TOY ESTIMATES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 767, 16 March 1910, Page 7

TOY ESTIMATES.

EXPLAINED BY MR. M'KENNA.

NOT EXCESSIVE NOR INSUFFICIENT

FOREIGN PROGRAMMES.

By Telegraph—Press Association—Oopyrlcni. (Rec. March 15, 10.40 p.m;)

London, March 15. Mr. MTlenna, First Lord of the Admiralty, speaking in Committee on the Navy Estimates, • said these estimates were neither excessive nor insufficient. Two of the five additional Dreadnoughts would bo the dockyard ships laid down in January. The remainder were under construction, having likewise been laid down in January, He expressed the Government's gratification at the fact that two great Dominions had made a beginning with national navies. (Cheers.) The Australasian ships would shortly be begun, and would be completed in the summer of 1912. They would leave Europe in the autumn of 1912, when I the .others were nearing completion.

. "By March, 1913 (Mr. M'Kenna proceeded), there will he twenty Dreadnoughts. Thus, throughout 1912, and till March, 1913, our absolute superiority in Dreadnoughts, will be secure. Respecting other classes of warships, our position will be incomparable. I do not anticipate any serious reduction in future estimates." Replying ■to Lord Beresford's interruption about the initiation of Dreadnoughts, Mr. M'Kenna declared that the first-British Dreadnought was begun five months after Japan's Satsuma in 1903. He proceeded to emphasise the fact that there had been no decrease in foreign naval programmes during, the past year, and said' the British Admiralty's programme was framed according to what was being done abroad now, and during the next two, years.

[The above cablegram was evidently mutilated at one point. It read: " . . . Expressed gratification two great Australasian Dominions with national navy." As Mr. M'Kenna. could hardly have overlooked Canada, we have interpreted the passage as a 'reference to the proposed Australian , and Canadian Navies.] WHAT GERMANY IS DOING. OPPOSITION AND LABOUR CRITICISM. 'V' (Rec. March 16, OJ. a.m.) v London, March 15. Mr. M'Kenna, replying to questions, said' thirteen. German Dreadnoughts were now being constructed, and i there would be four more for 1910 ' and 1911, .possibly laid down in April, and commissioned 26 months He hoped the fact that the Admiralty was providing against any contingency would not give rise to the fear that a friendly nation was accelerating, its programme with' any hostile design against us. ! .Mr. M'Kenna admitted that the-dock-yard slips were y idle between September .and January, but remarked that the urgent need for more, ships had not been proved. Mr. A.'Lee' (formerly Unionist Civil Lord of the Admiralty) criticised the Government for starving .shipbuilding. The votes on the Estimates, of the United States totalled together .£50,000,000. He urged the Government to make it clear that further Estimates would be possible during the present session. •. •Mr. Barnes (Labour) described the Estimates as unwarrantable. The Liberals had surrendered the principle of economy at the dictates of the Opposition. Mr. M'Kenna/in correcting Mr. Barnes, stated that Germany's Estimates for 19101911 were considerably in excess of those of the past year. Lord Charles Beresford said he feared •the consequences of the Government's action in delaying the five Dreadnoughts. One bright spot was the provision of destroyers, but the fleet was not strong enough. ®Ie Estimates for 1911 would be appalling. He urged a loan of .£65,000,000, spread oyer twenty or thirty years, for building all ships required by 1914. . . ■ • .

EMPLOYMENT OF 200,000 MEN. ' London, March 14. The Naval Estimates are expected to provide for the employment of two hundred thousand men for two years. Two thousand extra men are to be engaged at Poplar in broadening and lengthening the slip for the construction of a Dreadnought, and another thousand will be engaged after April 1. • COMPETITIONIN ARMAMENTS. A GERMAN VIEW.

"The Times'" Berlin correspondent telegraphs on January 16:—The president of the Germoa Navy league, Grand Admiral von Koester, delivered an interesting speech on Thursday night at Kiel, which ha accurately described as a oentre of enthusiasm whence waves of patriotic feeling echo and reecho throughout the German Empire. He said he had bean astonishd of late by articles which talked about the competition in armaments, and said that only the hot-heads of the Navy League failed to see that England could not be caught up. He could see nothing that was in the least degree practical in all'the talk about disarmament. The Power that was absolutely strongest could disarm.' But.it did not i3o so. (Laughter.) A conqueror, oould compel the conquered. to disarm. Nobody knew better than the German people what that meant There was a third conception—the socalled international disarmament Germany was not building against a single opponent, and therefore any international agreement must be an agreement among all the 'nations. Did they believe that Japanese and Russians, Turks and Greeks could ever agree upon a definition of their navies? International disarmament oould mean nothing except paralysing of free development. It was sometimes suggested that there was another way—the way of alliances. But the truth was that if anybody wanted an ally he' had to be strong and Bring to the alliance either an army or a navy.