SEA POWER.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 72, 18 December 1907, Page 7

SEA POWER.

A STRONGER NOTE SOUNDED BY THE , FIRST LORD. SUPREMACY ESSENTIAL. A BIGGER EXPENDITURE HINTED AT. IT TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT. >' London, December 16. The First; Lord of tho Admiralty, Lord Tweedmouth, spooking at Liverpool, said the Navy must be sufficiently strong to secure supremacy of: the seas, despite everybody. The Government, lie added, had no intention or desire to attack any Power, but Britain's commerce must be protected. If lie and his colleagues found they had to make considerable domands in doing what they felt obliged to do, they must ask tho country to support them. r . I DISSENSION IN CERMANY. FURTHER RESIGNATIONS FROM THE , : . LEAGUE, i Berlin, December 16. The Prince of. Thurn and Taxis has resigned from the German Navy League. Many resignations have also, been received in Berlin. , . "EFFICIENCY FIRST: ECONOMY SECOND." Lord Tweedmouth has all along declared British naval supremacy to be a sine qua non; he has also claimed that at present the British fleet is supreme. The hew element in his present speech is the hint that continuance of supremacy may entail "considerable demands" on the 'national purse. This apparent admission that a greater expenditure is now needed Can only be attributed to the recent rapid increase of the German naval votes. Events have changed since the British Government deferred the commencement of one of its, battleships, in order to see whether The Hague Conference would adopt limitation of .-.Since then, limitation has been lost at The Hague—Germany being its strongest opponent—and, notwithstanding the Kaiser's friendly visit, a renewed demand has sprung up in th 6 English Press for a construction programme to maintain the proportionate Superiority over Germany's. Lord Tweedmouth's speech i 6 the.first sign of ah active response by the Government. The clarhour raised by-tho papers, about the middle of . the year, was heavily discounted by Lord Tweedmouth. Speaking in July, he declared that most of the newspaper scares were manufactured, and he would give them his word of honour that the British fleet at that moment was as-strong as it over was, even stronger. ; (This statement. aroused a chorus of;-negations from the critics.) In the same speech, Lord Tweedmouth said"Efficiency comes first; economy comes second"—a principle with which his latest utterance would appear to'be entirely in key.