The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-03-10

gram for an increase In the navy Of
many millions of pounds sterling. Brit
ish newspapers and magazines all talk
as if war was the expected thing
Goschen in his speech in the house OF
| commons only last week said: 1.-The
empire is threatened from many quar-
tiers. and we must prepare to defend il
| as best we cam One of the most re-
markable of these articles is by II. W.
| Wilson, the author Of standard work
on "Ironclads in Action" in which he
| considers the problem of how Great
Britain can protect her vast ocean
carrying trade when the expected war
| breaks out 1t is openly boosted in
the French newspapers and magazines
that Great Britain could be speedily
brought to submission by an organized
| and determined attack upon her trade.
The French Admiral Aube has declared
his opinion that swift cruisers, ruth
lesSly securing the sea, could speedily
sweep British merchant shipping there
from without any attempt being made
to defeat the British battleships
Without the sea Great Britain is
nothing. In the words Of Mr.. Wilson,
1.-The air they breathe is not more nee
esSary to human beings than is the free
aud interrupted passage Of the sea for
her ships to England" This could
not be said of her at the time of her
long war with Napoleon. In 1872
nineteen-twentieths of the food grains
consumed by the British people was
grown on their own soil, but in 1894
three-fourths of the entire population
of the British Isles were living wholly
upon foreign grown corn. Thus de-
pendent not for its daily bread alone,
but for the raw materials of its manu-
features, upon foreign supplies, it is
evident that if Russia or France or
both together, could drive the vessels
that now carry these things TO British
ports off the ocean, the United iKng-
dom would be placed in a state of
siege, and its surrender upon terms
dictated by its continental enemies
would be only a question of a few
months at the furtherest.
A writer in the Nineteenth Century
declares that the outbreak of war be-
tween the United Kingdom and France
and Russia would at once sweep all
British sailing vessels from the sea.
This would wipe out over 100000
tons of sea-carrying power. The con-
version of French and Russian mer-
chantmen into cruisers and the pur-
chase of a large number of foreign
steamships by the combatants, TO be
similarly converted into war craft,
would make another great reduction of
the worlds total sea-carrying power.
The result would inevitably be a rapid
increase of freight rates and also of in
surance premiums, and the cost of
British food and raw materials of man.
ufactures would be bound to go up
with them.
The belief has grown in England that |
as against the combination of Europ- |
can powers, which her public men |
plainly anticipate, the present naval |
Of ''the tight little isle"
large as it is, is not equal TO the efficient |
protection of her merchant shipping |
from destruction. If that belief is cor
rect war, if it comes before the forty |
six new warshipS are ready, would |
bring not only a food famine in the |
United Kingdom, but a stOppage Of its
supplies of cotton, wool, fax, iron, silk, |
hemp. leather and wood, without which |
her factories and workshops must be
closed. Of war vessels of all classes
England now has afioat 2T3, France
l55 and Russia %.
The figures prove that Great Britain
S much weaker relatively to France in
1896 than she was in 1904, when she
lad 244 frigates afioat available for
lighting purposes to the French 30, or
nearly S to 1. If with that large dis
parity against them the French de-
spoiled British commerce so severely
ninety years ago. how would it be to-
ldN w lICh 10 DuI - " Il ]
t is a realization that her ocean-carry-
ne trade, which is vital to her very ex-
stence, would be hard to successfully
lefend against Franco-Russian at
ack that has brought forth the as
British naval budget of last
IOnday. The naval expenditures of
he United Kingdom for new construc-
ion have been almost doubled at a
troke, amid the cheers Of the unai-
nous commons, and with the heartiest
pproval Of the British press and peo-
lie. Tory and liberal party lines have
anished on this question, and, in
bedience to what is manifesly a pro-
ound national conviction, the British
overnment has set itself TO the work ;
f preparing for what is believed TO be
mother 'irrepresSible conflict" But
D prepare for war may be to prevent it. ]
We must continue TO hope so.
MUST TAKE a BACK SEAT.
Italy's defeat in Abyssinia proves to Z