NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13724, 14 April 1908, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

I BRITISH AND GERMAN NAVAL i EXPANSION. Although the disclosure of the Kaiser's letter to Lord Tweedmouth was not made in time to be dealt with in the March revie-.vs, still the new German naval programme had excite!! startled surprise in England. -The expert who -writes under the pen-name of " Ekcubitor" (" The Awakoner") contributes a temperate and well-balanced article in the Fortnightly Review on the subject of " Britain's Reply to Germany's Dreadnoughts." in the course of which he compares the loud demand of the British Navy League for the immediate laying down of six Dreadnoughts and two Invincible?, with the flurry which occurred on Plymouth Hoe when the news of the approach of the Spanish Armada- was brought. Drake's historic reply that there was plenty of time to win the game of bowls and beat the Spaniards afterwards is quoted as typical of the best British temper in time of danger. The writer protests that there is no need for fluster and hurry. He shows that on June 1. 1907, the margin of strength possessed by the British navy over the German navy was amply sufficient, England having 52 battleships, 32 armoured cruisers, 90 cruisers, and 142 destroyers; as against Germany's 22 battleships, eight armoured cruisers, 38 cruisers, and 60 destroyers. England had 47 torpedo-boats to Germany's 48, and 39 submarines to Germany's one. " Excubitor' argues that England can well afford to wait for another year before beginning to build in reply to Germany's programme of four armoured ships to be laid down this year. " All cause of alarm will be removed if it is never forgotten that, while we are building our ships in two years, Germany will take three, the United States four, and France at least five. We can still afford to follow our traditional policy of awaiting foreign developments, and then playing a tramp card." Having said that much, the writer argues in favour of a " Two-German standard," i.e., the formula of two to one against Germany, the ample margin being made necessary by the fact that Germany can concentrate all her fleet in the North Sea, while England must still keep sis battleships in the Mediterranean, the same number in the Atlantic, and possibly at some future date may have to keep six in the Far East also. "Excubitor" pleads for no hysterical alarm, but the cool, calculating courage of Sir Francis Drake."