THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1910. THE NAVAL OUTLOOK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14919, 23 August 1910, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1910. THE NAVAL OUTLOOK

Discussion* , of the relative position' oi Britain and Germany ai regards naval armaments and the naval outlook 'or i'te future has been necessarily su 'argely influenced' by the fact that tii© soiii*:re of its emanation has been either Bnfaeh or German that a review of the situation at the hands of a critic of whose philosophic impartiality there can rw 110 question may well bo a vahiajtik cnnij ,u butioji to the literature on thb subject. Admiral Mahan, author of the famous work " Tlie Influence of Sea-poww on History," being an American, is on that account the better qualified to dismiss dispassionately a subject upon which hi* is one of the recognised authorite. A contribution from 'his pen ciitiUou Britain and t'le Gorman Navy," ".vhic'ft appeared recently ir. the Daily Mail, Is characterised 1 by that journal as "a grave answer to the nilgai flippanr/v with which Mr Lloyd George treated the greatest issue of our time the maintenance of British naval suprbrnacy,, u> us Budget speech ' Certainly .'i, is difficult to escape vorv fav from the 'elentiw/; logic with which Admiral Mahan arrives at conclusions by no mean-5 -lUogri-bw calculated to alky all anxietr concerning the outlook for Britain's iavni ( utu>'t. Tho people of Great Bntan ■« remindod, and tho reminder ii ivobiilily as timely as ever, that they should not depend upon apprehension of Germany's intentions to attack in order to appraise, their naval necessities and awaken their

determinations, "Resolutions based on such artificial stimulus," says Admiral Mahan, "are much like t-he excitement of drink, liable to excess in demonstration as well as to misdirection and ultimate collapse in energy as momentary panic is eucceedcd by reaction. Unemotional businesslike recognition of facts, in their duo proportions, befits national policies, to bo followed by vrnAi weighed measures corresponding to the exigency of the discernible future " In this very characteristic of precautionary action, however, a democracy like that of Great Britain stands at it disadvantage a 6 compared with a peoplo like the t3nrmans accustomed to a different, stamp of government. It is just becauso government in Germany is still so much less regardful of. national feeling than it is in Great Britain, being in a position to ho so, that, in tlio words of Admiral Mahan, it is "a government much more efficient for organised action even though it make less for tho kind of development which follows personal freedom from restraint." It ought not to bo news to the British democracy of to-day to learn that tho fundamental condition which it has to recognise as regards national security consists in tho (act that it stands face to face with a. nation onefourth more numerous and one more highly organised for the sustainmenl. by force of a national policy. In Groat Britain tho popular traditio: - of tho national need of a great navy still supplies to some extent and for the moment, it is admitted, a steadying hand. Yet, says this naval critic, "to one following from a distance tho course if British action, in late years it certainly lias swmed that this conviction is less opera, live: that its claims to allegiance we less felt and moro disputed." Again, the insularity or remoteness which may beget confidenco m a community may conceivably bo a source of weakness as well as of strength. Tho Bense and measure of security from external aggression conferred by "the water-walled bulwark'' of Shakespeare, m removing the ■pressure felt by k&j happily situated peoples, tend to enoourage an optimistic attitude towards external dangers, fostering unreadiness for war, while 'essening dependence upon organised government. Insular democracies, it is the verdict of Admiral Mahan, are lax and inefficient in preparation for war. The British democracy, although the national wealth is much greater, will not maintain an army proportionately as great as that, of Germany. There remains the fleet, and in respect to the nation pursuing the quiet tenor of its way behind the bulwark of an efficient fleet Admiral Mahan puts effectively the case for universal military service when ho pens tho admonition : " Nolo that a State thus favoured is militarily in the same position essentially as one that hires an army of mercenaries. Tho only difference is that tho seamen aro fellow citizens, an immense distinction, it will l>e granted, but it does not invalidate rtio fact that tho mass of the citizens are paying a body of men to do their fighting for them. It follows that the least the mass can do in self-respect a« v for security is to pay amply and 1 timely for tile efficiency ' of' tho body they thus employ." While admitting that perhaps 110 democracy was ever faced with such a problem as that confronting Great Britain in maintaining the security of the British Empire, Admiral Mahan finas one of the most favourable signs tbat liavo met his oye in tne decision of tho Labour Government in Australia that m time of war the Australian navy should be at the absolute disposal of the British Admiralty. But he professes to have looked without success for a corresponding reflection of this determination in the, attitude of the Labour party at Home, The security of the British Empire demands the security of the British Isles and of the outlying dominions, which means substantial British control of the communications between the two. In the present' condition of Europe the creation of the German fleet, with its existing and proposed development, has necessitated the concentration in British waters of more than four-fifths of the disposable British, battle force. •' These facts," says Admiral Mahan, "constitute Germany tho immediate antagonist of Great Britain. I do not say for a moment that this manifests Germany's purpose, I simply stuto the military uid :ntevnational fact without inference i,e to motives." The reduction of the Mediterranean fleet due to the policy of concentration lias to an outsider, we are reminded, the significance that in the opinion of the British Government under present conditions of preparation the security of tli? British Islands requires tile weakening almost to abandonment, of the most delicate yet. very essentia] IniK in the -system of communications of the Empire, Some consolation may be found in a naval authority's admission that for the moment the naval concentration at Home, coupled with the tremendous positional idvantage of Great Britain over German trade routes, constitutes a great measure of security and that British waters, occupied as they now are, effectually interpose between Germany and the British oversea dominions But Admiral Malian's parting warning is to the British democracy —the voter,- at whose dooi will lie responsibility and whose lot will be suffering in the event of a. national reverse following upon national failure to make preparation, " The, menacing feature of the future," he judges, 'is the apparent indisposition and slackness of the new votei* of the last half-century over against, the resolute spirit and the tremendous faculty for organising strength evident in Germany."