The world itself is
witness now, and its conscience is the judge. So there we shall leave
our case and turn to follow the ever thickening plot of coming war.
In 1889 Britain spent an extra hundred million dollars on building new
men-of-war. Next year Germany got Heligoland from Britain in exchange
for Zanzibar. Heligoland is only a tiny inland off the North Sea coast
of Germany. But it was very useful to the Germans as one of the main
defences of the great naval base there.
In 1897 the Kaiser said, "I shall not rest till I have made my fleet as
strong as my army." A year later he said, "Our future is on the
water." And in 1900 the German Navy Bill passed by the German
Parliament began by saying, "The German Navy must be strong enough to
endanger the supremacy of even the mightiest foreign navy." What
"foreign navy" could that be if not the British? In 1908 the Kaiser
tried to steal a march on the too pacific British Government by writing
privately to Lord Tweedmouth, the feeble civilian First Lord of the
Admiralty. The First Lord represents the Navy in Parliament; and
Parliament represents the People, who elect its members.
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