This letting of the cat out of the bag is
not very judicious, but we are convinced that the desire to speak on equal terms with America in regard to un• appropriated places is the main cause of the demand for a great Fleet. At the close of the war with Spain, Germany imagined that diplomatic pressure would be enough to make the United States throw her an island or two. The Americans, however, proved like flint, and, in spite of the petty worrying inflicted by the German Fleet on the Philippine coast, would yield nothing. But, reflected the Germans, if we had possessed a bigger Fleet they could not have been so selfish, and must have yielded us some of their islands. Before, then, the next dying nation breaks up, let us have plenty of ships.' From the German point of view, one must confess that this is sound business enough. Suppose Brazil to break up, the Germans would naturally claim the Rio Grande do Sul, which is half -German already, but such a claim could only be made good by a great Navy, for it involves an absolute negation of the Monroe doctrine.
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