The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-04-11
THE DEFENSES
 OF ENGLAND. Frederick Harrison for Greater England. A VERY IMPORTANT CHANGE Famous Publicist Reverses the
 Position. Engis.A.s SExista.ee p Formost World Power He Says De- Dends Upon the aaintcn-
 aace of its Military
 PresfEe.
4 VERY IMPORTANT CHANGE
gY HAMTLToN RHODEs.

Harrison has contributed notable article on the National Defence to the "Times". Mir. Harrison.s great infiu- ence on English life and thought mas been directed against aggression and and imperial expansion for nearly half q century In this communication, however, he admits that recent devei- opments have obliged him to modify his anti-militarist policy. and to urge < on the country the vital necessity of defence, He says:
 They are trihing with a serious cri- sis who repeat platitudes about our friendly neighbors. our peaceable ideals and our magnificent navy. Of course England desires to live at peace with all men. and does not nurse against any Continental nation either jealousy or grudge. And we kniw that our navy to-day Is amply competent to defend our island and ; our Empire against and maritime power in the world What more can we want says the .oid fashion, Radical. intent on re- trenchment, and the new-fashion labor man. intent on social reform.
 Well. let us come to the point, and speak plainly on certain facts. The sole ground for serious anxiety as to. our national defenecs arises from what we see as we watch the feyerish expansions of the German navy, con1- bined with the domlneerinE attitude of the German Government in Europe plus the ambitious schemes asserted now for a whole generation by the German military and naval chiefs fomenting the natural aspirations of the great German race.
 Absolutely free as am from any sort of party allegiance and equally free from any public responsibility, l can speak openly about things which ofncial politicians and judtcious pub 1icists have to cover under conven- ttonai aIiusions. Our national exis- tence, make bold to say. may be in, peril, within less than a generation, from the tremendous navey now be- ing hurried on in Germany. from the domineering ambition of the German chiefs. the aspirations and the increase of the Geran race.
 The German Race.
 'T say the German race. because the Near Eastern crisis can mean nothing less than the eventual amalgamation, or the practical control by one hand, of the entire German-speaking peoples of Central Europe. The signal service to Austria rendered by Germany not without risk to herself in this Balkan dmbrogiio, must Involve that within a few years Europe will be face to face with hundred millions of Germans 
 military headship. And if to that were ever added the virtual control over the Low-German people of Holland, with her seaports and marine population, al single lord ruling from Stettin to the mouths of the Rhine and from the Baltic to the Adriatic--then Europe will see a power she has not known since Napoleon and Louis xI.
 There Is no doubt about the domi- neering ambition of German diplomacy, for this is the key that explains the course of history in Europe for the last twenty years. The desperate plunge of Austria Into the Balkans was made with the connivance. if not at the suggestion,z Of Berlin. And. in the ultimate advancement of Germany more than of Austria. The aspira- tions of the German people and the schemes of their chiefs are perfectly natural. giving the general situation and the history of the new German Empire. They need cause in us neither surprise nor indignation.
 'srhe danger of collision lies not in any hostile disposition of the German people. but in the manifest tendency of the two dominant facts in world politics the military ascendancy and resources of the German Empire face to face with the British Empire based on Couul&AQ Ok Lnb S6as' men We Fe- fleet on the meteoric aggrandixement of Prussia in the last sixty years. on her great military caste. Of which Western Europe has no parallel, on the pride and the seif-consciousness of the German people. coupled with an inborn spirit of patriotism and Of dis cipiine, we see before us a nation of magnificent endowments and resources. inspired with a faith in its destiny as~ q dominant world-power
 "Nationa are not led solely, nor al- ways, by their interests. As we see today, they are led not seldom by their pride, their jealousies, or their aspirations. Tn the Far West a. great nation is now aspiring to have Where g paramount navy. and in the Far BaHt another nation is aspiring to be mistress at least in her own waters. In Europe. over against our own ports the great German Empire has striven for twenty years to show the world that, if she cannot be first at sea, as she Is on land, she will be a good second today. and some day in certain contingencies might be our equal in North European waters.
 Herein are all the clements of a contest quite natural in the ultimate evolution of national destinies. inter- national morality remaining as 1t Is. Not today. nor tomorrow-but, with the normal growth of mighty nations, it may well come within the. actual generation. It is aR~antagonism like that between Athens and Sparta. Rome and Carthage, Spain and Britain. Ger many and France, one which seems to be independent of persons. even of the will of peoples. to be borne on by the elemental springs of national destinies.
 Supremacy at Sea.
 Unless a new war or a reform of international morality should, inter vene. 1t seems inevitable that our su- premacy at sea will be met by a de- termined challenge within measurable time. If the coming challenge to our maritime supremacy were to threaten the diminution or the loss of some overseas dependencies, for one should not regard this as tantamount to national ruin. But if ever our em- pire or our dominion of the seas is challenged. we now see that 1t will be by no desultory attack In distant wa ters-not on India, South Africa, nor Austraiash4 but by direct plunge at the heart of the empire--on our arse- naIs our ports and the capital The