Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-07
ARMAMENT IN
WAY OF PEACE
ABOLITION OF NAViES NOT
POSSIBLE, SAYS GERMAN
Even Alliance of Worlds Countries
Would Not Absolutely Assure
Peace, Is Opinion of
Leader

BERLIN, Feb 6.-Admiral von hoes-
ter, the Grand Old Man" of the Ger
man fleet, who in his capacity of pres
ident of the navy league acts as the
moderating hand of the government on
that organization and restraints it from
impolitic candor if not from excess of
zeal, explained in speech at k1el
what may be regarded as the official
attitude in this country toward the
question of disarmament He said:
II have recently occupied myself
a great deal with this theme and read
with interest all the articles upon it,
and [ can only say that I have not
found a single article in which there
was so much as a single tangible point
in the way of a practical proposal 1t
is said that we must disarm. Now, in
the first place, the assumption would
in my opinion be that only the one
who is absolutely the stronger can dis
arm. But he doesn't do it. The van
Quished can disarn. It is about the
hardest condition that the victor can
impose when he says to the van
quished, 'Disarmn and the German ma
tion knows that better than any one
else, when it looks back to the begin
ming of the nineteenth century and OBJ
serves how much bitterness and how
much hatred this compulsory disarma-
ment calls forth.
Then there is the third idea, that
of international disarmament. That
sounds very nice, but what does it
mean? International disarmament can
only take place among all nations for
we are not building a fleet against
any one opponent, but against any one
who may attack US. Consequently in
ternational agreement between all ma
tions would be necessary. Now, do you
believe that today the Japanese and
Russians, Turks and Greeks would be
able to agree as to the determination
of the strength of their fleets? Do yon
believe that that would ever be possi-
BILE?
I'VE should have to have a perma-
nent conference which would decree:
One of you has from today the right
to procure so many ships. Another one
can now build one more torpedo boat,
because his commercial interests have
extended and his exports have in
creased so and so much At any rate,
for me international disarmament is an
absolutely nebulous idea, for which 1
cannot obtain elucidation. We have no
scale by which disarmament could be
regulated. International disarmament
would only mean the crippling of free
development. A fourth method of dis
armament may be found by way of
alliance. But when one wants an ally
he must be strong. and bring some
thing with him, either an army or a
navy. And alliances 800 not of eter-
nal duration. They are here today and
gone tomorrow and the political hori-
zon is continually changing.
But what about the development Of
a fleet? A fleet is so complicated an
apparatus that decades-I might al
most say half a century-is necessary
for it's full development. Even when
one can build ships quickly the organ
ization and development of the system
require years. Even with an alliance
one would have to furnish and develop
and perfect a fleet for the eventuality
of fresh complications. That is my
opinion on the disarmament question"
The opinion of Admiral Won Rooster
is that of most Of the comparatively
few politically influential persons in
Germany. There is much meaning in
these words of the admiral for those
who can read them Alright