On Monday a Conference' was held at the Westminster Palace
Hotel to consider the desirability of creating a North Sea Squadron, and of establishing a naval base on the East Coast. Mr. Haldane was in the chair, and he and the chief speakers all agreed that though it might be, and probably was, necessary largely to increase the Fleet in view of German naval expansion, it was much better not to ear-mark any such increase as " the North Sea Squadron." The unanimity expressed as to making the Navy the first charge on the Exchequer was most remarkable. At the beginning of the proceedings Mr. Masse read out a very striking message from Mr. George Meredith, in which the situation as regards Germany was well summed up. " We should be grateful to the Germans," said Mr. Meredith, "for their crusty candour in telling us of their designs upon us. They stir a somnolent people; and without stooping to regard them as enemies, we can accept them as urgently stimulating rivals, whose aim is to be the first of the world-Powers, chiefly at our expense." That is excellent; but the message is even more important as a sign of the times than for what it actually says. There is probably no better proof of the way in which the British nation has been moved of late in regard to Germany than this emer- gence of a great man of letters from his study into the arena of public affairs. Such " spirits are not finely touched but to fine issues."
Previous page
