THE NAVY AND ARBITRATION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10719, 18 March 1911, Page 3

THE NAVY AND ARBITRATION.

HOPES FOR PEACE. PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. [By EiiECTRic TEr/EGRArn— Gory bight.] (Per Pkess Association.) Received March 17, at 10.3/ p.ni - Loudon, March 17. Mr M'Kenna said the Estimates represent the total expenditure for the year, moreover they include £1,<300,00U interest on former loans. We were payiii<T our way to the last shilling. Ie Navv must "bo supreme as long as tlie Empire is to endure. He would never advise the temporary expedient ot a loan to meet their permanent needs. It took two years to build a Dreadnought, and they need not begin the five of the Orion and Lion type befoie December or January next, llie cost of the first eight Dreadnoughts was the same as tho nine King kdvards, but their maintenance would 1,0 .m i nno rear less. The Orions cost XI, each, ail increase of £200,000 over the earlier Dreadnoughts. compared with Germany s £22,000,000, appeared to represent" of the two-Power standard, hut £B,nOU,OUU re presented expenditure which m Germany's case was embodied in tlie civil primates The ture comparison, therefore was Britain £36,0(10,000 and Germany £22,000,000. A further two and a-iialf millions was deducible in respect of the fleets we maintain in the 1 acih., and Atlantic, makiug our tul.il £33,500,000.

A CRITICAL TIME. Received March 17, at 11-30 p.m. London, March 1< Mr M'Kenna added thatrtlio Rosytli naval base will Be ready;in 1910. Mr Lee (Unionist) said the spnn Hy 1914 would bo a critical .tunc. A\e would then have 29 Dreadnoughts and +V»p Triple Alliance would na\e Therewas no margin lor accidents The cruiser programme was inciiffifient in view ot trio tnrcateiicu privfteering peril if the Declaration ot LO Mr°G. W moved an amendment that foreign evented id an increasing expenditure, wlmh was menace to the security of peace. . Mr Balfour, in a speech arousing intense interest, said he felt, like others that the constantly increasing Estimates were more than a national inconvenience but they must he endured to avoid the risk of disaster. If diplomacy and soft words could accomplish anjthtog by all means let them be tried Si. 'Meanwhile they had the facts of 1914, detailed by Mr Lee, and they must be faced. Besides the responsibilities of other parts of the woild we must maintain our supremacy in the Mediterranean- No other nation had Sl interposed by saying that the Admiralty would not accept Mr Lee's forecast.

AN AGREEMENT WITH AM ERICA Received March 18, at 0.25 a.m.

London, March 17. Mr Balfour nest referred to President Taft's suggestion to extend the existing treaties for arbitration in order to include points of national honor equally with those of national interests. ihe suggestion deserved careful consideration, and whether or not realisable there generally was no reason why kindred communities like Britain and the United States should not enter into such an arrangement. Continuing, Mr Balfour recalled Lord Salisbury's and Sir Julian Pauncefote s efforts to frame a treaty of arbitration with the United States. Lord fe;uisburv's successors were fortunate enough to make an immense number of treaties of arbitration, but they failed with America, where the Senate declined the suggestions approved by the President and tlie Cabinet. Ho hoped President Taft's words represented, besides Mr Taft's and tlie Government's feelings, the general feeling in the United States, that for both countries concerned peace was of the greatest interest, and that the time was ripe for a treaty prevent' ing the possibility of anything so horrible as a war between them. If Sir E. Grey and the Government found a way for such an arrangement they would find no heartier friends than the Union' ists. It would bo the consummation of a policy wherefor they had constantly striven, but even such a treaty could hardly affect the navy's future, for were we not building ships against America, and lie was not aware that any European Power would be prepared to entertain President Taft's scheme owing to Mr Haldane's indiscretion. We knew, on Admiral Wilson's authority, that the protection of our food supply and raw materials was a subject causing Admiral Wilson tlie greatest anxiety. Doubtless Mr M'Kenna endorsed Admiral Wilson's view. Mr Balfour concluded bv saying that the provision for battleships and possible contingencies ill 1914 was inadequate.