THE BRITISH NAVY. LONDON, July 31.

Otago Witness, Issue 2734, 8 August 1906, Page 18

THE BRITISH NAVY. LONDON, July 31.

Lord Cawdor, who was- First Lord ol the Admiralty prior to the resignation of the Balfour Administration, has elicited from Lord Tweedmouth, the present First Lord of the Admiralty, an assurance* that . the reduction in the Naval Estimates wo# consonant -with sea supremacy. Britain,, he. said, was so strong that the Government was able to postpone some construction and await improvements. Lord, Tweedmouth added, in reply to Lord Cawdor's question as to 'whether the Sea Loids had originated. the reduction or were informed of any change in policy with - .regard to the two-Power standard, that h3 bad initiated: the desirability of reductions. Tbe Sea- Lords were invited to review the .situation, and make their own proposals'. Tbe- question of a. change of standard was never, submitted to them.

The unanimous decision was partly due to the fact that the *otber great Powers were retarding their shipbuilding.

Lord Goschen deprecated Sir ST. Camp-bell-Bannerman's action in encouraging democracy's Utopian, hopes, and said that democracy knew little about foreign diplomacy or the struggle between nations for supremacy.

Lord Cawdor, in bis remarks on the naval reductions,' emphasised the necessity of keeping ahead with tbe latest and best type of battleship, adding tfiat the nation possessing the latest Dreadnoughts a decade hence will be ruler of tbe eeas.