Naval Visit to the Baltic.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12796, 30 September 1905, Page 3 (Supplement)

Naval Visit to the Baltic.

WHAT IT MEANS. (By Coloniensis in "Daily Chronicle."! Watching the game of chess between two masters is a fascinating pasfime for iniellijjent minds, even when one has no stake on the match. Onlookers at the game of international politics as now being plaved on the chess-board of the woild between the Kaiser and the rest of mankind enjov the additional advantage of having a personal interest in the game. THE KAISER'S GAME.

It must be admitted that the Kaiser plays the great game—like an English gentleman. No hesitation is displayed in making a move. His moves are sharp, decided, and in rapid succession. The speech at Tangier was followed promptly by the massing of German troops at the Vosges gap, and by a threat of war against France unless the honest and far-seeing Delcasse were thrown overboard. Delcasse was sacrificed. To him succeeded M. Rouvier, an able statesman-of a different order of mind, training, and ideals. In tbe early (lavs of June all France shivered, not with fear, but at tha prospect of a wicked and needless war; shivering she threw herself into the aims of England. . The success of the visit of the English Fleet to Brest was the result, and the fraternisation at Portsmouth next week will ratify the entente establishment at Brest. After twenty-four wars England and Franc* have come together, in spite of the Kaiser, and in spite of those French Jingoes who arc unconsciously doing the Kaiser'i work Jn France. The maritime union of England and France is not the result desired or expected by Willi&n II.; on the contrary, the estrangement of France from England was the motive power of German policy. That the Kaiser sees his recent- move ha« miscarried is shown by his opening an attack on another side of the chessboard. He.has a large choice of moves, and he has selected one which _ changes the centre of gravity in the affairs of the world from the Sea, of Japan or the Mediterranean to the Baltic. Troubled waters suit German fishing tackle, and_ the disturbance in Baltic politics has given to the Kaiser a new opening. A German princeling on the Norwegian throne would be a useful check to England, and might lead to the fiords Washed by the warm water of the Gulf Stream being opened to the battleships and destroyers of Germany. Tbe congested condition of Kiel must be seen to be believed. THE CHANNEL FLEET.

England's reply to this move, though silent, is highly <lr.nm.itic. The Channel Feet and the First Cruiser Squadron are ordered to the Baltic. The significance of this step lies in the fact that Britain asserts her right to the command of the Baltic outside the three-mile limit of Germany, as completely as of - that of any other sea on the ocean. It cannot be denied thst the Admiralty are taking risk* in dispatching the Channel Fleet to Baltic water*. There is the risk of navigation. English navigating officers are out of practice in manoeuvring in the shallow waters of the Baltic. It is time that this defect were remedied, as England has treaty obligations to fu'fil with both the Scandinavian Powers which might require the presence of a strong Daval force in the Baltic at any given moment. There is another danger, so remote that it need only be noted, but .we may be certain the Admiralty strategists have not- forgotten it. The entrance to the Baltic, like the entrance to the Dardanelles and to Poitsmoutli, is narrow. The fairway is less than three miles wide. The Baltic Sea can, therefore, be closed in a few hours by a few hundred submerged mines of the kind that sunk the Petropavlosk and the Yashima. It it as certain as anything can be In this world,that the German Emperor, who is a great gentleman, would never dream of coercing Denmark into bott'.ing up a fleet of eleven British battleships and seven first-class cruisers, costing £15,000,000, and carrying 11,000 or 12,000 officers and men—the very flower and pick of England. Eighteen hornets in a bottle would be a mild equivalent, of the situation if the German Pharoah hardened his heart, and cither closed the Sound or induced Denmark to do so, for, of course, such a etep means war, and a war in which France, as well as England, would be involved. Germany knows that she can gain nothing from England to-day by naval war, and every Englishman is aware that tbe British Empire desires nothing from Germany, except to be let- alone. The despatch of the Channel Fleet to the Baltic is a wise and statesmanlike proceeding, for it is an advertisement to William 11., and to all whom it may concern, that England not only claims to command the seas, but commands them. At this stage of the international game of chess it may, therefore, be said that the position of England, notwithstanding the absence of national recruiting, is stronger than that of Germany. .