NATIONAL  EXPANSION  355

concede  Germany's  right  to  frame  its  naval  policy  according
to  its  liking,  and  -who  are  entirely  convinced  that  that  policy
conceals  no  sinister  designs  against  other  Powers,  will  decline  to
believe  that  there  can  be  any  finality  about  the  latest  or  any
future  naval  programme.  Whatever  its  present  intentions  may
be,  having  decided  that  it  will  have  a  strong  fleet,  Germany  will
fii\d  it  impossible  to  impose  any  limits  to  the  size  of  that  fleet
other  than  those  which  financial  considerations  may  dictate.
The  very  logic  of  facts — those  facts  which  are  held  to  justify  the
naval  construction  schemes  now  regarded  as  sufficient — will  com-
pel it  to  go  forward,  and  so  armaments  which  are  honestly  spoken
of  as  superfluous  to-day  will  be  found  necessary  to-morrow.
No    one   can   doubt   this   who   has  watched   the   remarkable
change  which  has  come  over  German  public  opinion  on  the  navy
question  during  the  past  few  years.    To  give  one  illustration  only :
it  was  only  in  1905  that  the  leading  organ  of  the  commercial,
anti-military  Radical  party  of  Prussia,  the   Vossische  Zeitung,
said  in  disparagement   of  a  navy  scheme   of  that   day,    "The
more    eager  and  excited  the  demands  which,  with  the   fullest
publicity,  are  advanced  for  a  considerable  increase  in  the  German
navy — an    agitation    which   does   not   scruple   to    hint   at    the
possibility   of  war   with    England — the    stronger    will    be    the
inducements   for    other    States,    and,    in    particular,    for  Great
Britain,  to  strengthen  their  own  naval  forces.     The  boundless
extravagances   in   which   the   spokesmen  of  the  Navy  League
indulge  may  easily  produce  a  result  which  was  not  contemplated.
