THE BRITISH NAVY. AN INTERESTING DISCUSSION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 139, 11 December 1908, Page 7

THE BRITISH NAVY. AN INTERESTING DISCUSSION.

VARIOUS VIEWS. TWO-POWER STANDARD. By Telegraph.— Press Association.— Copyright, (Received December 11, 8.45 a.m.) LONDON, 10th December. An interesting discussion is proceeding in the Standard on the question of strength. Members of the United Service Institute, leading admirals, and naval members of the House of Commons are participating. Lord Cawdor, who was First Lord sf the Admiralty in the Balfour Government, insisted that the maintenance of an efficient two-Power standard involved much besides battleships. \ Admiral Sir N. Bowden-Smith (onetime Commander of the Australian Station) declared that without half a million territorials, the two-Power standard was insufficient. Admiral Sir Gerard Noel (Commander-in-Chief at the Nore), referring to the cost of Dreadnoughts, said Dreadnoughts were no better than other warships. He complained of the present distribution of the fleet, the effect of which was to denude tho Pacific, Cape, and China stations. All the writers have pinned Mr. Asquith, the Prime Minister, to his latest definition of the twn-Power standard, which Radical newspapers persistently try to minimise. In the House of Commons, on the 12th November, Mr. Asquith made a definite statement on tho Government's naval policy. The Government, he said, accepted the principle of the two-Power standard as the maintenance of Britain's navy at a strength ten per cent, above the combined strengths in "capital" ships (modern armoured vessels) of the two next strongest Pov.-ers. The announcement was greeted with cheers from both sides of the House.