Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-07-01
Spain is Now Trying to straighten
Out Her Finances.
GERMANY'S VIEWS on ARBITRATION
Lord William Beresford Comes to
the Defense of Sloan.
SHI PB UILDING INDUSTRY
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star

sound basis AS far as it is possible to
form an opinion, it really seems as though
the finance minister had grasped the nettle
firmly.
The national debt is said to have been in
creased by more than 100000, 600 and this
will involve an annual outlay additional
for interest Of about 100000. If Spain
had been solvent before it might have been
possible to raise this extra revenue without
great difficulty, but, unfortunately the
country has not properly paid its way for
twenty years, the constantly accommodating
deficits having been liquidated by more
borrowing.
1t is Low recognized that borrowing is no
longer possible. The credit of the govern
ment is exhaust ed. All its available Sc
curities are already pledged, and the Bank
OF Spain has been induced, or, as it
would be more truthful to say, compelled,
! TO make such large advances that fur
tfer help can be obtained from that source.
1t is necessary, therefore, to raise sutfi-
| cient revenue every year to meet the out
goings, and it is proposed to increase the
| duties upon tobacco and alcohol. and i'm
| pose an income tax of a kind. These meas
| ureS arc on the safe side, but the proposed
| import duties on copper and iron seem to
| be mistake. especially as Spain in
| tends, with the help OF English money, to
| work ner internal resources more fully.
| At"Sh-A iSa
| 1t would be well if more attention
| We're paid to improvements in the methods
of collecting the revenue and to better ad-
| Justing the national burdens to the classes
best able to bear them. Efforts are also to
be made to induce the bondholders to ac-
! cept lower rate of interest, while, so far
| as can be cen, there is to he no effort to
| reduce the military and naval expenditure
| although this is certainly excessive for the
| present condition of the country.
| But what Is wanted quite as much as
| anything else is honesty in collection and
administra ton. In the colonies Spanish of
| ilcers We're scandalousiy corrupt. ara the
| Madrid government has been shamelessly
| plundered. In all probability matters are
| not so bad in Spain itself, because there
| public opinion would have at least some
| icrce. The Spanish government is making
| what at present seems to be a fairly good
start, and the country will doubtless be all
| the tetter fer the looping off of her more
| than useless colonies. 1t will compel at
! tehtoh to home affairs and resources.
| Germany and Arbitration.
| Prof. Won Stengel; who has just left The
Hague to submit to the Emperor of Ger
many an amended plan of arbitration, has
| been chatting very freely with the repre-
sentative of one Of the French papers on
the subject of the present peace confer
| ence. The professor is described as a tall,
| stloIS, gray man over sixty, but
| with the Still-youthful appearance of the
| sober-living German "savant.' He is rather
! a cynical-minded man, too, allowing no
| sentiment TO enter into his calculation of
| practical facts
| He confessed that Germany is averse to
| any kind of disarmament. 1T is in the
| present state OF Europe an Impractical
| dream he said. We will have none of
| u--and the conference has renowned it.
| AS to arbitration, Germany is not opposed
! to it in principle, but will certainly not
hear of permanent and compulsory arbi-
| tration, which belongs much to Utopia
| as disarmament itself. We won't allow the
| American proposal to pass. 1t is much too
| absolute. The Russian proposal is more
| moderate by far, and might be acceptable.
| Anyhow, arbitration will not restrict war
| No two great quarrelng powers would re-
sort to it and abide by arbitration award"
| According to his views, the real result at
| tanned by the conference will be in the
| measures taken to humanze war by re-
| strictng the rights of invaders and abol-
| fishing some too abomnable weapons. In
| short, wars will hardly be made less fire.
| quent through this conference, but we
| shall kill each other more decently and
| more respectfully.
Japan's New DestrOyers.
| The Japanese seem determined to keep
| well to the front in naval matters. When
| they get the full number of torpedo boat
| destroyers which they have ordered they
| will have the fastest fotilla Of this class
| of vessels possessed by any nation. Messrs.
| Yarrow & Co. have been intrusted by the
| Japanese government with the construction
! of six thirty-one-knot destroyers. Two are
| already in the possession of their owners,
| and the third, the Akembo, as II Is tanned,
! which has just been completed, was taken
| for run on the Thames on Saturday from
, Greenwich to below the More, before being
formally handed over to he japanese gov
| eminent.
! large party, including the United States
| and other naval attaches, were prese INT and
| were delighted with the performance of the
| boat. Her highest speed was a little over
| thirty knots, which was quite enough to
| suit the taste of most of the guests, as top
| speed makes the deck rather wet. One of
| the features of the Akembo and her sister
| vessels is the very large range of action
| they possess, owing to there being bunker
| space for more than 100 tons of coal. The
! boat is built of galvanized steel alleged
with nickel, which gives Increased rigdity
| with lightness. She is 220 feet long, 20 feet
| q inches beam, and she will carry an arma-
| ment of one tweive-poundar and i've six
FOUNDER quick-firing guns, besides two
| eighteen-inch swivel torpedo tubes. The
| propelling machinery consists of twin
! screws actuated by two sets of four cyin-
| der triple-expanson engines.
| In these days. when there is so much dis
| cUssion about the boilers, it may he men,
| toned that the Akembo has four Yarrow
| straight tube boilers, thu largest hitherto
constructed of this type, and they each indi-
|
| cult on this class of vessel to provide lib
| elal accommodation for the officers and
| crew, but even in this respect there is
great improvement on some former efforts.
| Messrs. Yarrow are building, in addition to
| the destroyers, five ffrst-class torpedo boats
! for the japanese government, and two for
| the Dutch navy, besides a number CT ex-
| ceptionally shallow-draught river steamers
for various parts of the world.
| British-Bulit Ships.
| The Introduction into the monthly trade
returns Of the value of ships built for for
eigners makes it interesting to note that
last year no fewer. than 1856 vessels were
| constructed in the United Kingdom on the
! order of foreigners. The net tonnage rep
resented by these ships was no less than
| 174,611. OF these vessels seventeen were
ships Of war, with 6,732 net tonnage while
| the remaining 179 were mercantile vessels,
| whose tonnage amounted to 167, $40 Thirty
| one only of the latter, were sailing YES
! sells. The large majority of the orders for
/ ships of war come to London, but four
went to Newcastle, Liverpool and Cowes.
| But the net tonnage of the two ships con-
| structed at Newcastle was over 5000, while
| the thirteen London-built vessels could only
| muster 6oS tons bat ween than Roth Nau-