The Timaru Herald MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 1908. THE BURDEN OF NAVIES

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13674, 17 August 1908, Page 4

The Timaru Herald MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 1908. THE BURDEN OF NAVIES

1 It; would bo an immense relief to the taxIpayeis of the world if the nations could , agree to the suggestion made by a German newspaper that there should be some re striction upon the growth of naval ex pendituie ©ur cable mecsage to day indicates tlj.it, Germany cannot) keep up the n'e of outlay which she Ins been maintaining foi some yeais past with the object of providing herself with a fiist class fleet, and we cm well believe that with the industrial depression which has ' settled upon her for the ftist eighteen , months, &he finds her self imposed task t well nigh intolerable It is just possible, however, that recent developments in ' -mother direction have ra'sed an anxious suspicion tint after all the war of the fntme may not depend upon naval strength, and tint all this feveiish expenditure on battleships, and fast ciuiseus ' and submarines, may be money misspent If the airship is perfected, the atmosphere I, ratlwr tlnn the pi ovule the arena for the conflicts of the future, and there seems Jiaidly loom now to doubt th.it the inventive genius of those who ire experimenting with flying machines will succeed in piocTncmg .i lehable aero plane which will revolutions warfare With the prospect thus opened up befoie them, the defence authouties, of the dip ferent ml ions must consider whether they are wise to go on adding indefinitely lo i easily fleets of sea going vessels w hieh rapidly become obsolete even if they should not be hopelessly depreciated by engines of destruction flying through the air. In a recent aiticle the London "Daily Telegraph" showed Low soon expensive ships become outclassed by some new and mi proved type more expensive still Twenty years ago the largest battleships of the. day cost only £750,000 The new battleship laid down by Britain this year will cost no less than £2,250,000 exactly three times as much as its pie decassor of two decades since In the ten years from 1896 to 1906 (1 he last year for which comparative fignres aie accessible) Great Britain's annual imal bill rose fiom twenty two and threeqnarter millions to over thirty three md lions, Germany's from £4,300,000 to £11,300,000, and that of the United States from £6,000,000 to £24,000,000.

Yet .with all her huge expenditure, the United! .States has noti yet) ,gb'b-a navy capable of''(meeting at least, two other fleets on equal terras. The' flagship of the .squadron which isa now on .its way from Auckland to [Sydney .has 'neither the speed 1 nor the gun-power of the berth battleships that Britain or Japan could oppose -to it. The Dreadnought can beat it by several knots in speed and by a. considerable distance in the range of her gnus. The American fleet, in short, could lie battered, to pieces, just as the Russian 'shipK were at Xsu-shinia, without having a chance to dnanago the enemy. It is to be hoped 'that, the Federal Ministers who are .so anxious to commit Australia, lo the construction of a. local navy, will think of .this when they welcome the-American fleet to their principal ports. Australia cannot, eontomplate the annual expend -lire of 24 millions which still leaves America with battleships vastly inferior in offensive capacity to the naval armaments of other Powers. If the struggle lor naval supremacy is ito continue, the safest, couree for'the-. Commonwealth-is to pool its ..expenditure on warships with the rest, of the Empire, and so get the' best to-be had. ■''■' i "