NAVAL SUPREMACY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15504, 10 January 1914, Page 7

NAVAL SUPREMACY.

LIBERAL RANKS UNITED.

Br Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.

(Received January 9, 6 p.m.)

London, January 9. The Pall Mall Gazette insists that the 16 to 10 margin of British battleships over those of Germany, which Mr. Hobhouse (Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster) held should bo tho limit, has not yet been attained.

There was not even a rift in the Government ranks over the armaments, declared Mr. Stanley Buckmaster (Solicitor-General), in a speech at Keighley yesterday. The Liberal policy remained as always, namely to place beyond risk the safety of Britain and of the Dominions, and to maintain the unassailable superiority of the British fleet.

Neither for aggrandisement nor aggression, however, would Liberals add a single unit. While Britain maintained her own rights she did not menace the rights of others. She desired the goodwill of all. He hoped this policy plainly expressed and pursued would remove the nightmare of suspicion and distrust under which the nations of Europe gasped for breath.

The French Government takes the view that the newspapers have attached too much importance to Mr. Lloyd George's naval statement.