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IMPERIAL DEFENCE,
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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that for the last two hundrel years Grest Britain has always exhibited an astonishing (Daily Press, 25th November.) unreadines for war, though constantly in- The question of Imperial defence is one volved in hostilities. The late Boer war tha must of necessity attract a great deal has accentuated the fact with regard to the of attention from all classes of the com- Army. Heaven help us if the same sho i munity in future, and is of course of the prove true of the Navy! The great consol- deepest interest to all British Colonies. It ing fact brought out by the war is that the is a question bristling with difficulties, and spirit of the race has not degenerated, raw will require statesmanship and circum-
and youthful subaltern having spection to place it.on a footing satisfactory exhibited he must splendid courage under to the nation. No objection ein be taken all c'rcumstances, so that we may be certain to the attitude of our present Prime our raw material is of the first quality, only Minister on the subject. He has accepted lacking traning and instruction on national responsibility and has aluitted that the lines. Fortunately there is no divergence matter cannot, as of old, be left to one or
of opinion between the responsible officers two departments acting separately to the of the Navy and the Army as to the respec- great danger of the state and the confusion tive duties of cach servicc in the matter of of our defensive policy and preparati ms. defence. The great stumbling block is the Mr. BALFOUR has also declared that the War Office, with its benumbing traditions Government is fully alive to the difficulty and out-of-date procedure, its commissions of the problem which it means to meet and committees of enquiry that never settle, and grapple with to the best of its ability. anything, and its carefully built up p ssi- No one will for a moment doubt that Mr.bility of fooling Parliament and the public oa BALFOUR was perfectly sincere in all he any given subject by red tape and circum said, but something more than words will locution. Take the remount question as a be required to satisfy the many thinking recent instance, or our own Jubilee Road -- a minds which are now studying the matter, small matter, but significant. No blame and unfortunately the public has been put can be attached to individuals, for every off in the past, far too often, by ministerial soldier can plead the first canon of Military elo quence. First of all we must protest with discipline, “Orders must be obeyed”—under all our strength against the pernicious doc. all circumstances. Besides, the blame does trine attempted to be set up by Mr. BRO- not rest with the soldier element so much as DRICK. that it is our duty to e sider the with the traditions of party government, possibility of temporary failure of the Navy and a procedure in an age and state of to keep the Channel clear." This simply society now happily numbered among the means that Mr. BRODRICK wants to direct things that were. Still the cumbrous War money from Naval purposes to the Army. Office remains with its lamentable tale of It is our duty to keep our fleet in such a failure and unreadiness. Let us hope that tute of sngth and preparedness that the efforts now being made will result in there shall never be any question of our placing it on an up-to-date footing, and that ability to keep the Channel clear. This is never again will it have to hear the reproach vital condition, and the condition on which of such a thing as the famous telegram our existence as an Empire depends. Sea Unmounted men preferred." power all over the world is the first and most vital condition of the continued existence of the British Empire. Mr. BALFOUR may indulge in scornful remarks on what he is pleased to consider te extreme naval 'school. If there is such a school, let himself and his colleagues expose and tear to shreds its mistaken views and show that the
"worst. Government is solely guided by the light of reason, not by party tradition 8.
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One of the first needs of Imperial defence is an efficient Intelligence branch, à depart- ment for the Navy. How do we stand? lved in the There are fifteen officers em Intelligence Department of the British Navy and the cost of the Department is £10,629 per annum. The last Naval Estimates amounted to over £32,000,000. The Intelligence Department of the German Navy employs eighteen officers and the total estimated expenditure for the current year on the German Navy is a little over £10,000,000 sterling. That is to say that Germany employs more brains in the propor- tion of eighteen to fourteen for Intelligence purposes than we do, though our require. ments are infinitely greater. It is possible that the cheese-paring tendencies of the Treasury may be the cause; if not that, what can it be? Practical naval officers at the Admiralty, who know what accurate intelligence means, would not be likely to send off or curtail the supply which money can procure, unless pressure was exercised from somewhere.
