CABLES. Home and Foreign.

Inangahua Times, 10 May 1909, Page 4

CABLES. Home and Foreign.

Britain's Naval Supremacy.

Mr Harcourt's Views. (By Electric T«legraph.) Vi i'fesu Aisoclatlon.—CflDT) '•hi, LONDON, May 9. The Right Hon Lewis Harcourt, at the Reform Club, said that the country should have abundant security, but it was a crime to build more ships than was necessary. The Daily News declares that there is no intention among sensible men to build against phantom fleets or imaginary alliances. Hon Mr Churchill speaking at

Oxford said it was certain we were in for an epoch, not of panic building, but of steady building. It was deplorable that the nations should spend money in this way. It would impose a severe strain on evtry state, but it would not be Britain that would be the first -to show;-itself unequal to the strain. (CheersA Happily free trade would enable us, unhampered by tariff loans to end without the status of any class of the country being sensibly affected to maintain ample and effective superiority in sea power over every likely combination. The PaM Mall Gazette, in commenting on Germany's race for Dreadnoughts, says that Krupps have ten pits for the trial of heavy gun mounting, enabling them to construct the gun mountings sufficient for six Dreadnoughts annually. Krupps are adding ei >,ht further pits, enabling them ito fit eleven Dreadnoughts. The I Government is not aware of the extent of Krupp's increase.