WAR OR PEACE?

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7866, 31 July 1911, Page 1

WAR OR PEACE?

BRITAIN AND GERMANY ADDEBSS BY HE E. TEEGEAE. "War or, Peaoc?’’ was the subject of an address delivered by Mr E. Tregear at the City Men's Biothorbood yesterday afternoon. The, speaker said he was not there as an advocate of- military conscription nor as. a member of a nonmiiitairy league. lie only wished to-put . before them questions as be saw them so that they could judge for themselves. He had been a fighting man himself, as a frontiersman, and he, hadn't any patience with people who said, “I’m a doormat; please trample on me.” When he looked around, it seemed to him that the best example of the whole mesa the world had got into to-day was that of the Western States of America seventy years ago, with their lawlessness, each man a law rmto himself. Time passed and law and older crept in. To-day the nations were armed with Dreadnoughts, mistrusting each, other as formerly those in the Wild Wed: mistrusted. each other. Hie purpose was to show that ail. these weapons were unnecessai-y; in -fact, a policeman was a much better man than a soldier. It was not so easy for Germany to disarm as it was for Great Britain, which, since the Norman conquest, had never been trodden by a foreign army. The result was that, safe within her own little circle, the idea of individual freedom had had time to flourish. IVberever Britain bad conquered she allowed the people to have their freedom. Britain's greatest trouble in India was the desire to give people freedom who were not ready for it. GERMANY'S POSITION. Germany had been in a different position. It had been passed over by conquering armies. Germany had the idea that there was no freedom for the individual until the collective freedom of the whole nation was assured. When war came there was no argument that would induce the German to desert his. flag. The German people had not got the power to say whether there should be war or not. The officers of the army were almost all scions of the. German aristocracy. The young German; aristocrat would not have anywhere to go unless' it were for the army. The soldiers did not want to' be disbanded; then there were the contractor!; who expected big profits out of a war, and there was a certain section of the press to whom it would be a delight to have war. The whole question resolved itself into one of economics. The economic reason for war between Germany and Britain, was that the competitive system was a failure, it could not keep on very much longer. All'the talk they heard of expansion was that more trade was wanted and more ■ profits. England’s' customers with freetrade soon became her competi-toi-s. Bismarck saw' that before half a century was over there would be an enormous industrial and very likely a military struggle', so Germany began to got ready. Millions of her men were always kept" up to the mark for fighting. Her mercantile marine was manned by Germans; Britain's to a large extent by, dagoes. The German loaders foresaw -that there would bo an enormous struggle for the industrial supremacy of the world. It had: got to be either Britain or Germany on top.

TUB OUTLOOK. At the present moment, with the possibility of war between Britain and Germany English coneols were down; French and German consols had. fallen.: Germany’s trade was built up with borrowed money and mostly with English money, and immediately Germany began to suffer the whole world sufierod. . War to-day was different to war in. the olden days when they could levy tribute upon a 'conquered country. Some of them might take sides with the man. whose son had been taken to prison for failing to enrol in Wellington, but there were enormous economic conditions which made the question so involved that they could not be settled by tiny issues like that. If they were determined to stand by tho English flag, then be thought they really ought to bo ready to do something more than was being demo now. Supposing it were possible for the occasion to arise, were tho men of New Zealand content to have their children stand between them and the foe? If not, were they going to try arms? Whose arms? Their wives’ arms? It was all nonsense to say they were as well prepared as tho Boars, because they hadn't got.any weapons.