Merch 13.
The speech by Sir Samuel Hoare, First Lord of the Admiralty, when Introducing this year's." Navy; Estimates in the House of Commons Wednesday, is the most gratify ing reading that has been provided for many-a long day.. For some! years the process of slowing down! fon new construction as much as possible had been adopted with the object of relieving the current year's Estimates at the expense of Subsequent years. 'That was al practice which was never satis factory and was bound to bring a reckoning some day.. Ti was a matter for considerable satisfaction' that last year the practice was abandoned, though, of course, now the bill has to be paid. The picture in those past years was not" a pleasant one and in the past two years endeavours have been made to remedy. the deficiencies which were giving the naval experts much reason for concern. Now what would normally be the work of ten years is being telescoped into two. 0 that. Britain by that time will have regained some of that strength of which she purposely deprived herself after the Great War in the hope that the other nations of the! world. would follow her example. Te must ever be a matter of regret that.they did not' do s0, but now that they have adopted the doctrine that the only way to ensure peace fs. to be adequately nreparcd. for war, the leaders.of Great Britaio could be criminally stupid it, they Toft-any breaches in their defences, or, by a continuation of that self-great influence for peace which she has always sought to wield. Great Britain has not been Iamentably weak, but the deficiencies in her strength were such that she was not the Influential Power she ought to have been during some of the crises which have. arisen during past years, Now, by the repeated declarations of British statesmen, the world at large is informed that such a state of affairs is no longer to be tolerated, and that Britain's voice in the, cotise of peace—and it fs evident that peace depends entirely upon the' fullest provisions for self-defence—shall regain some of its old strength.
Sir Samuct's insistence that there would be no rivalry between Great Britain and the United States in naval matters, and that there could be no race with Germany in naval armaments is most reassuring. At the same time this. particular' reference may be significant by the inferences to be drawn from his omissions. There will undoubtedly bbe some foreign criticism of the programme which makes it possible that 148 new vessels for the British navy will be under construction by the end of the year. But. the admission made by Herr Hitler, that each individual nation must be its own best judge of what it needs for its own protection, must necessarily apply in this instance. Were Great Britain a comparatively small nation with a correspondingly small coastline the programme to which the Britain is now being, asked to commit itself might be considered as unwarrantably large. But when the peculiar situation of the British Isles are taken into ac~ count, their dependence upon the mercantile marine for its food supplies, and the great distances be-{ween the various component parts of the British Commonwealth, it ill still be contended by some that, until the British navy has been. brought up to its former strength, the margin of defence will always be thin. The "fear has been expressed that all this hurried preparation by Britain is in itself an incitement to war and that. hostili-les are brought all the nearer by the possibility that some nation or other will strike before she is equipped along the lines which have now been decided upon, Too much weight need not be given to that. That the possibility docs exist is unhappily, only too true, but the chance of any nation "getting away with it" is even now so. small that the gamble involved does not appear to be worth while.
It is also pleasant to note that the Admiralty in selecting designs for the new ships has applied all that they gained by the experiences of the Great War and subsequent experimentation to the work which they are now arranging to put in hand. A fleet of 148 vessels of all lasses, the very last word in naval design, is a formidable addition to! any navy, Sir Samuel Hoare's remark that the navy was caught in a transition stage in 1914 seems to be borne out by the memory of some of the events in the naval history of the War. The Admiralty has now had seventeen years in which to develop counter-action to the new forms of attack which emerged during the period from 1914 to 1918, and those others which have been invented since, so that the new vessels may be confidently expected to provide adequate answer to all the latest developments. in marine and aerial warfare. Yet, while the greatest satisfaction will be felt that the! nation has of last been awakened to the peril in which the peace of the world now stands, it. is with regret that the expenditure of so much wealth for the purpose of destruction has come to be considered imperatively necessary. It is a tragic fact that during the past few years and in. the near future a sum which cannot be very far from £10,000,000,000 has been or is being spent in rearmament. It is almost impossible to imagine the good that might have been done had that money been used for the improvement of the lot of suffering humanity. But speculation concerning the benefits that a diversion of so huge a sum to gentler purposes than. war would bring to mankind, is of no avail in this day and. age.. So many, nations of the world have condemned themselves to the preparation for_and contemplation of. war, that Britons can only feel relieved that, great though the sacrifice must be, their country is putting. itself in the best posture of defence.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.