NAVAL AFFAIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 66, 18 March 1910, Page 5

NAVAL AFFAIRS.

THE RIGHT TO CAPTURE. BRITAIN'S TERMS OP REDUCTION. (Received 8.5 a.m.) LONDON, March 17. The vote of £7,389,400 for wages in the Naval Estimates was agreed to. Mr. A. H. Lee, answering Mr. Murray McDonald, member for Falkirk, said the two-Power standard was impossible if friendly nations were excluded from the computations. Sir Charles W. Dilko discussed the treatment meted out to Mulliner's (the Birmingham firm which Lord Beresford declared had been discriminated against for warning the Admiralty that Krupp's works were being greatly extended) and declined to inform Mr. McKenna whether he believed the allegations were true. Mr. McKenna, after a sharp passage with Sir Chas. Dilke, declared that the accusations against the Admiralty were baseless. Replying to some Liberals regarding Britain's adhering to the right to capture an enemy's goods at sea, Mr. McKenna stated that if Britain deprived herself of the power of offence she would still be compelled to maintain a supreme navy to protect her against invasion, but if assured that even on Britain abandoning the right of others "would red-ace their navies upon th'p understanding that Britain would remain supreme, the Government was willing to consider the proposals.