UNCHALLENGABLE FLEET.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 13063, 1 May 1913, Page 3

UNCHALLENGABLE FLEET.

NECESSARY FOR THE EMPIRE'S VERY LIFE. LONDON, March 15. Attention is now centred on. Mr Winston Churchill's new naval estimates. Provision has been made for five battleships, eight light cruisers, sixteen destroyers and an unspecified numlier of submarines and an unspecified number of submarines and subsidiary craft. The proposals represent a total oupit^l expenditure of £16,000,000 or £3,000,CC0 greater than for the present year, when provision was made for four large capital ships, eight cruisers and twenty destroyers. Seeing that there has been delay m the passage of the Canadian Naval Bill, regret is expressed, pretty generally, except among the extreme pacifists, that the admiralty is hot insisting upon six instead of five battleships. France this year, is laying down four great aa-mored ships, Germany three and Italy two, while Austria is planning to replace three small battleships of the Monarch class with Dreadnoughts. INCREASING NAVAL FORCE. Much importance attaches to tlje proposal of the admiralty to increase the number of officers and men upon whom the fighting power of the. navy depends even more tlian upon the ships. The navies of the Triple Alliance have added 43,000 officers and men to the active seryieo list during the past nine years, while the British fleet lias added only 6400. The Admiralty now proposes to reach a total of 146,000 officers and men by March 31, 1914. As Mr Winston Churchill recently reminded the Canadian Ministers, the manning resources of Britain are now strained to their utmost limit. NO SPASMODIC EFFORTS. The Daily Telegraph says : "No spasmodic effort will suffice m shipbuilding, manning and the pro- j visioning of w«ll-equipped naval bases. ] We must, m Mr Churchill's words, learn from our German neighbors whoso policy j marches unswervingly ' towards their : gaol across the lifetime of whole generations. The maintenance of an unchallengeable fleet is prevented from becoming for us v luxury by being necessary for our very life." . Britain is spending on her fleet this year £6,000,000 more than three years ago, and £1,000,000 more than * four years ago. This urgent national discussion lias relegated suffragettism and the Balkan problem to a momentary oblivion. * - .