The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, MARCH 14, 1911. THE NAVAL ESTIMATES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLV, Issue 62, 14 March 1911, Page 4

The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, MARCH 14, 1911. THE NAVAL ESTIMATES.

There is^ a certain section of the British Liberal press which persists in taking, a most mischievous and dangerous view of the naval pojyot the Asquith Government. . Both the Daily News and the Morning Leader are journals .which have done yeoman service for the . of British Liberalism, especially during the past two years, Vwhen the struggle with the Tories has been of such a continuous and strenuous character. But unfortunately, where, naval matters are concerned both 3ournal Sj maintain an extremely wrong-headed attitude. A good deal of the opposition of the; Daily iNews to a strong shipbuilding policy is due no doubt to the fact that its principal proprietors, the Cadburys, the great cocoa pr->ple of Birmingham, are Quakers, av-1 fanatical believers in that ridi-c-lous notion of peace at any price. U ifortunately for the world, Germany and Austria are not governed m their foreign policy Quaker principles. It would be madness tor Great Britain to rely upon Peace Conferences being • able to convert the Great Powers of Europe to the belief that armies and nayies should be done away with. Probably, when the. millennium arrives, we shall see universal peace; but not until then. Meanwhile Great Britain has to consider the position as she finds it. It would be simply madness, to ignore the fact that Germany's policy or naval expansion constitutes a grave menace to Great Britain's power to protect her snores 'and her oversea commerce; nay, the very existence or the Empire is dependent upon the maintenance of her naval superiority. The Morning Leader seems to niter that the increase in the IN aval Estimates is due to Mr Lloyd Georges having: been absent from the Cabinet Councils through illness. We have the highest respect and the most unfeigned adafrration for the Chancellor of the^xchequer as a social reformer arid as a statesman _of very sincere progressive ideas. But did we think that the Cabinet's determination to increase the building programme was due to his illness we should not grieve over the latter, but rather rejoice over its occurrence. Mr Asquith and Sir Edward Grey are, we consider, better judges of the i general position .of world-politics than Mr Lloyd George, able as the latter may be as an administrator. We feel convinced that both the British Prime Minister arid the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs are the last men in England willingly to increase the financial'strain rendered necessary by a more extended building policy unless there were an urgent and imperative need for such. The Daily Chronicle'is equally as ardent in its Liberalism as the Daily News and the-Morning Leader: but it takes a broader and wiser view of the position. The Chronicle makes a strong; ■point when it shows that in • 1914 Germany will have 21 "Dreadnoughts," and that if the British programme had not been strengthened there would in the same year be only 25 British ' 'Dreadnoughts.." Now, a superiority of four cannot be enough, for, as the Chronicle reminds its readers, Austria is building five "Dreadnoughts," and the AustroGerman alliance might only too probably allow these to be used against the British Mediterranean squadron, which could not then be drawn upon to strengthen the British naval position in the North Sea. The British Government has done the right thing at last, and it is most satisfactory to read what The Times, opposed as it is to the Ministry on political grounds,-has said, on the matter. The opinion of The Times is most favorable to the Ministry. The great Unionist journal has honestly acknowledged that the new programme is sufficient to place Great Britain in an absolutely unassailable position of safety. No doubt it is somewhat, galling to see the snlendid financial results of last year's Budget so severely trenched upon as must be the case now that a bigger building programme is befns: authorised ; but aftor all national safety must b<? secured, and to what better purpose could an increased revenue be devoted than to strengthening1 the one and only moans by which the safety of the Empire a"cj its oversea trade can be ensured? I