Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1901-04-11

scale instead of a two-power scale;
secondly, an army on the principle of
universal militia service for home de-
tense, and thirdly, food supply de-
partment to guarntee us against star
walton. That we could easily raise
enough revenue thus to put our inn
perial defnse on a proper footing
have been informed on very good au-
thority. 1t is with the last of these
three equally necessary components OF
a thorough and properly reasoned
scheme of imperial defense that l pro-
pose to deal. The question OF our
food supply lies at the very root of any
properly reasoned scheme of imperial
defense, because it determines our
staying power in the event of Europ-
can war
even supposing that continuous
supply OF sufficient food. could be
brought into the country, which is
extremely doubtful, it would undoubt-
eddy be brought in at such greatly en-
HANGED prices as would place it quite
beyond the purchasing power of the
poorer classes. 1t is manifestly use-
less to have a navy equal to those Of
any two powers, or even three, if 1t is
possible for those powers, without
sending single ship to sea, to raise
provisions to famine prices in this
country by financial operations only.
Similarly it is plainly useless to have
the strongest possible army-a uni
versal service army-to guard us from
invasion in the not impossible event
of naval disaster, if it is in the power
of our enemies to starve us into
submission in about six months or so
without landing single man.
'"The state would have to feed T.
900 900 of the popultion in the event Of
war with France and Russia and
100000 in the event of war with
France, Russia and Germany. But
we are at present completely depend
ent upon Russia and the United States
for food, and there are only four and
half or five months food supplies in
the country at any time. We ought,
however, to be able to make our food
supply last for two years. This could
only be done by arranging in our
scheme of imperial defense to guaran-
tee the navy in the event of disaster,
SO as to enable it to utilize to the full
est extent our unrivalled resources
for naval reinforcement, and thus
eventually to raise the siege of the
British isles and regain command of
the sea-
Captain Murray dealt in detail with
the remedies proposed before Mr..
Yerburgh's committee, declaring that
it was earnestly to be hoped that the
Royal Commission, when it assembled.
would be able to devise a means of
increasing our food supply and pre-
serving our blood supply. Meanwhile.
however, the danger was at our doors.
and it only remained to devise a
scheme whereby, with a minimum ex-
penditure in peace time, we should be
able to make the most of our existing
resources in war time. Captain Muir.
ray proceeded to describe a rough out
line of food supply department and
its organization for peace and war.
giving tables also of siege rations."
lie arrived at the conclusion from
these data that any government had
the power, if it chose to take the
trouble, to guarantee us against star
Vatlon; and to do this, as far as our
lood supply was concerned, at the in.
nnlteiy small cost during peace of
about e15,000 year. 1t was only
necessary for them to make a few
simple preparations during peace.-The
Broad Arrow. London.