industry without) some definite conception of future compensation, but equally impossible to think that the increasing naval burden is being borne for amusement. The past and prospective naval expenditures of Germany are : 1894 ... ... £-1,150,000 1904 £10,177,000 1905 £10,216,000 1906 ... ... £11,216,000

There can be no doubt as to the meaning of this. Germany's existing over-seas interests are not worth such vast payments. These naval increases have come with the growing ambitions of the German Kaiser, and point unmistakably to an attempt to attain the mastery of the seas and to pluck the visible fruits of naval dominion.

It may be said that Germany, having important mercantile and some colonial interests, is compelled to place herself upon a naval footing that will command respect from other Powers. But against all the Powers that surround her Germany has the best of security in her military strength, and the only over-sea ' Powers whom her old naval strength .would not be sufficient against are the United Kingdom and the United States. This was universally perceived the moment the Kaiser proclaimed his new naval policy early in 1898. The Washington Government commenced defensive preparations with all the American energy, and has already placed itself out of danger of German attack upon its Monroe Doctrine, which was notoriously hateful in the eyes of those German statesmen who saw the great possibilities of colonisation in South America, could the cordon drawn round that Continent by the United States be broken through. Our own Imperial Government was similarly compelled to vastly increase its naval armaments in order that it might be able to resist any combination of Powers effected by the Kaiser. But though Germany is to-day as far as ever from possessing the key to naval dominion, site is still maintaining the race, probably rather because it is considered at Berlin bad policy to retrace "steps* so ostentatiously taken than from any remaining expectation of success. For her action has had little other result than to stir into navybuilding activity Powers with greater maritime interests and much longer purses than her own. She has made it imperative for the United States to become the second maritime Power in the world, and for the United Kingdom to make such additions to its naval strength as cannot possibly be counterparted by any Continental nation. And while she has been thus irritating AngloSaxondom, the Russian fleet, upon which the Kaiser undoubtedly coun- ; ted to take part in some future combined attack upon Britain, has practically ceased to exist just as Russia has practically ceased to exist among the nations. At the same time France has been so completely estranged by the Morocco incident that the Paris Government has been driven into closer relations with London than was anticipated by the most optimistic supporters of the Anglo-French Treaty. Over thirty millions of pounds sterling has already been spent by Germany in the way of increased naval Estimates, but the results so far can scarcely be regarded with unmixed satisfaction by the German people.