The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-05-03
FRANCE WEAK AT SEA.
Her Naval Prestige Lowered in Past
Few Years.

Her Naval Prestige Lowered in Past
Few Years.
From the Berlinger Tageblatt.
France is beginning to feel the re-
suits of a hasty diplomatic friendship
"a friendship withal sanctioned neither
by mutual affinity nor public sentiment.
The question which is now being Vigor-
ously discussed inside and outside the
corridors of the Senate is how far
France should be bound by such an
alliance to aid Russia In case she
should meet with continued defeats at
the hands of her Eastern antagonist
1t needs hardly to be observed that
| Russias defeats OH the one hand,
and England's readiness to carry out
her agreement with Japan on the other,
| have placed the French government in
very awkward position. And the
awkwardness of its position is increas-
ed by the fact that it is not prepared
to render any material aid to it's sore
ly tried friend. The French navy is
in very bad condition, and would UNI
doubtedly meet with an even worse
fate than that which befell the Rus
i sian navy should the French govern
ment carry out its suppressed threats
and send its ships to the Eastern
waters.
1t is usually claimed that France
has twenty-eight warships, all in all.
While this is numerically correct an
examination of the actual condition of
these ships puts a very different phase
on the matter in the light of war on
the nigh seas. For in reality the
French navy numbers only eleven first
class battleships. Besides these there
are six older ones, and three which
are entirely out of service; all the rest
are armed coast vessels of small ton
mage, of which only four are modern
There are also six large men-of-war
now in process OF construction. But.
according to the navy budget Of 1900,
they will not be finished and put on
war footing before 1907, perhaps
later.
We cannot here enter into a detailed
explanation as to how such a state of
things could have come to pass in ma
ton whose navy has such an illustri-
Gus pasta nation which has always
been ready for great sacrifices when
ever there has been a question of
strengthening its power by land or sea.
one OF the chief reasons is undoubted-
ly the fact that the heads of the Navy
department have for some time past
been men who were laymen in marine
affairs, and as they were frequently
changed they had not the time to mas
ter the details of their subject, but
policy of their party more or less blind
ly. 1t Is especially this frequent change
of men and of policy which lies at the
root of the evil The successful de-
velopment of navy demands accurate
knowledge of details, and, above all,
uniformity OF purpose on the part of
those who have the matter in charge.
But neither of these things has been
conspicuous in the recent history OF
the French navy, while. on the other
hand, the policy has been constantly
changing from one extreme to the 9TH
er. Thus at one time preparation for
war on the high seas predominated, at
another that of direct coast defense,
and again torpedoes and submarine
boats and armed cruisers were the
things most desired.
This constant change without prog
ress, however, became finally too much
even for the French government Thus
when during the nineties the American,
German and Russian navies began to
be steadily and systematically en-
larged. France passed a new law which
forbade change of system for seven
years at the same time providing for
six new men-of-war and five large
cruisers to be ready by 1903. De Lanes
san, who was the secretary of navy at
that time, did everything in his power
to improve the navy and to make the
new measure as effective ais possible.
NJ. Pelletan, his successor, who has diff
ferent views on the subject though he
has never been able to get the law re-
pealed, has practically succeeded in re-
tarding it's progress for almost two
years. In view of the great increase
each year of men-of-war and cruisers
in the English navy, this was a decid-
eddy unfortunate step-a fact which
the people OF France are now begin
ming TO realize. England has always
been Frances enemy on the sea, and
the construction of the French navy
has always been made with reference
to that of England.
Threatened alike in the Mediterra-
mean and the Atlantic ocean by the
English squadron, the great question
which faces France to-day is: How can
we most successfully resist this supe-
rior foe with the small resources at
our command? The present position
and distribution of the French navy
indicates that the idea is TO use the
battleships in the Mediterranean and
cruisers in the Atlantic and the chan
mel. BY these means they naiyely hope