Naval Alarms.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13939, 26 June 1909, Page 3 (Supplement)

Naval Alarms.

AN OPEN LETTER. hi a. letter to tho chairman of the Liberal party in Dundeo Mr Churchill pours contempt on "tho Dreadnought Fear-All school," and combats the "monstrous error" of asserting that then? is a natural antagonism between England and Germany. You ask me ( he says) to give you a few facts and figures to combat tho naval alarms which have lately been excited, and from which Mr Balfour ana his supporters hope to derive so much party advantage. I do so gladly. Four cardinal errors, each more stupid and vicious than the other, require exposure. The first is tho attempt to measure tho strength of the British Navv, or :my other navy, in Dreadnoughts only. Men, guns, and ships arc all necessary to a navy. None can bo dispensed with. But of theso the first, most decisive, most capacious factor is men. All calculations in machines apart from men are vain. It is to the, officers and men of the British Navv. to their virtue and seamanship, that tho * a fetv of this Empire must primarily ho confided. . We havo totlav, and wo shall have in 1012, besides officers, more than 120,000 seamen in mriihir service, all chosen volunteers, trained upon a twelve, years' system, that is to sav more than double the number which .any other Power, and more than equal to tho numbers which any other two Powers, will possess of naval conscripts trained only for three years at sea. Guns count next after men. .Everv serviceable ship that carries a good gun mav fire a decisive shot. The -.ldes* m.T>- stand a rc-rd nounding: the newest may be disabled bv a sinn-le shell. All ships, Treat and small, old and new. are equally a prey to the submarine, to the tropodo-boat. nnd +i the floating mine. You will see, therefore, how vitally important the number of vessels, apart from their pattern, and how important the number of guns carried by all those vessels are to "the effective'war strength of navies. T do not fli all seek to disparage the r i ualit ; es of the latest type of battleship.- Everv bnttlschio is or ouf-M. to be, nn improvement upon its predecessor. But «here T ounrrel with tiin P-mdnniisrbt Fear-All School is in th"irdisii""> , -''nii c refold t" •>*«.•>" di»« value amid the doners and hoards of wor to every serviceable sh'n tbnt entries a good p-'in. Tf, is lucky the sailors d~ '"-•• lu>i:"va +i<""i.

CIHES OF "COWARDICE.". Bv the light of these observations lot us review the relative strength of Great Britain and Germany. Tho figures given by tho Prime Minister to the House of Commons are undisputed. Surveying Ihcso figures I believe it no oxii iteration to say that tho British Navv at this momeiifc is more nearly thrice than twice as strong as the navv of Germany. Now. if this is the position to-day. how will it he altered in 1012? It will he altered by the addition of a new squadron of battleships to the fleets of either Power. If these squadrons were equal in strength it is clear that an overwhelming superiority would still rest with the British fleet. But his Majesty's Government do not propose that the addition should be equal. On the contrary, the powers actual and contingent we ask from Parliament make it absolutely certain that if in 1912 tho German navy shall have been strengthened by 13 Dreadnoughts, the British navy will possess 1(3, and il the German navy shall have been strengthened by 17 ships, 20 new British ships will have been commissioned. Any battleships provided by the loyalty of the colonies will. of course, be additional to this. "What is true of the relative strengths of the two navies in 1912 applies with greater force to anj' moment of the intervening period. In view of these tremendous margins of safety, the cries of sheer cowardice with which the air is filled contribute a good deal more to the gaiety of other nations than to the dignity of our own. Further, it does not follow because a superiority in Dreadnoughts of three is sufficient'in 1912 that we should be satisfied with such a margin in this class in 1913, and still less that it would suffice for 1914. As our tail diminishes in power, our horns must grow longer; and if, and in proportion as, battleships of the Dreadnought type become a larger part of modern navies, so our superiority in them must be steadily increased. What is rcnuircd is stea'dv building, not panic building. NO SECRET SQUADRONS.

The second cardinal error now current on these matters is to suppose that modern fleets can be built without anybody knowing anything ab"iit them, nnd without anybody paying for them, so that, as if by enchantment, without apparent effort or sacrifice of any kind, some huge unexpected squadron might steam suddenly out of secrecy on to the sea. Such ideas are childish. No doubt the German Government is not limited as strictly as we have been, by the considerations of annual finance, and they enjoy within moderate limits a certain elasticity in the letting of contracts, which we, perhaps, would do well to borrow, which, in fact, His Majesty's Government have to some extont acquired in their contingent provisions for the current year. Hut it is not possible for Germany to accelerate the programme of her navy law to an extent which would appreciably affect the balance of naval strength without that acceleration becoming known, and without more money having to be voted by the German Parliament. T must further observe that- it has not been proved, and is not, in my judgnlent, true that Gerinanv can build a single battleship, and still' less, that she can build a simultaneous squadron of battleships as quicklv as we can. The actual capacity of Greab Britain for building warships i is su]>crior to that of Germany. | The third fallacy to which I should refer is concerned with the two-Power standard. The two-J'ower standard is not a standard of numbers; it is a standard of strength, and only, as tlio Prime Minister has stated, of strength available for aggressive - purposes against this island. In point ol iact the Admiralty are prepared to proy" that the British Fleet is now, and will ho in 191-2, i ffectively superior not only Id any reasonably probable combination of two Powers but to the two next strongest Powers in Europe without regard to the probability of their combination. It is not the policy of the Government to take the navy of the United States into consideration when framing their Naval Estimates, because we do not believe that there is any "reasonably probable" —nay, huinanlv conceivable combination against the peace and freedom of the British people, which wonld include tlio navy of the United States. ENGLAND AND GERMANY.

I have left the most monstrous error to the last. It is this: that there is a profound antagonism of interests between the British and German nations which can only he resolved by a supreme trial of strength towards which the tides of destiny are irresistibly bearing us. I should think it mischievous ami certainly ridiculous to set this down on paper were it not that it has been affirmed, and of unquestioned sincerity. No more fatal obsession could benumb the brain of a statesman. No more abject repudiation, not only the whole message of Liberalism,

but of tho very structure, of civilisation, could be demanded of us. It is not true. There is no natural antagonism between tho interests of the British and German peoples. No Continental nation is commercially more necessary to us than Germany. She is our best foreign customer, and wo ar« hers. In spite of tho evil forces we see at work in every land, the foundations of European peaco are laid more broadly and morn deeply every year. If a. serious antagonism is gradually created between the two peoples it will not bo. because of the workings of any natural or i"i personal fores. but through the vicious activity of a- comparatively small number of individuals in both countries and the culpable o-edulitv of larger classes. P become" the first duty of men of light and lead'ng to resist these nightmare, moods? to repel hateful ard deluded acceptances, and +o d"«v all co'unter'noen of that spirit of distrust which without any physical embodiment has already sensibly darkened the outlook of mankind.