THE GERMAN MENACE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2884, 30 June 1909, Page 89

THE GERMAN MENACE.

BRITAIN'S UNPREPAREDNESS. (FBOM OUB, O-WH COIIREg&QXDENT.) CHRI^TCHURCH, June 24. The Press this morning published a letter from a correspondent in England dealing very clearly with the German menace. Phe writer is a New Zealander whose name, if it could be given, would, it ;s; s stated, give "weight to the warnings he utters. Th© writer begins Dy explaining that the views he expresses are what he ha# .gathered from experts, and lie continues : "In August last year I met a major in one' of -our best cavalry regiments. Two officers in • his regiment had recently returned from Germany, where they had -been attending some of the German army manoeuvres. In October I stayed a week in "a country house, where I I met the colonel in charge* of one of our ■ east coast divisions, and in London, in \ January, I met at* ? -a' club dinner the i colonel of one of the Scottipli regiments, a" ! man who has seen a greaydeal of service, i especially in India and ' South Africa, i These men ~so faT as I could judge were ! all shrewd, keen soldiers, thoroughly capable, and of proved courage and ex-;-pei"ience. I saw them- at 'considerable i intervals of time, and a,t places widely apart, and yet all three held th© same , views, which they stated in a quiet and '• matter of fact manner. Roughly, their [views are these : That no one of reasonable j intelligence can doubt the fact that as i Germany 50 years began to prepare for her war with 'Austria, which, when she was ready she carried to a triumphant conclusion in a few weeks, and as 40 years ago she forcad France into ths disastrous war of 1870-71 as soon as she herself was ready for the conflict, so she is now preparing to deliver a crushing blow on the British Empire.. These military men state that for the past two or three years, whenever any of our officers go across to Germany, they find that the principal topic in the German army is the manner in which the campaign against Great Britain is to be conducted when it is undertaken. The whole of England, especially the east and north-eastern counties, is carefully mapped ,out, and every deta.il of i-oads, bridges, smithies, etc., marked and illustrated. The plans for* rnshing a great 'number of German soldiers on . board ship and landing them at a given joint "TTh- our eastern coasts -are all worked out to tHe vft-rinwigst details. The, Germans calculate that the ~sT%n,'nifmf' i riT»t.:t'iicß' -fgom Hamburg to Harwich or Hull is less than from Portsmouth to either of these points by about six hours, and they reckon that by holding their summer manoeuvres in the northern part of Germany they could easily land 70.000 Germans on our eastern coast in 36 hours. But they admit that for the moment ."mch a proceeding would be futile. #s our fleet is sufficiently powerful to prevent them from maintaining communication with their own country. They discussed the matter very opedy and frankly before Colonel — — .'- When he was their guest at mess they «ipoloa;ised to him for mentioning it befoue him, simnly explaining tbat it was one of those things which , he. of course, recognised was bound to take place in, the early future. I a^ked the colonel in command of one- of our eastern posts what wo could do in the event of a descent being made upon ths coast, and I v;as much struck by bis reply. He' said: 'Of course, we could in a few hours gather together a number of men from Aldershot. but with nothing: in a state of preparedness it would take us some considerable time to eet torrofcher an army of 100,000 men with artillery and ammunition and all necessary suradHps to attack anj r force tbat might be landed." Tn fact, all fhe officers rpfprred to definitely expressed the oDinion that in the event of the Germans making a descent, upon our east coast their, only difficulty-would be— to— maintain _the men after they were landed, and. therefore, that t.he only ihintf w had to rely m>on was the suopiioritv of our fleet. Once a force of 60.000 or 70.000 men was landed, provided communication could be Iceoi o-oen. there would be no difficult.* in Oermaiiv increasing the number to a million m<ui in a w«ek or two. and a fore? of that number could in no way bp dealt with by our sirmv resources. This beinf so, and Sh- Edward Grey havin<l definiiPlv stated in the Hon«p of Commons that by 1916 the Gerrnpn fleet will be eoual to. if not in e-vces<; of. ours, it i« Dretty certain that the position is evpn more serious than Mr A^qnith admitted in whnt hp- rnHed his 'panic' speech in the House of Commons."