BRITISH NAVY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 78, 4 April 1910, Page 7

BRITISH NAVY.

CANADIAN UNIT. SUPPLEMENTARY ESTIMATES. BUDLDING OF DRYDOCKS. 8/ Telegraph.— Prew Anociat loo. -Copyright. (Received April 4, 10 a.m.) OTTAWA, 3rd April. In a supplementary naval programme the Canadian Prime Minister (Sir Wilfrid Laurier) proposes to augment tho subsidy for the construction of large dry docks by half per cent. Harland and Wolff, of Belfast, the Canadian Pacific Railway, the Allan Line Steamship Company, and the Dominion Government will be directly interested in a mammoth drydock and *hip-repair plant to be established at St. John, New Brunswick. The establishment there of a great bteel thip)building plant, where war vessels and commercial vessels will be constructed and equipped, is regarded as almost certain to tollow the dock. Dealing with the naval question, the Toronto Globe says: — Our position is a peculiar and delicate one. How many Canadians are there who would advise Great Britain to cease building warships, notwithstanding Germany's refusal to accedt to the- Campbell-Bannerruan proposal? We believe there are very few, and the man who holds that Britain should at all hazards maintain her naval ascendency cannot with any consistency or self-respect be content to do nothing to help her in- her colossal task. He may be cheered, moreover, with the hope that the acceptance by the. colonies of the duty of assisting the motherland in this respect may be a greater stroke for peace than for war. It is said that the conversion of one nation— Germany — would probably stop at once the insane struggle for dominancy at sea. That the Campbell-Bannerman proposal only encouraged Germans to believe that their great competitor had reached the limit of his powers is supported by considerable evidence. If bo, they are by this time thoroughly undeceived. The British people have shown that, while they are willing to call a halt in unison with the other Powers, they will only do so in unison, and if the rivalry of armaments must still go on they are able and determined to more than hold their own. They certainly can stand the strain as long as any other European Power, and to them have now been added populations aggregating thirteen or fourteen million people, increasing daily in numbers and wealth and resources. The outlook must be discouraging to even her nearest* competitor, who btarts so very far in the rear. Is it fantastic to tay that under the circumstances the resolution of the colonies to form navies may turn out a mighty stroke for peace?