SEA POWER.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 539, 21 June 1909, Page 7

SEA POWER.

IMPORTANT SPEECH BY FIRST LORD. SPECIAL EFFORT NEEDED. ! ACCELERATED GERMAN BUILDING. (By Telegraph;—PreßS Associatioa.-Copyiight.) i ' (Rec. June 20, 5 p.m.) j London, Juno 19. SpoaWng at Middlotori, Lancashire, tho First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. M'Kenna, emphasised tho need of a special effort in connection with tho Navy. Ho stated that, whereas Britain, had only eight large ships laid down, Germany had ten. For the present at any rate the hopes of limiting the naval programmes by arrangement had proved groundless, Tho speech shows that the Government is calculating upon tho three German battleships of the 1909 programme being already begun. ' THE GERMAN SHIPS. AND TEE "CONDITIONAL PROGRAMME." , There is no German Dreadnought yet complete. Last year there were launched four German Dreadnoughts of the battleship class (that is, the Dreadnought typo as. apart from the Invincible type, though in many estimates tho two types are both considered together as "Dreadnoughts"). Those four German ships are the Nassau, Westfalen, Rheinland, and Posen, each of 18,000 tons, carrying twelve 11inch guns and twelve 6.7-inch; and two of thorn, the Nassau and the Westfalen, are expeoted to he completed this year. To theso four have to be added the three Dreadnoughtbattleships of 190S and the three Dreadnoughtbattleships of 1909. If, os. is surmised in tho cablegram, the three Dreadnought-battleships of 1909 are already-begun, that will make the total of "ten laid down" referred to by Mr. M'Kenna. That Mr. M'Kenna is dealing only with the Dreadnought-battleships, and not with the cruiser typo, is made fairly clear by his referring to eight British ships. These would be the Dreadnought, Bellerophon, and Temeraire (all three completed); tho Superb and St Vincent (laid down in 1907); the Collingwood and the Vanguard (laid down in,l9OS); and the Neptune (laid down in January, 1909). ; Does the First Lord's statement herald, tho laying down this year not only of the four programmed British Dreadnoughts, but of the "conditional" four, making eight in all? -