EUROPEAN SITUATION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2612, 21 September 1909, Page 5

EUROPEAN SITUATION.

LORD CHARLES EERESFORD CONSIDERS THE OUTLOOK DARK. f JnITKD I’IIKSH ASSOCIATION COPYKIOIIT. LONDON, Sept. 19. Lord Charles Eeresford, as the. guest of honor at the Pilgrims’ luncheon at Xew York, referring to the European situation, remarked that the outlook was dark. The supremacy of the sea was a matter of life or death to the Empire. “But the measures being taken for defence,’’ ho said, “do not mean aggression, but merely a determination to hold what we have. What we want is to prevent war, and be so strong that nobody will attack us. Why should not the English-speaking nations get together and say there shall not he war?”

Lord Charles Eeresford, in a letter to the Imperial Industries Club, declares that Britain’s recent policy invokes a sudden attack on trade routes. It was well known that a possible enemy had made all arrangements for arming merchantmen with small guns, and it was a simple matter to send the along the trade routes, before warlike preparations, like British vessels. Lord Charles Beresford reiterates his demand for additional small cruisers for the better protection of food and raw materials. Ho contends that, without more cruisers and sea-going destroyers, the battleship fleet is ineffective.