IS IT PEACE OR WAR?

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15003, 27 May 1912, Page 7

IS IT PEACE OR WAR?

GERMANY'S ARMAMENTS.

WHAT THEY MEAN TO BRITAIN

MR. BALFOUR'S VIEWS.

GERMAN OVERSEAS IDEALS.

ENGLAND CANNOT APPROVE.

MUST PREPARE TO MEET

DANGER

By Telegraph.—Press Association. Copyright

(Received May 26. 5.5 p.m.)

• Berlin, May 25. Mr. Balfour has contributed an important article on the relations between Britain and Germany to the magazine Nord und Sud. After cordially acknowledging the world's debt to Germany's genius and learning, Mr. Balfour says: "If recent years have produced a changed feeling this is not due to national prejudice, but to a series of facts which cannot be lightly treated or calmly ignored." The first of these facts was the German Navy Bill. If Englishmen could be sure that the German fleet , would only be used for defence they would not care how large it was. Conquered or Starved. Britain was, proceeds the article, wholly dependent on her seaborne supplies. There were two ways in which a hostile nation could be crushed. She could be conquered or starved. If Germany were master in British Home waters she could apply both methods to Great Britain, but were Britain ten times master of the North Sea she would be unable to apply either method to Germany. .Without a superior fleet Britain would not count as a Power, whereas without any fleet Germany might remain the greatest Power in Europe.

Instinct of Self-Preservation. Therefore, says Mr. Balfour, _ the instinct of self-preservation obliged Englishmen, not merely to take account of the growth of foreign navies, but to anxiously' weigh the motives for the building of foreign navies. Germany was increasing both her army and navy and also her strategic railways to frontier States. "Is it not conceivable, asks Mr. Balfour, " that this is being done to render her impregnable against attack? Unfortunately no mere analysis of Germany's preparations for war will show the purposes for which they are designed. Germany's preparations are just as formidable for aggression as for defence. The danger lies in the co-existence of marvellous instruments of warfare with the assiduous advocacy of a policy of territorial expansion which it seems impossible to reconcile with the peace of the world, or with the rights of other nations."

. Germany Seeking Territory. All countries hindering, though in self-defence, the ideal of Germanterritorial expansion was, proceeds Mr. Balfour, regarded by Germany as hostile, and a war cf threats was deemed the natural and fitting method to accomplish the ideal. Let German students assume that Germany should be endowed.at the cost of other nations with overseas dominions proportionate to her greatness in Europe, but do not let them ask Englishmen to approve. We are too surely convinced of the perils that such a policy, were it successful, would bring upon ourselves as well as others. The German View of England. Mr. Balfour proceeds to say that he is afraid Germans widely hold the conviction that Britain stands in their country's light, that Englishmen desire to thwart her natural -development, and are jealous of her legitimate growth. "Of these crimes," he says, "we are unconscious. "I- do not believe," adds Mr. Balfour, " that Germany and Great Britain are predestined to be enemies. Germany has taught Europe much, and can teach her yet that the organising of military power may be used in the interests of peace as effectively as in the interests of war; that the appetite for domination belongs to an outworn phase of 1 patriotism and that the furtherance of the civilisation for which she has laboured must be the joint work of many peoples. If Germany is prepared to lead on these lines she will find the world prepared to follow, but if her policy is determined by national ambitions of a, different type she must not be surprised if other countries watch the growth of her aggressive powers with undisguised alarm, and consider means of meeting a common danger." Lord Haldane and Mr. Bonar Law. Lord Haldane, in an article in the same magazine, enlarges on the peace argument from literary and philosophical traditions. Mr. Bonar Law declares that the best, perhaps the only absolute, security for peace lies in each country realising the strength of the other, and realising that whatever the respective domestic differences, each is prepared to defend to the last her rights and her honour.

, A GERMAN REPLY. USING FRENCH SPECTACLES. (Received May 26, 5.5 p.m.) Beelin, May 25. The Kreuz Zeitung, a leading newspaper, expresses regret that Mr. Balfour's opinion on Germany is influenced by French chauvinist views, springing from hatred of Germany. This, adds the paper, is hardly what was expected of an Englishman of Mr. Balfour's stand-

ing, and we must now conclude that Conservatives like Mr. Balfour view German conditions and motives through French spectacles, and that they are unwilling to make any concessions to the German standpoint.

WISE AND PATRIOTIC.

NEW ZEALAND'S ACTION.

(E«eeivcd May 26. 5.5 p.m.)

Sydney, May 25.

The Sunday Times says all countries must admire tho splendid patriotism of New Zealand in granting H.M.S. New Zealand to .the Home fleet. New Zealand had not only done a wise and a patriotic thing in presenting the battleship, but a thing that was obviously desired by tho British Government and the Admiralty.

PREPARING FOR WAR.

A NEW ZEALANDER'S VIEW.

[by telegraph.—own correspondent.]

Chbistchof.ch, Sunday A correspondent of the Christchvtrch Press, a well-known ex-resident of Canterbury, now living in' England, writes under date April 14, as follows :—-" The opinion amongst all tho naval and military men I meet is that Germany is now preparing for war just as she prepared prior to 1866 and 1870, and that she raises these continual scares to enable the Government to get the votes through Parliament for more men and more ships. England is safe till tho ships aro ready, and till the air fleet is also ready, but no military or naval men seem to entertain any doubt j a* to the ultimate object of the prepara- : tions which are now going on. The newspaper campaign now going on all over Germany is steadily fed from official sources, and a new scare is provided whenever the verbal animosity against England shews any signs of dying down. I write this because I see that there is an agitation against universal service in New Zealand. Quite apart from the good it will do in developing tho physique of the nation, and the advantages of discipline and training. I fancy the young of to-day " will live to see the time when they' will have to fight for their country and their freedom. Both Conservatives and Liberals hero individually admit that universal training is the only nope for this country, but collectively as Governments, they, are both afraid that to propose it would mean the loss of votes."