THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning Tuesday. March 30, 1909. BRITISH AND GERMAN SHIP-BUILDING,

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12501, 30 March 1909, Page 2

THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning Tuesday. March 30, 1909. BRITISH AND GERMAN SHIP--BUILDING,

In the light of the disclosures made during tho Naval Estimates debate in the House of Commons,. ■ it is interesting to study the return presented last year at the instance -of .Sir Charles Dilke, showing the 'position .of the fleets of Britain and Germany -as at March '31st, 1908; From this it. is evident 'that but for the sudden and not satisfactorily explained accession of activity in German shipyards, the naval preponderance of Britain would have been assured for some time to come without unusually heavyexpenditure, and. that at that date she 7 pos- : sessed a great superiority in the larger ! types _of vessels. Britain then had fifty-nine battleships and thirty-four armoured cruisers, to Germany- s thir-ty-four battleships and eight armoured cruisers. The following table shows the actual position at the date mentioned :— I

Thus Britain had thirty-nine vessels of over 13,000 tons, while" Germany possessed only three of that class, and those all inferior in size and design to Britain's thirty-nine' Sixteen of Germany's ships are unde.r 10,000 tons, and of these eight are only four thousand tons. The Dreadnought type was adopted by Britain in 1906, when the vessels of that class wero laid "down, each being of 16,500 tons. In 1907 the construction of three Dreadnoughts of 18,600 tons each was commenced, and since 1907 three more, of: 19,250 tons each,- have been laid down. Turning again . to German construction, we find that she followed: Great Britain in 1906 by laying down two,, ships, both of cbrisiderably less tonnage than the British Dreadnoughts,' [being only 13,040 tons each. In 1908, two more were commenced, having this time a tonnage of 17,760. Since thf- 1908 programme was rommenced I- -) rdditional Dreadnoughts, i^ve 'i-cn under construction by Germany, '.c 1 ; 1..-', ing a tonnage of 17,760. Ati^o qi'd of last yi<ir the construction of three additional German Dreadnoughts _as been under consideration, and -fchey are provided for in the estimates which passed the Reichstag without debate a few day-s ago, the programme besides boing greatly increased otherwise. These figures givo a significant aspect to the reception by . Germany of Britain's tentative suggestions of an agreement in^ regard to shipbuilding. Even had normal increases been followed by Germany, Britain's.-naval superiority would not have been threatened, and it would not.have been necessary to increase the burden on the British taxpayers. Af. it is, the Liberal Government pro-,, poses this year ya.' new construction vote of £8,885,000, or an increase of c more than a million oh last year's e:\penditure, and it is not at all certain that even tins increase will be deemed by Parliament sufficient to meet the position that has arisen. The total ( naval : vote proposed this year is £35,142,700, as compared with a vote i of £32,319,000 last year, . "

; Tons. ' Britain. Germany: Over 17,000 ; ' -1 none . ;■■•■■ - 16-17,000 ' 8 none '..I-- .15-1-6,000 „ "8 -none • 14-15,000 : 22 - : : none-*---13-14,000 none 3 » „.: 12^13,000 7 " ' 5 : " ; '■■ : .11-12,000 4 • .5 10-11,000 - 7 '5 "■■ Un(\er 10,000 ."■ 2 16 .■.;'■"'■• 59 —34