Britain’s War Preparations.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2368, 28 December 1898, Page 2

Britain’s War Preparations.

Speaking at the Guild Hall on Lord Mayor’s Day, Lord Salisbury said, referring to the active naval and military preparations then going on:—I know that all kinds of conclusions as to our future intentions have been drawn. Some people say we intend to seize Syria, other people say we intend to seize Crete, and a third view is that we intend to declare a protectorate over Egypt, and so on. Well then, you will say, if you are not going to take Crete, if you are not going to take Syria, and if you are not going to take Egypt, why are you making all these preparations P I have already said that when you begin preparations you cannot stop them in a moment. But I must go a step further, and I must ask you to look on the state of the world in which we of this generation at the end of this century live. We have had an invitation from his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia to attend a congress to provide for the disarmament of the nations. I offer the most hearty tribute to the motives by which that invitation has been dictated. I admire the character which could have produced it—(cheers)—and as far as assistance or sympathy from us can help him in the task he has undertaken, that sympathy and assistance is entirely at his disposal. But 'while we earnestly agree with his views and his desires, we may be permitted to think that until the happy day shall have arrived when his aspirations are crowned with success, we must still have regard to the dangers that surround us and provide the precautions which are needful. In some respects the era for this great proposition will, I think, be an epoch in the history of man —but the era of this great proposition has been marked by unhappy omens. It is the first year in which the mighty forces of the American Republic have been introduced among the nations whose dominion is expanding, and whose instruments to a certain extent are war. I am not imputing the slightest blame—far from it; lam not refusing sympathy to the American Republic in the difficulty through which they have passed, but no one can deny that their appearance among the factors of Asiatic, at all events, and possibly European diplomacy, is not a grave and serious event which may not conduce to the interests of peace, though in any event it is likely to conduce to the interests of Great Britain. But what has has been impressed upon us is that the subject matter of war is terribly prevalent on all sides. You see nations who are decaying or whose government is so bad that they can neither maintain the power of self-defence nor the affection of their subjects. You see this on all sides, and you also see when the phenomenon takes place there are always neighbours who are impelled by some motive or other—it may be the highest philanthropy, it may be their natural desire of empire—which are always inclined and disposed to contest with each other as to who should be the heir of the nation which is falling away from its own position, and that is the cause of war. And still more serious is the consideration which recent events have forced upon us, that these wars come upon us with absolutely unannounced and terrible rapidity which baffles all calculation and it may be that within two months of the first warning you receive you find you are engaged in, or in prospect of war on which your very existence may be at stake. Let us remember that we are a great colonial and military Power. There have been great colonial and military Powers before us—four or five. They have all fallen through having land frontier, by which the evening could approach, and by which their heart through their metropolis could bestruck. We have no such land frontier, but if we ever allowed our defences on sea to fail to meet a point of efficiency that it is easy, or nearly as easy to cross a land frontier, our great empire, which stretches to the ends of the world, and is supported by our maritime power in every part of it, will come clattering to the ground when the blow on the metropolis in England is struck. Our whole existence, not only our whole prosperity, but the whole fabric by which our millions are nourished and sustained— they all depend on our being able to defend our own shores against attack, and that ability depends on our power at any moment to summon to our aid a maritime force far larger than any opponent can bring to bear against us. If you will think out this idea you will we cannot, in the present state and temper of the world, intermit our naval and military preparations. They must be kept constantly on foo t. But do not let it be said for a moment on that account that we are prepared for any great and dangerous enterprise or are animated by lust of cbnquest or love of country. I don’t believe there is any but a very small and uninfluential minority in this great community who look with anything but abhorrence on war but the Government are resolved to do their duty. They are resolved to maintain the honour handed down to them, they are resolved to deliver the empire received from their fathers unimpaired to those who come after them. In doing what they are doing they are not announcing any love of war; they are exposing themselves to no reproach of infidelity to their loudly proclaimed principles of peace; on the contrary they are maintaining and holding up and giving its only true support to that peace which is the glory and sustenance of our country.