MARGIN INADEQUATE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 869, 16 July 1910, Page 5

MARGIN INADEQUATE.

'-. MR. BALFOUR IN REPLY. Mi. Balfour, Leader of tlie Opposition, followed Mr. Asquith. •Tho Prime Minister, said Mi. Balfour, •Had put the case at its best for us. The Little- Navy party had so impressed ' Mr. Asquith that he had endeavoured to show everything was goiug on as wodl.as possible. No Powor had over approached so nearly to Britain's .strength as Germany was doing. Tho margin provided by the Government was inadequate. , * Tho Opposition last year did tho nation gpod service by arousing tho country to a sense: of the peril wherein it stood. They had thus conduced to tho peace of the world. Admiral Lord; Charles Boresford, Miv 6, N. Barnes (Labour), and Mr.'Hilairo Belloc (Liberal) . also • spoke. Safo, but Sober. Mr. M'Kenna, First Lord of tho Admiralty, winding Tip tho debate, ' declared the Admiralty's motto was: "Bo safe, but.sober." Ho added that the moment was approaching for,the foundation of a second dock at Rosyth, in tho Firth of Forth. Mr. Dillon's motion was then put, and lost by 298 votes to 70. LIBERAL JOURNALS' VIEWS NO SHOUT CUT TO IMPROVEMENT. - (Rec. July 16, 0.10 a.m.) '. London, July 15. The "Daily. News" (Liberal), commenting on Mr. Asquith's statement, declares that there is no short cut to improving the situation. The German Navy Law must run its course. The "Daily Chronicle" (Liberal) says that an international agreement is tho only hope of relief from the burdens which tho nation is carrying. THE ANNUAL WRANGLE. XOT Tim WAV THEY HAVE l.\ GERMANY. ' . . "Wlial is the now Parliament gniiv; tn do to meet the naval crisis?", asks 11. W. Wilson in the Loudon "Daily

Mail." "Last year the British expenditure on new ships ami Rims, after all the disclosures of Ministers in Hie naval debates of March. t!)H(l. was less than that of Germany by .£500,001). This year the German expenditure on new ships and gnus is to show vet another increase. It will be .412,100,01)0 against the .L'lo,250,1)01) that England voted on the Estimates of 1909." Kaiser's Method. Proceeding, -Mr. .Wilson argues thai Briiiun should adept ibe German system. Germany, he points out, has ,an organic Navy Act largely financed by. loan. There is no animal'wrangle in the Reichstag as to the number of ships to be laid down"«p l lit money to bo voted. The Kaiser's Navy grows 'silently, eontinuously. "Contrast with this businesslike method British procedure. A rough draft of the Navy Estimates is drawn up every year by the Admiralty, usually about December. It is submitted to the Cabinet, when a grand preliminary wrangle takes place between the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the First Lord. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, who knows nothing whatever of naval matters, complains that the amount demanded is too targe and calls for the programme to'be cut down. ' If the. Prime Minister is weak .the Chancellor probably gets his way. The Estimates are 'pruned,' and ships essential to the safety of the nation are struck out. The only means by which this can be prevented is for the First Lord or the Naval Lords to resigiu They are kept in a position of continual ;anxiety and uncertainty, though .the Navy needs their whole attention. , ■ The Commons' Battle. "When the preliminary ' wrangle is over and the Navy Estimates .have passed the Cabinet they have to be submitted to the House of Common':). There various sections of Radicals when a Radical Government is -in power, clamour for fresh reductions.. A. battle. royal rages," in which the men who are defending the. Navy are at a grave disadvantage, because it would often be dangerous for them to reveal the facts which have dictated the Admiralty's policy. To protect the Navy and prevent it from being cut down the press and various leagues are compelled- to enter the fray and bring pressure to bear upon the GovernThe country has to 1m reminded of things which, in the national inter-', ests, it would be better to pass over in complete silence. And as»the result of this prooess. international friction is in-' creased, the relations between Powers are Influenced for the worse, and too often, after all the turmoil and controversy, tho 'naval programme is quite insufficient. THE GERMAN PROGRAMME. The German naval programme at present in course of execution was voted in the Navy Act of 1900, .which fixed the strength of the 'German Navy ■at 33 battleships,- U large cruisers, 38 small cruisers, - and 96, destroyers. It provided ■ that every German large ship should be replaced in "!> years, and every destroyer in twelve. In .'180(5 this Act was amended by a now Act, the so-called "Novelle," which raised the number of. large cruisers to 20, and the number of destroyers to lU, and provided for the annual laying down, ol two large battleships, o;:e large armoured cruiser, two small cruisers, and 12 destroyers,, besides submarines. ' In 1908 the Act was again amended and expanded, the age at which every large ship must bo replaced being reduced I mm'2s to 20 years, ;.nd the number of ships to be annually laid down and tho expenditure being fixed year by year. . Provision was made for a total expenditure of ,£20",00(>,000, of . which ,£98,000,000 was to be devoted to Heirships and guns, during a period of ten years. It is now known that even if this programme is not extended, the expenditure will be in (itlvunce ol' tho amounts set down betweei. 1910 and.•1917. According to. Colonel Gtiedke the programme will be revised in 1912, and raised to four or five large armoured ships. The German. Government, however, has formally stated that it has no intention ot increasing the .programme.