BRITAIN'S NAVAL SUPREMACY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13279, 11 September 1906, Page 5

BRITAIN'S NAVAL SUPREMACY.

THE GERMAN MENACE, A REMARKABLE ASSERTION. By Telegraph.—Press Association.— (Received September 10, 9.44 p.m.) London, September 10. The Spectator, commenting on the contention put forward by Mr. W. H. Wilson, editor of the Navy League Journal, in an article published in the National Review,' that if Great Britain does not supplement her immediate shipbuilding programme, by 1908 she will have lost command of the sea to Germany, owing to the superiority of the latter in Dreadnoughts, urges the Government to appoint a Select Committee of experts to report on what the British programme ought to be to retain command of the sea against either a single Power or a group of Powers. ,

Germany is laying down one 19,000 ton battleship this year, and- has in prospect five others of the same class. The largest battleships she lias afloat are of 13,200 tons, but these apparently are not counted by Mr. Wilson, nor are Great Britain's magnificent battleships from 14,000 tons to 16,500 tons. He assumes that the contest tor naval supremacy began de novo with the Dreadnought. Great Britain has built one Dreadnought, and is building three others, which it is expected will be in commissou at the end of 1907. Apparently he believes that Germany is laying down six Dreadnoughts now, and will have them' in commission iii 1903. This is speedier construction than any foreign Power has yet approached.