264 



The RevH'W of Reviews. 



ing Australian waters. Of all the Dominions 



it is probably Australia which has realised 



most adequately the need for national 



defence. The annual tax for defence has 



now i)asscd ,£'i per licad of population. 



The magnificent industrial 

 The ■ c n 



Canalisation expansion of Germany 



of finds its network of rail- 



Germany, ways quite inadequate to 

 cope with the increasing traffic. The 

 British Consul-General at Dlisseldorf reports 

 on the systematic development of. the 

 German inland waterways. The Govern- 

 ment proposes to deepen the bed of the 

 Rhine as f^xr as Cologne, so as to enable 

 larger sea-going steamers to reach the city 

 of the great Cathedral. This bringing of 

 the ocean to Cologne is a project on which 

 the Netherlands will naturally have some- 

 thing to say. It would, of course, do away 

 with the necessity of transhipment at the 

 Dutch ports, and the consequent profit to 

 Dutch pockets. This, however, is only one 

 of the manv projects of the German Govern- 

 ment, which means to build canals and 

 waterwavs wherever feasible, in order to 

 cheapen freights. The Consul proceeds: — 



It is fiirllier proposed to biiilil a transcontinental canal due 

 cast beyond Dortminid. All the rivers running from south to 

 nortli into llie Baltic and Noitli Sea are to be joiiicd toi^ellicr 

 by a large canal running from cast to west, thus bringing the 

 cast and south-cast in direct connnunication with the North Sea 

 fia the Rhinc-Mcrne-Dorlmund-Kinden Canal. The construc- 

 tion of the Khine-Wcser Canal and the enlargement of the 

 Ik-rlln-Stettin Canal have already been taken in hand. The 

 Kiver Ruhr, at Essen, in Westphalia, is to be deepened and 

 widened. At Kingcn, on the Rhine, the dangerous Hingen 

 Lock is to be made more easily navigable. The Rhine itself, 

 which so far is only navigable for large ships as far as Strasburg, 

 is 10 be made navigable .is far as Basel. The Mosel and Saar, 

 tributary rivcr.s of the Rhine, arc to be deepened and canalised 

 as well. By this means the industrial districts of Alsace- 

 Lorraine and Luxemburg will gain immensely ; all three 

 provinces have been developing their industries by leaps and 

 bounds during (he last ten years, and will get a fresh impetus 

 by getting cheaper canal freights. 



Germany deserves our ungrudging con- 

 gratulations on this resolute policy of 

 internal development. Wc might even 



go so far as to offer her the sincere flattery 

 of prompt imitation. 



The German Blue-book 

 Is War upon the new German 



Worth While? colonies in the Congo, 

 which .resulted from the 

 menace of war consequent on the visit of 

 the Panther to Agadir, must have come as a 

 disagreeable surprise to those enthusiastic 

 Germans who in their desire to secure a 

 place in the sun for Germany risked 

 oluneine the entire civilised world into war. 

 And this risk was run for what the German 

 Government, who are not likely to be unduly 

 pessimistic, call a dismal, uninhabitable 

 swamp. Surclv such results from menace 

 of war will in time bring the peoples to 

 realise how utterly unprofitable war generally 

 is when compared with more commercial 

 but less spectacidar methods. Nobody 

 will ever know what the Agadir scare 

 cost in militarv and naval expenditure, 

 not only to Germany, but to all 

 European countries, antl the result is 

 that from now on the German flag 

 will fly over an uninhabitable swamp! 

 Nor have the financial effects finished 

 even at this day, since we find that 

 the British Government is continuing to 

 purchase some 15,000 tons of explosives 

 monthly, an amount which is far more 

 than they have bought since the South 

 African War, and considerably more than 

 the monthly purchase of explosives during 

 the war. The other side of the picture is 

 shown by the recent figures published 

 about Alaska, which was purchased in 

 1867 by the United States from the Russian 

 Government at a price of under one and a 

 half millions, for which the Ignited States 

 has since received a return of somethine 

 over 80 millions sterling. Facts such as 

 these do mm li to pre\ ent wars and remove 



