NAVAL ARMAMENTS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13637, 16 April 1908, Page 5

NAVAL ARMAMENTS.

-io ROOSEVELT URGES A PROGRESSIVE POLICY. TO GUARD THE PEACE AND REPEL INSULTS. By Electric Telegraph. — Copyright. NEW YORK, April 15. President Roosevelt, in his message urging Congress to provtdo four ba.ttloships of the largest type immediately, remarks that China offers- I '' an example of the results of a "peace-at-any-price" policy. Britain's naval policy, he says, is what ought to be emulated. The Hague Conference showed the nations were unable to agree to limit their naval armaments, and arbitration is an ineffective remedy if not utilised to the fullest extent. : " While disclaiming any intention to cn g»ge in a war of conquest, President Roosevelt states that America can ill afford to relapse into apposition where insults must be borne in silence. If she built only two battleships a year, America would go backward in naval rank and relative power among the great nations, which would be unwise if she fronted merely one ocean, and doubly unwise when she fronted I two. j Neither arbitration nor any other | device, continues tho message, can prevent the- gravest and most terrible wrong being done to peoples .who hare lost the capacity of self-defence. If America desires to avoid insult, she must be able to repel it. If sho desires peace, she must at all times be ready for war.