PROPOSED NAVAL LOAN.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 954, 22 October 1910, Page 5

PROPOSED NAVAL LOAN.

LIBERAL PRESS IN PROTEST. MR. CHURCHILL CAUTIOUSLY FAVOURABLE. THE FLEET v. SOCIAL REFORM. By Tel«eraph—Press Association-Copyright, • (Rec. October 21, 9.45 p.m.) London, October 21. Mr. Winston Churohill, Home Secretary, in a letter to! a correspondent, declares that ho would be certainly unprepared to say that under.no circumstances should Great Britain have recourse to a naval loan. Tho present high expense of the Navy is. largely duo to special and peculiar oircurastances, some of which were not necessarily, or even probably, permanent, while others need not be, expected to reour except at long intervals. The exceptional Navy Estimate were no reason to delay the proposals for national insurance against unemployment and invalidity, and the ; making of provision for, widows and orphans. The "Morning Leader" (Liberal) says that if a naval loan.is decided upon, all hope of effective control of the growth of armaments will have gone. Such precedent would supply a Tory Government with an oxcuso for hanging up. social reform, and would be a ready means of piling up an enormous burden for their successors. , The "Daily; News" (Liberal) considers that the raising, of a loan- would" be a disastrous policy. Great Britain now holds the two-Power standard/ and. a very. modest amount- of ship-building would .suffice to inaintain her supremacy. The "Daily..Chronicle" (Liberal) recognises the foroo of. Mr. M'Kenna's objections to a loan for tho purposes of ship-building, but asks why not apply the loan 'money to .permanent . naval ■works. If the Cabinet has decided on a loan, i it is a strange preparatory announcement that has been' made by the Home.; Secretary. ; ;■ • ■'■