The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-12-07
ADMIRAL BELkN APP
Takes His Turn at Twisting the Lions
Tail.

Detroit, Mich, December 6.-Admiral
George B. Belknap has written letter
to Richard z. Joy of this city, commend
ing an article written by the latter and
published in the Marine Review of Cleve-
land, advocating the abrogation OF the
treaty with Great Britain prohibiting the
building of warships on the Great Lakes.
Admiral Belknap says in part. eff
the shipbuildersIat our ports on the Great
Lakes cannot be allowed to compete with
shipbuilders in other parts OF the country
in the building of vessels for our navy by
reason of the treaty with Great Britain,
it is high time that such treaty were
amended that our shipbuilding plants,
wherever located, may have an equal
chance in the matter of government
work. Independently of wha Canada
may be doing in the constr uction of
steam vessels for her lake maHne readily
convertible into effective gunboats, Great
Britain relies upon the facility of the
Welland Canal for the ready assembling
of her gunboats and small cruisers in the
Great Lakes in the U nited States. With
a we'll digested policy, indomitable push
and sleepless foresight ever looking to-
wards future contigences and the expan-
sion of the empire, British statesmen,
when they do not play the part Of bully
after the methods of Lord Palmerston
make their designs under the cover of
velvet handed diplomacy as seductive
as it is dangerous. Too often in the truth
it lulls other powers and especially the
too trustful United States into a blind
and sometimes fatal sense of security.
THE siren song Of Britannia is con-
tnually in our ears in notes exalting
the ties Of kindred blood and tongue, but
when we look about us and note the fact
that three-quarters of our diplomatic
contentious of any note are with Great
Britain and the SUPERFICIAL colony, the
dominion of Canada, We may we'll look
askance at their professions of fair deal
ing and sincerity.
"InSatiate Britannia, indeed, never re-
Taxed her vigilenoe in any direction, and
whenever sine detects q crack of oppor-
tunity in any quarter, she inserts on the
instant a wedge of claim and demand,
and at the propltious moment for herself
drives it home with logged purpose and
resistless blows, regardless of the sensi-
bilities or the rights of other powers,
save perhaps, Russia, France and Germa,,
ny. At this time, in fact, every mail
from Alaska brings tidings of her alleged
efforts to appropriate valuable points and
islands along the coast line of that terri
tory just as she laid claim to the island
of San Yuan in Puget Sound, after the
conclusion of the treaty OF 1916, defining
our northwest boundary. The British
Maw,s indeed, never gets it's ill. Com
MERGE is the handmade of civilization
and every nation has the right to protect
its ships wherever they may be. There
fore our great tonnage on the lakes should
have the protection that forts and ships
of war alone can give.
"What right has England to insist that
the United States shall not keep naval
force of whatever strength they choose
on the Great Lakes. Let the people of
the Northwest demand protection ashore
and afloat and where England or her
meddlesome province, Canada, means or
floats one gun let us meet each other
with two"