The Hawaiian gazette., 1915-10-19
DALFOUR DISCUSSES
Ii GERMAN RAIDING

Under date of September 5, Arthur
James BalfOur, first lord of the British
admiralty, issued the following state
ment, in the form of letter to q cor
respondent, concerning the status of
the German submarine campaign
against British commerce:
Dear Sir:-Mueh has been written
abont Germany's military methods and
aims on land; not 80 much about her
methods and aims at sea. Yet in truth
the two are so intimately connected
that neither can be understood apart
from the other.
1t was in 1900 that Germany first
proclaimed the policy of building a
fleet against Britain, and from the
point of view of her own ambitions the
policy was perfectly sound one, She
aimed at worid-domination;r and against
world.domination the British feet, from
the time Of Queen Elizabeth to the
present day, has always been found the
srrest and most effectual protection.
Freedom Of the Seas
The Germans have every reason to be
aware of the fact. for without the Brit
ish feet Frederick the Great must have
succumbed to his enemies, and with.
out the British feet Prussia would
scarcely have shaken Off the Napoleonie
tyranny. Whatever may be thought
about the freedom of the seas in
any of its various meanings, the free
dom of the land is due in no small
measure to British ships and British
sailors.
1t takes, however, time as well as
money to create a great feet, and Ger
man statesmen were too wise to sup
pose that they could at once call into
existence a navy able to contend on
equal terms with the power whieh--as
they saw clearly enough--was the most
formidable obstacle to their aggressive
projects. But they did not. on that ac-
count doubt the immediate advantages
which their maritime policy conferred
upon them.
They calculated that powerful feet,
even though it were numerically infer
Tor TO that of Britain, would, neverthe
less, render the latter impotent since
no British government would dare to
risk a conflict which, however success
full, might leave them in the end with
naval forces inferior to those of some
third power. This is the policy clearly
though cautiously expressed in the fam
Gus preamble to the navy bill. 1t is
unnecessary to add that the German
Navy League entertained much more
ambitious designs.
CoWards' Warfare
SO far, however, neither the designs
of the German government nor those Of
the German Navy League have met
with any measure of success. The Brit,
ish fighting feet has become relatively
stronger than it was thirteen months
ago, and there is no. reason to suppose
that during the future course of the
war this process is likely to be arrest.
ed. 1t is indeed plain that after six
months of hostilities Admiral TirpitZ
and the government which he serves
arrived at the same conclusion. They
saw that the old policy had broken
down aud that a new policy must be
devised. Submarines, they thought,
might succeed where DreadnOughts and
cruisers had failed.
The change, no doubt was adopted
with extreme reluctance and many
sCarchings of heart. The admission of
failure is in itself unpleasant; and
though We cannot regard the govern
n'ent responsible for the Belgian atroci-
tics as either scrupulous or humane,
even the most reckless of governments
does not desire to perpetrate unneces-
sary crimes, As to what the German
navy must have felt about the new pol
icy we can only conjecture.
German Sailors Gallant Men
But German sailors are gallant men,
and gallant men do not like being put
OF coward 3 job. They know we'll
enough that in the old days, which we
are pleased to regard as less humane
than our own, there was not a pri,
vateersman but would have thought
himself disRraced had he sent to the
lotion unresisting merchant ships with
all hands on board; and it can have