THE MIND OF ENGLAND.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 12785, 2 June 1909, Page 4

THE MIND OF ENGLAND.

According to the same Homo papers from which we gather the above information concerning German opinion, it would seem that Britain would acclaim with one voice any act on the part of the Germans which would put the British navy into action. And this universal feeling is beginning to find expression. It shows up very quietly, but none the less significantly, in speeches and editorial articles, and it is said that it is likely to become more and more pronounced. The people of Great Britain are convinced of two things — that Germany is aiming at and threatening their naval supremacy, and that whatever the future may show, the British navy is at this moment capable of blowing the German navy out of the water. Hence the demand to fight now. Those who hold this view — and they are said to be legion — make out a fairly strong case for aggression on the part of England. The instincts of the sportsman find no place in war. They urge that Britain has just the same right to choose her time as Germany. Why wait, they ask, until the combined fleets of Austria and Germany out-match in strength the fleet of England? Is it not just as fair for us to fight in the hour of our superiority as for them to do so? And they go on to show that a blow delivered on the sea to-day would probably make the British Empire safe against the world for all time. If Germany ever beats England on the water, they declare, she will at once crumple up the British mercantile marine and strike again and again at her oversea possessions. Rebellion would be fomented in India and Northern Africa, every British flag in the world would be menaced. "But why wait for such a possibility? Why not reverse the procedure? Germany is plainly looking for fight; she is unmistakeably the aggressor. Well, let her have what she wants — now," say they. Naval war to-day would, in the opinion of those who base their calculations on the unquestionable fighting qualities of the British navy, mean the annihilation of Germany's sea forces. But Great Britain would not stop there. Following all precedent she would, with her enemy helpless in Europe, at once proceed to annex every oversea possession of the Kaiser's. Germany would come out of the war without a navy, with her trade shattered, her colonies for the time at an end, her very coaling stations in the hands of the British. She could build again, of course, but not in a hurry. Her re-ascent to rivalry would take some years — at least a quarter of, a century— . and by that time she would be faced, not by the British Empire of to-day, but by an Empire immeasurably stronger in its white population and its fighting power. Oversea dominions which can volunteer Dreadnoughts and initiate local navies today may be counted on for something really big in another five and twenty years. So, it is claimed, reasons the mind, of England to-day.