NAVAL ACTIVITY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 785, 7 April 1910, Page 5

NAVAL ACTIVITY.

FLOURISHING GERMAN LEAGUE. By Telegraph—Press Association—CoDyrlgh:(Rec. April 6, 9.50 p.m.) Berlin, April 6. Tho German Navy League has a total membership of 1,031,330. Tho funds increased during 1009 by ,£219,010, aud now total .£1,679,130. DREADNOUGHTS. FRANCE TO BEGIN TWO IN AUGUST. Paris, April 5. ■ The French 1 Chamber of Deputies, by 428 to 131, voted for tho laying down of two Dreadnoughts in August. The vessels are to be completed in 1913.

FUTURE SEA-STRENGTH OFTHE POWERS. A GERMAN VIEW. Under date February 23 the Berlin correspondent of a London paper, writes: Striking admissions relative to the real ramifications' of the German naval programme are contained in-an article in to-day's "Tageblatt" by the well-known military and naval critic, Colonel Gaedke. He asserts that the German armaments policy has . apparently abandoned the principle that the prestige of the Fatherland depends on the Army, because the expansion of naval armaments is gradually outstripping the limits necessary for the defence of the Empire's trade and coasts. ■ "With giant strides," declares Colonel Gaedke, "we are leaving behind the' hypotheses upon which the last naval law was based. That law fixed the "number of battleships at thirty-eight. Actually tho Admiralty is engaged in building a fleet pot. of thirty-eight but fifty-eight battleship?, for our new armoured chiissrs, whioh were originally intended for string scouting vessels and for expeditions against small, weak States, are being, constructed as first-class battleships with the same heavy artillery and vastly greater speed. The cost of these cruisers will probably be heavier than that of the "The time is gradually approaching, indeed, when the German l Fleet will be superior to, all the fleets of the world with the single exception of. the English. It >vas so unimpeachable a witness as the TCreuz Zeitung' which told us a couplo of months ago that our fleet was.making such rapid progress that in 1911 it would bo superior to that of the United States, even limiting, calculations to the strictly modern type of vessels. It is officially admitted that in the spring of 1912 EngJr.nd will have' twenty completed Dreadnoughts, America twelve, Germany eleven, and ' France six. ' Thenceforward pur , relative strength will rapidly inprease, so that in 1914, for example, we shall possess nineteen Dreadnoughts against America's sixteen. , ; "In the; six years . between 1898 and 1903 Germany' naval expenditure on new ships ifas JC24.095.000. During the succeeding six years we spent* £39,095,000 on new ships, and in 1908 and 1909 .018,355,-! COO, or vastly more than either France or America devoted to the ; same purpose. Until 1914, at least, the German disbursejnent for new vessels and armaments will be still more strongly emphasised. lii 1911, for example, the programme calls for more than. i813,'000,000. In the last tivelve years Germany has spent on new ships alone .£6:),200,000, and between now and 1914 will spend another ,£57,500,000."