The pages of Navıl Administrations 1827 to 1892, by Sir JOHN HENRY BRIGGS, who was for many years Chief Clerk of the Admiralty, throw a curious light on the inner working of the Admiralty which will no doubt be duly noted by students of naval defence. History clearly indicates
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A writer in the Quarterly Rorier for August has remarked that the defects, which the South African War has shown to have existed in the Army are all found to "a great degree in the Navy and that our Naval organisation exhibits the same "want of clearly defined responsibility as our Military, if indeed it be not actually There is no General Staff in which power and responsibility go hand. in "hand; there 13, however, the same “vicious arrangement of an Intelligence Department divorced from authority and "starved. Every precaution, indeed, seems "to have been taken
to prevent its views reaching the Cabinet. The head of the Department communicates them to "the First Sea Lord, the First Sea Loid passes them on to the First Lord, and the First Lord, who has no expert knowledge, "in turn places them, if he feels so disposed, "before the Prime Minister." Now that sort of thing is not conducive to Imperial defence and, if true, should be remedied at one-a matter no doubt easier said than done. But we have Admiral Lord CHARLES BERESFORD, Captain PERCY SCOrr, and á few more like them coming ou, and these patriotic men must and will be backed up by the people in their efforts to matters right, in spite of all official snubs an cold shouldering. All honour to His Majesty the King who has shown very conclusively what he thinks of such men as Ciptain PERCY SCOTT.
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One of the greatest misfortunes of the naval profession is the diversity of opinion while prevails in the higher ranks on At the almost every possible subject. United Service Institution in an open discussion it is hardly possible for one distinguished naval officer to propound anything without being flatly contradicted
[December 1, 1902.
by another and no reasonable argument put forward; and we have heard old salts give as the reason an old saying of scamen, "different ships different fashions," which probably does not apply to the routine which is the same in all British men-of-war, but to the different train of thought engendered by the leading minds in dif ferent vessels. Lord CHARLES BERESFORD resigned his seat on the Admiralty Board on the question of the strength of the fleet and the determined opposition he encoun- tered to his proposal for proper war organisation, and time has always proved his views correct so far.
The Navy League has been attacked by German journals and speakers on the charge that it is creating ill-will between Germany and England. The Navy League as a matter of fact has never sought to accentuate differences between England and her neighbours, but simply to set forth facts as they are, and there is now no doubt that whatever may be the personal inclinations of the German Emperor and bis Govern- ment, the disposition of the German people is exceedingly hostile to England; they have in fact thrown down the glove to us, to judge by Mr. E. T. MEYER's pamphlet entitled Los Von England (“Fnough of England"), at which most people will laugh as not representing real German feeling; but the warning will not be forgotten or pooh-poohed because the writer is often in- correct and given to wild exaggeration. Nothing more damaging to the good feeling between the two nations has been written for years.
Still it furnishes another reason for a proper system of Imperial defence and for the establishment of a naval dockyard on the North-Eastern coasts and the equip- ment of a permanent North Sea squadrou. Doubtless our statesmen have a very fair appreciation of the situation of Germany like a nut between the crackers and will play the cards accordingly; but forewarned is forearmed, and we can never tell what complications may arise.
SIR ERNEST SATOW'S VISIT TO ENGLAND.
It has
(Daily Press, 26th November.) According to the telegram from our Lon- don corresponent, dated Sunday morning, the 23rd instant, it is rumoured that Sir ERNEST SATOW has been summoned home to England for the purpose of attending "a conference which is likely to have important results." The statement is sufficiently vague to mean almost anything. been known for some time that Sir ERNEST SATOW was going home on leave as soon as could conveniently be arranged, but to those outside diplomatic circles, at least, no special significauce was attached to his visit to England. It was thought that, but for the difficulty in conn- ction with China's attitule over the Chengchow massacre, the British Minister would by this time have been well on his way home for a holiday. If the rumour alluded to by our correspon- dent be correct, there is something more than the need for rest after an exceptionally arduous term of office at Peking. this may be, it is at present only possible to guess. The evacuation of Shanghai began on Saturday last, but only the Japanese have left We were notified by REUTER on the 7th instant that the details of the con- di ious were to be left for subsequent settle- ment. It is only reasonable to suppose that if Sir ERNEST SATOW is to attend a
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conferenc: at home on the subject of affairs in China, the Yangtsze question, raised ngain by Germany and France a few weeks ago, will at least be accorded some
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