NAVAL ESTIMATES DEBATE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13332, 22 March 1911, Page 5

NAVAL ESTIMATES DEBATE.

ARMED MERCHANTMEN. Preas Association. —Telegraph.—Copyright. LONDON, March 21. Tn the House of Commons, during the Navy Estimates debate. Lord Beresford declared that Germany had 33 capital ships in 1907 and probably 58 since. She must continue building owing to the money invested in yards and armament factories and the number of workmen in employment. Thirty-one new British cruisers were required to cope with the merchant ships which other nations claimed the right to arm. / Mr McKenna asserted that there was a possibility of' Lord Beresford's contentions being correct, but. Britain did not admit the • claim. Consequently Britain must await events. If the merchant ships referred to were commissioned; Britain would prove fully equal to the emergency. It would be time to consider how to act when the emergency arose.