MILITARY AND NAVAL NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9214, 18 April 1908, Page 5

MILITARY AND NAVAL NOTES.

The London " Chronicle fea^ that a statement has been issued by Messrs John Brunner and J. A. Murray Maodonald, on behalf of " the eseoutivo oommittee of the Liberal Members of Parliament, moving a reduction of expenditure on armaments." It is urged that "the revised German programme is, not yet even begun, and for at least two years we are as safe as overwhelming preponderance can make us in watching the couiise of the construction, and in keeping ourselves ready to make use of new inventions.- In 1909 we shall have seven Dreadnoughts afloat, while Germany will have none at all. At the beginning of the following year w© shall have ten to her two. We are in a position to watch the course of German building and the progress of invention, and. we know that if we decide to add to our building we can build more quickly. Finally, every argument for the concentration of effort on the best and newest ships is an argument for putting the oldest and weakest out of commission, and thus combating the ' automatic increases ' which every year add to the Naval Estimates without au«iing to naval strength. Suitable economy on this head, which can be secured by limiting what Lord Brassey declares to be an unnecessarily large personnel, will avert the necessity for any increase this year or next, and the question of additional building does not, as has been shown, arise till the beginning of 1910. At least it is not raised until then by the German programme in the minds of anyone who is satisfied with a two-to-one superiority as a sufficient vantage ground for British seamanship." / The United States Navy Department baa entered into a contract with the Electric Boat Company of New York for the construction of seven submarine boats at an aggregate cost of £454,000. Several of the boats are to be of; the same size and type as the Octopus,./ The construction of the boats ie to be begun at once, the work being executed at the Fore River Shipbuilding Company's yard, Quincy, Massachusetts. In. relation to the Lake submarine boat, the Secretary of the Navy is giving the Lake Company a further opportunity. The company has, been informed that if it will construct, at its own cost, without any charge whatever upon the Government, a boat which will meet the requirements of the law, that is, one equal to any submarine in the navy or under construction, the Government will buy it.

The only reference to the colonies made in the First Lord of the. Admiralty's statement regarding the Navy Estimates submitted to Parliament at the end of February consisted of the following paragraph: — "The appropriations in aid of the Navy Estimates which are contributed by the various self-governing colonies are the same as in last year s estimates. The discus-. Bions at the Cdnfere'nce with the colonial Ministers last spring revealed the fact that there was a certain desire on the part of some of the colonial Governments for the establishment of local defence flotillas in lieu of, or as supplementary to, the present money contributions to the Imperial Exchequer. The Admiralty, while not desiring to withdraw from the existing agreements and arrangements, recognised that it was only natural that the colonies shoull sooner or later desire to have deience forces of their own, and consequently we announced our readiness to meet the wishes of the colonial Governments as far as possible, and to consider any alternative schemes which they might put forward. > The Prime Minister of the Australian Commonwealth has communicated to the Admiralty the outline of a scheme for the establishment of a local flotilla of destroyers and submarines, which is now under consideration. The Cape and Natal Governments have initiated legislation with the object of establishing divisions of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in Cape Colony and Natal, and the Legislature of the latter colony has passed an Act for the purpose."