AN ANGLO-AMERICAN NAVY.

Otago Witness, Volume 23, Issue 2684, 23 August 1905, Page 54

AN ANGLO- AMERICAN NAVY.

By the Hon. PAUL MORTON, Secretary of the United States Navy up to July 1, 1905.

J (Written for " Potentia "—Copyright.) The Right Honourable Sir Charles W. Dilke, in a recent article, declares the real meaning of the remarkable changes in Grea... Britain's naval policy to be that the present British Government is frankly and profoundly convinced that Great Britain will never again wage war with the United States. This feeling is shared by most Americans. A few prominent men of the United States have expressed their disapproval of a large American navy by stating that it is unnecessary, extravagant, and altogether undesirable; that by a policy of non-exportation of food 'products this country could force Great Britain and the other Powers of Europe to sue for peace in 30 days' time, because the people of those countries are our best customers, and absolutely depend upon the United States for this food supply. To me' this seems absurd, and, in my opinion, it will not be long before the growth and development of industry in thi° country will make it almost impossible for us to furnish any considerable quantity of breadstuffs to foreign countries. Within the next 25 yea-is we are quite likely to consume all we produce. In the meantime other sources of food supply in the world will have been so developed as to i'lmisb. substitutes for the present American exports; especially will North- West Britis/i America come to the front as a wheatraising country. To my mind, the fact that Great Britain i 3 our best customer makes it most important that we should have a navy which, in case of dire necessity, might be used to protect mutual interests. The policy of jir.nexportation advocated by some of our dis languished citizens would be as detrimental to us as to those we undertook to punish and in case 'Great Britain should become involved in war with any foreign Power, it /night be vital for this country to keep open the avenues of trade, and to «k> this it would be necessary to call in the agency of an all-powerful American navy. The sentiment of the American people is , now quite generally in favour of having a navy second only to that of Great Britain, and the almost unanimous feeling in this country is that the English-speaking people of the world together should have a combination navy that could hold its own against * all the navie9 of other nations. The American navy combined, with that of Great Britain would be an absolute power | in tba world's affairs. > All serious differences which the United , States may have hereafter with foreign countries will be settled either by arbitra- < tion or by battleships. Most great modern wars hava been settled by navies. Evau in the civil war in America the blockading I of the southern pores by the Union navy, which prevented the people of the south from exchanging their cotton and other pro- j ducts for munitions of war, was an important factor in giving the north its final victory. More and more it is demonstrated by the Spanish-American war, and the war between Japan and Russia, that the Power which controls the sea measures the Bower which will control the earth. The American people are for peace They think their greatest conquests are to be made in commerce. They deplore war Their resources are great. They already furnish a large proportion of the surplus food to the world. However, they are not satisfied that their country should be considered only as the granary of the world. They want it to be regarded as the world's workshop as well. The wonderful resources of America, the ingenuity of the American people, their business instincts, their ability J Ito work hard, all tend to make them ambitious to become the manufacturing people of the world, and with this in view they hope to do a share of the world's commerce commensurate with their wealth and resources. Neither will they be satisfied with making America the granary and the workshop, for the American people have ambitions along financial lines. It will not be many years before New York City has a population of 10 million people, and the ambition of its financiers is to make it the counting-house of the world's commerce. j Personally, lam an "intense" American ' but I believe in expansion. When I say expansion, I do not necessarily mean an expansion of territory. I mean the internal expansion that is now going on in the United States. I believe in the expansion of cur navy, of our political influence, and the reason for all this is that these things lead to expansion in commerce and finance. j The American people feel their taxes probably less than any other nation. They are ' already the richest people in the world, and rapidly growing wealthier. The money, is not being concentrated in New York or any single financial centre, but is generally distributed throughout the country. The agricultural classes never owned as much or owed as little as they do to-day. In briof, the American people as a nation are in a . position to pay for anything they want, I easily and without adding perceptibly to their burdens. This is not only shown, in the annual appropriations and the building of the navy, but in the building of such enterprises aa the Panama Canal, the devotion of 25,000,000d0l to irrigation, and other stupendous -undertakings which have been brought about without a perceptible increase \ in the per capital burden of taxation. j It is not necessary for us to have a navy as large as that of England, but I stand ,' wnivnaT/icalli for a aavy_ second only to that

of England. I believe in a navy of such fighting force that it will discourage any other nation from desire to engage tho United States in warfare. I believe m a navy so formidable that it will preserve peace; a navy so well prepared for war at all times that war will never come. My conception of the American navy can be stated in three words — construction, instruction, and destruction. I believe we dhoul.i build as good ships as anybody. I believe they should be as well armoured and the:r guns should be as large, and that each ship should have as many guns as the best battleship of any other nation.

I know that our officers are just as gallant, just as brave, just as skilled, a? ihe officers of- any other navy. I believe thit our officers are the best educated men of their class in the world. I know that our enlisted men are now nearly all American, born. I know that they are the beat clothed, the best sheltered, the best fed, and the best paid men of any navy in the world, and I believe if war ever comes, which God forbid, then fight we must, our officers and men will fight as well as, if not better, than the men of any other navy

The navies of Great Britain, of Germany, and of France are supplemented by a largemerchant marine, which, up to the present time, we are without. I believe in the upbuilding of our jperohant marine. I be-lieve-that, exporting as we do more goous in tonnage than any other nation of the earth, we should own and operate more ships. Our greatest, weakness in transportation is on the seas. We must .levise some way to show the world that we can triumph in the carriage of freight by water in the same manner as we have on land

The United States will in time logically and inevitably become the most powerful nation in the world. This will be iue to geographical position and extent of country, diversified resources, enormous natural wealth, the composite and alert cEaractor of the population, and also to the fact that the tax-resisting power of the American people has as yet heen encroached upon to but sligiht degree, and promises in the future to become almost inexhaustible. The fulfilment of such a destiny as this will bo advanced or retarded in direct ratio to the expansion of the naval power of the country.

England is now the greatest naval Power in the world, and probably will remain so for many years to come. Her people are so accustomed to regard naval expenditure as a neoessity that no complaint is made of taxation for the purpose of maintaining a supreme position. The United States ia the only country which has or can secure, the money, in the immediate future required to build up a%naval Power approximating that of England.

With the navies of the two countries large enough when combined to constitute an unquestioned authority in the affaiis"of the world, there would not only be a matter of sympathy between* Englishspeaking peoples, or self-interest in the maintenance of international markets, to prevent war, but there would be a pos&ilve moral obligation resting in the possession of this power which would be as compelling in bringing about united action for peace throughout the world as any need for sciiprotection.