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Show Frederick Harrison Changes Front; Drops Anti-Militarist Policy LONDON. April 11. Frederic Harrison has contributed a notable article on tho national defense to thc Times. Mr. Harrison's great Influence on English life and thought has been directed against aggression and imperial expansion for nearly half a century. In this communication, communi-cation, however, he admits that recent developments have, obliged him to modify Ills antl-mllitarlst policy, and to urge on the country the vital necessity of taking stringent measures for national defense. He says: "They are trifling with a'serious crisis who repeat platitudes about our friendly neighbors, our peaceable Ideals, and our mngnlllccnt navy. Of course, England desires de-sires to live a I peace with all men, and does not nurse against any continental nation either Jealousy or grudge. And we know that our navy today Is amply competent to defend our Island and our empire aptalnst any maritime power In thc world. 'What more can we want'." says tho old-fashion radical. Intent on retrenchment, and tho new-fashion labor man. Intent on social reform. "Well, let us come to tho point and speak plainly on certain facts. The solu grohnd for serious anxiety as to our national defences arises from what we seo as wo watch thc feverish expansion of the German navy, combined with thc domineering attitude of the German government gov-ernment In Europe plus the ambitious schomcs asserted now for a wholo generation gen-eration by the German military and naval chiefs, fomenting the natural aspirations as-pirations of tho great German race. Some Plain Speaking. I "Absolutely free as 1 am from any sort of party allegiance anil equally free from any public responsibility, I cart speak openly about things which official politicians and Judicious publicists have to cover under conventional allusions. Our national existence, I make bold to say. may be In peril, within less than a generation, from the tremendous navy now being hurried on in Germany, from the domineering ambition of the German olilefs. tho aspirations and the increase of the Gorman rnce. "I say the German race, because thc near eastern crisis can mean nothing less than the eventual amalgamation, or the practical control by one hand, of tho entire en-tire Germnn-sponking peoples of central Europe. The signal service to Austria rendered bv Germany, not without risk to herself. In this Balkan Imbroglio, must Involve that within a few years Europe will be face to face with a hundred millions mil-lions of Germans trained to war and practically under "one military leadership And if to that wcro ever added thc virtual vir-tual control over the how German people peo-ple of IJolluud. wilh her seaports and murine population, a single lord ruling from Slot lin to Hie mouths of the Uhlnc and from the Dalllc to the Adriatic, Lhcn liuropc will see a power which sho has not known since Napoleon and Louis NI. Domineering Ambition. "There Is no doubt about the domineering domineer-ing ambition of German diplomacy, for this is tho key that oxplans tho course of history in Europe for tho last twenty years. The desperate plunge of Austria into the. Balkans was made with the connivance. con-nivance. If nol at the suggestion, of Berlin. And. In any case, it Is destined to redound to tho ultimate advancement of Germany more than of Austria. The aspirations of the German people ami tho schemes of their chiefs are perfectly natural, given thc general situation and the history of the new German empire. They need cause In us neither surprise nor Indignation. "Thc danger of collision lies not In anv hostile disposition of thc German people, but In the manifest tendency of thc two dominant facts in world politics the military ascendancy and resources of the German emplro face lo face with tho British empire based on command of tin: sea. When we reflect on thc meteoric me-teoric aggrandisement of Prussia in thc last slxtv veare, on her great military caste, of which western Europe lias no parallel, on the pride anil tho self-consciousness of the Gorman people, coupled cou-pled with iui inborn spirit of patriotism i and of discipline, we see before us n nation na-tion of magnificent endowments and rc- sources. Inspired with a faith In Its destiny des-tiny as a dominant world power. Influences That Control. "Nations are nol led solely, nor always, by their Interests. As we sec todav, they are led nol seldom by their pride, their jealousies, or their aspirations. In tho far west a great nation is now aspiring as-piring to have there a paramount navy, and in the far east another nation Is aspiring to be mistress at loasl in her own waters. Jn Europe, over against our own ports, the great German empire em-pire has striven for twenty years to show the world Ihat. If she cannot be first at scii,,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. "Ilesein arc all the elements of a contest con-test qulio natural in tho ultlmato evolution evolu-tion of national destinies, international morality remaining- as Jt Is today. Not today, nor tomorrow but, with the normal nor-mal growth of mighty' nations, It may well come within the actual generation. It is an antagonism llko that between Athens and Sparta, Rome and Carthage, Spain and Britain, Germany and Prance, one which seems to be Independent of persons, even of thc will of peoples, to be borne on by thc elemental springs of national destinies. "Unless a new war or a reform of International In-ternational morality should Intervene, il seems Inevitable that our supremacy at sea will bo met by a determined challenge chal-lenge within measurable time. If tho coming challenge to our maritime supremacy suprem-acy were to threaten simply the dimi-nullou dimi-nullou or the loss of some over-seas dependencies. de-pendencies. I for one should not regard this as tantamount to national ruin. But If ever our empire or our dominion of thc seas Is challenged, we now seo that it wil bo by no desultory attack In distant dis-tant waters not on India, South Africa, nor Australasia, but by direct plunge at the heart of tho empire on our arsenals, ar-senals, our ports and the. capital. Tho German navy Is not built for distant voyages. voy-ages. It Is. built to act only as the spearhead of a magnlllcent army. This army, as we know, has been trained for sudden transmarine descent on a coast, and for this end every road, well, bridge and smithy In the east of England and Scotland has been docketed In tho German Ger-man war office. "Whenever our ompfro and maritime ascendancy aro challenged. It will bo by such an Invasion in force as was once designed by Philip and Parma, and asaln by Napoleon. It Is this certainty which compels ino to modify the nntl-mllltarlst policy which I have consistently maintained main-tained for forty years past. Tho conditions condi-tions are now changed; new risks Involve In-volve fresh precautions. The mechanical mechan-ical as well as tho political ilrcuinstances are quite ditrcreut from what they were in tho days of Wellington, or even of Palmerton and Gladstone. To me It Is no question of loss of prestige no question ques-tion of the shrinkage of thc empire; It Is our existence as a foremost European powon, and even as a thriving nation." |