The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-01-02
GREAT BRITAIN At
PARTING OF WAYS
Must Relinquish Mastery of Seas
or Increase Naval Arma-
ment.
ExPEN DIT UREs PILE UP
Many Will Be Content if Pres
ent Year Brings No
Wars.
uY WILLIAM n. STEAD.

1
LONDON, January 1.-The Old World
confronts the new year without the
| sanSulne confidence of gifts that may
bs In store. n 1t be that the next
twelve months bring us no war, many
VIII be content. But none Is daring
enough to hope that 1910 will see any
pause In the piling UP OF expenditure
In preparations for war. Indeed, tho
pace of beggar-my- neighbor competi-
tion promises to be swiftcr than ever,
for the new year finds Great Britain
at the parting of the ways. If John
Bull Is not definitely to give up his
historic position as Lord of the Seas
he'll have to find an additional $780,
| 100000 for warships In 1910 The
naval vote In 1909 was s170,o00,o0O. In
1910 1t will be over s20O,o00,000, unless
England has thrown up the sponge
and admits that sho has been knocked
out by Germany, which Is nearly
doubling its naval expenditures since
the last Hague Conference. She will
spend this year nominaliy s11O,ooO,o00,
but in reality s16o,ooo,ooo, because the
expenditure put down to the navy In
England amounting to s50000,000 was
distributed under other votes in Ger
many. England, even IL she spends
s2o0,000,000, will be sorely put to main
tain the two-powcr standard when Ger
many Is spending s160,o00,0O0. To keep
up her tWo-keels-to-o program, Eng
land requires a naval vote not of two
hundred, but of three hundred millions.
1t Is the stern alternative of pay or
so under, but In the beggar-tny-neigh -
Dor game. which has replaced actual
war as a test OF the resources and
stamina of nations, there IS no middle
way to escape. In the pending general
elections the gravity of tho issue is
obscured by the fact that tho leaders
Of neither side dare put the grim real
ity before the electors. The peers, who
are protesting against the monstrous
exactions of the budget, do not dare TO
tell the country that II they are placed
in power they will be compelled to eS-
act, not E16.oO0,Goo, but 10000 900 of
additional taxation The Liberals, who
hate all warlike expenditure prefer TO
eHtol the present strength, instead of
attending to the future needs of the
navy. The anti-German panicmon-
gers have made themselves ridiculous
by demanding an army of 100000 for
defense of the French frontier. The
constitutional issue obscures other
meets after the general election to-
frame the estimates for the year the
challenge will have to be faced. Great
Britain Will be at the crisis of her
destinies.
Will she ninch. or will she pay. pay.
pay? That's the supreme question for
which the New Year awaits an answer
We've been celebrating Gladstone's
centenary amid a chorus of grateful
voices, supplied by the nations which
he helped to liberty and independence,
but nothing could snow how far we
have drifted from the Gladstonian era
than that we should be discussing tieI
prospect of a naval vote of s2oo,o00,O 900
The mere proposition is enough TOT
make the Grand Old Man turn in his
grave. His statue in the Strand lends
itself more effectively to floral deco
ration tltan the statue of his great
rival In Parliament Square. but 1t Isl
costlier to decorate a. statue with De
cember lilies and orchids than 10 pile
UP votire offerings of primrose5 before
statue in April.
The death of Earl Percy deprives the !
party Of the dukes of one of their most
promising scions. The Duke OF North |
outside his own county, Is !
>aen leading member of any Union /
ist Cabinet. Able. industrious and de-
voted to the public service, his uneS-
pected and premature death is seri-
BUS blow to the party. Through I'M
Kind fates Chamberlain is permanentlyI
invaded. Balfour is laid UP for a
month. Miners leg is sprained, and
now Percy is dead On the Liberal
side Haldane is laid UP with bad
,old. The peers will all retire from
he platform on.-the day the writs are
heir best, but the fact Is that out of
100 peers not twenty could be induced
% take the stump. significant Illus
ration of political indifference Is that
# those speaking one-half are new
,eers