BRITAIN & GERMAN!

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 72, 25 March 1912, Page 7

BRITAIN & GERMAN!

LORD ROBSON'S SUGGESTION QUESTIONS OF FACT. NO REAL CAUSE FOR QUARREL. By Telegraph.— Press Association,— Copyright, (Received March 25, 8 a.m.) LONDON, 24th March. Lord Robson, a Lord of Appeal, and formerly Attorney-General, speaking at the International Arbitration Leagu*' dinner, said that questions of fact in the misunderstandings between Qr©a| Britain and Germany could usefully- to referred to judicial arbitration. There was no real ground for a quarrel. Sir George Reid, High Commissioner for Australia, responded to the toait "International Peace." GERMAN DEFENCE BILLS, ARMY AND NAVY. ADDITIONAL EXPENDITURE PROPOSED. BERLIN, 23rd March. Details of the Defence Bijls ai'e published, showing that provision is to to' mad© for additional expenditure of £750,000 on the navy in the present year. An extra battleship is to be built every second year, beginning in 1913. The army strength on a peace footing will be increased in October by 29,000 men. PROGRESSIVE INCREASES. Tho newspapers give further details of the Defence Bills. They state that the increased votes proposed are :—

New construction includes three-battle-ships, two small cruisers, a number of submarines, and &omo airships. The Navy Bill remedies two defects In organisation. One deals with the dis* missal of reservists every autumn, dimin* ishing the readiness of the battle tleet; the second refers to the fact thai out of a Budget strength of fifty-nine ships only twenty-one are available if the reserve fleet cannot get ready promptly. These defects are remedied by the gradual formation of a third active squadron. The Army Bill accelerates the strength* ening of the pence forces, which had not been intended to take effect until 1914 ; it will now be carried ont next October, giving two new army corps by the- addition of 29,000 men to the increase providod in the 1911 tiw. The increases are to be met out of the surplus fvo'm 1911 and new Exciw duties. v MR. CHURCHILL'S RECENT SPEECH BASIS OF FUTURE NEGOTIATIONS. KAISER'S ALLEGED OPINION. (Received March 25, 8 a.m.) BERLIN, 24th Match. The daily paper Boersen* Courier, state* that Herr yon Bethmann Hollweg (Imperial Chancellor) and Herr yon Kidei I-len-Waechter (Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs) believe that the speech delivered in the British House of Commons by Mr. Winston Churchill (First Lord of the Admiralty), when introducing the Navy Estimates, will form th© basis of future negotiations between Ger> many and Britain. Admiral yon Tirpitz (Secretary of State to the Admiralty) opposes the proposed limitation *of armaments until the widening of tho Kiel Canal has been completed. The Kaiser, it is said, agree* with Admiral yon Tirpitz in regardingMr. Churchill's Bpeech as an attempt to interfere with German affairs. CONSERVATIVE PAPERS' REGRET MEN AVAILABLE FOR THE ARMY. MORE THAN HALF NOT USED. (Received March 25, 9.40 a.m.) ' BERLIN, 24th March. Conservative .newspapers regret ,thjit the Army is not utilising tho rapid growth of population. Four hundred thousand men are available for service annually, but of this number 250,000 are not used. Soldiers number .788 per cent, of the population compared with .798 in 1873. LORD BERESFORD'S VIEWS. , WHAT MR. CHURCHILL SHOULD HAVE DONE. PRAISE FOR *THE NEW WAR ORGANISATION SCHEME. (Received March 25, 9.10 a-:rn.) LONDON, 24tli "March. Admiral Lord Charles Beresfoid, Unionist M.P. for Portsmouth, in a letj«i' to The Times, saye that Mr. Churchill would have been wiser if he had mapped out a policy for the defence of the Empire by calling in the help of the Dominions without reference to any Power. Lord Beresford compliment* Mr. Churchill on the new scheme for the war organisation of the Home fleets, and states : — "Our low margin in the first fighting line, compared with the first fighting linee of Germany and Austria in 1915, involves the risk of a reverse."

Army. 1912 1013 1914 Navy. £ 4,850,000 6,350,000 , 5.700,000 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 750,000 1,400,000 1,900,000 1,900,000 2,150,000