BRITISH NAVAL ESTIMATES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8823, 15 March 1909, Page 5

BRITISH NAVAL ESTIMATES.

THE NEW PROGRAMME.

AIRSHIPS AND SUBMARINES,

(By Electrio Telegraph—Cofybight.) (Peb Pbess Association.; LONDON, March 14. The Naval Estimates have been presented. They total £35,142,700. New construction will absorb £8,885,194, whereof £6,599,424 will be expended on. ships already under construction, and £2,285,770 will go towards the new programme, which comprises:—Four Dreadnoughts, six protected cruisers, twenty destroyers, some submarines, e The personnel of the Navy is not increased. The Government will, if necessary, ask authority to make preparations for rapid construction of four more large armoured ships, to be laid down on April 1, 1910, and completed in March, 1912 Memorandum of the Estimates by the Right. Hon. R. McKcnna First Lord of the Admiralty, shows that £60,000 is allotted for airships and half a million for submarines. ' . The memorandum adds the following statistics: — _, Completed during current year.— -lnree battleships, four Invincibles, five destroy-, ers, seventeen first-class torpedo boats, seven submarines. . . Under construction on April I.—biX: battleships, one armoured ' cruiser, two unarmoured cruisers, five protected cruisers, twenty-five destroyers, six torpedoes, nineteen submarines.. The Daily News expresses disappointment at the Estimates on the ground that the programme is colossal. On the otner hand the Unionist press is disappointed on the ground that the programme-'is inadequate unless the additional powers- for .the construction of four more large armoured ships mentioned are - resolutely ,enforced.