THE NAVY ESTIMATES

Otago Witness, Issue 2818, 18 March 1908, Page 31

THE NAVY ESTIMATES

♦ DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. LONDON, March 10. Li the House of Commons, during the debate on the Navy Estimates, Mr E. Robertson (Financial Secretary to the Admiralty), referring to the new type of ships, said the worst that could happen would be that Germany and France together in 1910 might, in the event of certain accelerations, have 12 battleships and cruisers to Great Britain's 12, but early in 1911 they would still have but 12 and Great Britain 14. Mr Balfour emphasised the statement that in January, 1911, threat Britain would have eight Dreadnoughts and four battleships of the Invincible type, against Germany's nine vessels of the newest type; and by the autumn of 1911 Germany would have four additional ships, or 13 to our 12. The vote fixing the navy personnel at 128,000 was agreed to. Mr Murray MacDonakTs amendment in favour of a reduction in the Estimates by £8000 was negatived without a division. Mr Robertson incidentally stated that both sides of the House accepted the twoPower, standard. The Admiralty consideTed that the new programme amply maintained that standard. Mr Balfour insisted that by the end of 1911 Germany would enjoy a dangerous superiority in Dreadnoughts if she were able to build as fast as Great Britain. Mar/n 11. In the House of Commons during the debate on the vote for naval pay Mr Balfour, Teiterating his comparisons of navies, asked for a clearer answer than was possible on the previous night. Mr Asquith said that the country must maintain unassailable supremacy. The two-Power standard was good, practicable, and workable. On that there was no difference of opinion. He added that "Mr Balfour's question was confined to the vessels of the Dreadnought class, and was based on the assumption that by November, 1911, Germany would possess 13 vessels of that class. This was based on the hypothesis that on© battleship would be built in 30 months after being laid down, and that the whole programme on paper would be executed to the letter. There was, he 6aid, grave reason to doubt this, but for the moment he assumed the hypothesis to be correct. Mr Asquith, continuing, said that by January, 1911, Britain would possess 12 vessels of the new type, and later on would be one short if Germany completed her programme in the time indicated. That assumed that nothing would be done by Britain in the way of new construction in 1909, or that the vessels would be laid down at such a date that they would not be completed by 1911. But without forecasting the programme for 1909, he could say without the faintest hesitation that if Britain found that there wa6 a reasonable probability of the German programme being realised on the lines which the paper figures suggested, she would feel it her duty to provide, and should provide, a sufficient number of ships at such a date of laying down that by November, 1911, the superiority of Germany which Mr Balfour foreshadowed would not be an actual fact. — (Loud Opposition cheers.) Mr Asquith added : " That is the policy of the Government. It remains on record, and ought to reassure the House, that we do not intend to be left behind. — (Cheers.) The Times declares that Mr Asquith's explicit declaration will be received throughout the country with profound satisfaction and no little sense of relief.