The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1912. NAVAL EXPENDITURE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 22, 23 May 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1912. NAVAL EXPENDITURE.

That there, is likely to be any cessation of the ever-increasing expenditure on defence does not seem at all pmbable in the light?of-recent events. Yesterday's' cablegrams informed us that Admiral Von Rooster, at a .meeting of the German' .Navy League, said the home membership had increased twenty per cent, in a year as compared with a forty per cent, increase in foreign leagues. Germany's foreign trade had increased GG per cent. since the introduction of the navy law. Therefore, a living squadron of armoured cruisers was needed in order that Germany's power might be better represented throughout the globe. This is all very well, but how are the German people going to look at the matter? Writing at the end of April, a Berlin correspondent states that an obviously inspired summary of the Navy League's annual report for 1911 had been published in most of the Conservative papers, in which references are made to suggestions in the foreign press that the League is losing influence, a presumption which, it says, is defeated by the increase in membership during the course of 1911. In spite, however, of the frenzied activity of the League throughout the whole of last year, and in spile of the fact that, according to the report, the patriotic feelings of the whole country were stirred to their depths, this increase only reached the modest figure of 19,-f 17, raising the total number of members from 1,034,987 to 1,054,404. The .same author-

ity says it must not be forgotten that by far the greater number of these are not direct subscribers, but are members only by virtue of their membership of some other organisation. In 1911 only 298,014 were direct members, while 756,390 kciv members through some other society; the increase for the year in direct membership was less than 8000. The Navy League still keeps up the fiction of being a non-political body, and in consequence whole classes of school children, girls as well as boys, are said to be enrolled as members. How far the numbers of the League are swollen by this easy process is not divulged, as the League is somewhat backward in supplying details. In addition to this, university classes and Pan-German groups help to swell the total number of indirect members. Dt almost seems as though the people are slowly awakening to the great folly of this ever-increasing competition to possess the biggest navy, and that the burdens imposed on them in this struggle for supremacy are becoming intolerable. The socialist clement is undoubtedly growing in Germany, and has set its face against the great and growing expenditure on armaments. In England a probable increase in naval expenditure w.\s outlined in the Budget speech, when the Chancellor of the Exchcqur, while deploring the enormous waste on armaments and stating it lhad became a

great hurdon on the national energies, went on td si'.y that so long as these epileptic fits of militarism which seized civilisation from time to time last-

ed, Britain could take no rest. "So much depends," lie said, "on curing the absolute inviolability of our shores

that it ivc err, I think ive ought to err on the safe side; and as long as I am satisfied—and I am satisfied—that the First Lord's Estimate;;, high as they are, are only adequate in se-

cure the minimum which is necessary For safety, so long as I have the honouh to hold office as Chancellor of Die Exchequer, it will he my duty to do all 1 can to find the necessary finance to carry these purposes through.. In arranging the finance of the year .1 must take into account the very serious contingency -Mr Churchill (in his

.speech introducing the Navy Estimates) referred to. What it means and how much it moans it is premature to estimate, and therefore all we can do is to provide the necessary re-

serve." Surprise was manifest in the House, and the Liberal and Lahour members preserved a gloomy silence when the Chancellor concluded his Navy reference with the remark: "I am afraid that the prospect of securing a reduction in naval expenditure is not very bright just now."