THE TWO NAVIES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9439, 8 May 1909, Page 6

THE TWO NAVIES.

GERMAN SHIPBUILDING RESOURCES.

There appears to have been a good' deal of loose talking and writing o» the subject of British and German, shipbuilding and the promise of the* future. No cause for panic or immediate alarm exists, bat there isevery reason for vigilance and zealous preparation, as I shall endeavour to show. We are not without some grounds of certainty as to what Germany is doing. That the Dreadnoughts Nassau and Weafalen will oa completed in the autumn of the present year has been announced. The former, through some mischance,-, sank in the basin at Wilhelmshaven, and men to the number of 8000 have been working night and day On that ship and a sister vessel to make good the delay, and there can be no doubt that both the Nassau and Westfalen' will be ready at the appointed time,The Rheinland and Posen, which were begun three months later—i.e., in the summer of 1907—will be ready at about the same time or a few weeks later. They are being built at the Vnlkan yard, Stettin, and the Germania (Krupp) yard, Kiel, which are outpacing the Governmentdockayarde. Thus we have four Dreadnoughts. TWENTY TO SEVENTEEN. There are three others building at Wilhelmshaven; the Howald yard, Kiel (which has sprung into new importance in association with Krupp); and the Weser yards, Bremen; and these, begun in the summer of last year, will be completed before the end of 1910 or early in 1911, So much, then, is certain vgith regard to seven German Dreadnoughts. Three others belong to the year 1909, and there has been feverish activity in accelerating preparations for them. Mr McKenna says that orders were given last October with this object, but there seems some probability that they were issued some mouths earlier, and there is no reason to donbt that the three ships will be ready before the end of 1911. Everything tarns upon the rapidity of construction that will be imparted to the ships that belong to the year 1910, bnt as there is doubt on the matter we may conclude with probability, amounting to practical, certainty on our side, that they willi be out of hand in 1912. " Thus we arrive at thirteen German, Dreadnoughts, being presumably those referred to by Admiral vom Tirpitz. But these ships are independent of the German Indomitables. F, G., H, and I, which also belong to the Dreadnought category. F‘ will be ready in the autumn of next year, or possibly earlier; Q a few months later; and H and I, which belong to the years 1903 and 1910, before tije end of 1913. In this way we arrive at the seventeen Dreadnoughts indicated by MrJAsquith and; Mr McKenna as to be completed in the last-named year. Mr Balfonr’s estimate of 31 ships is based on thehypothesis that four additional ships will be laid down in 1911, and will be so accelerated that they’also will be ready in 1912. The point to be' kept in view is that if the German programme should be accelerated in this way, wa can expedite our own. to keep pace with ft. It is obviously* of vital importance to keep the lead,, for otherwise national and . Imperial safety will he thrown into an even balance.

We have eight Dreadnoughts built and building, and four Indomitables, making twelve in all, and we are laying down four more, and providing means to begin another four, presumably on April Ist, 1910 (to be cou.yleted in 1912), making twenty Dreadnoughts, to oppose to the seventeen of the Germans. Meanwhile it will he possible, and may be necessary, to lay down other ships in 1910-11, completing them also In 1912.. There is, therefore, good reason to trust the Government and the Admiralty to do what is right in the matter. There is the less reason to give way to panic and excitement, because w* have also the Lord Nelson and Agamemnon, which can well lie in the line with' Dreadnoughts, and l an overwhelming superiority in pre-Dreadnought ships. BENEFITS OF CONTINUITY. The great advantage that the Germans possess is the continuity and - certainty of the naval policy that results from the measured expansion of the fleet, which began with the Navy Law of 1898, was doubled by that of 1900, and was ’ expanded and accelerated by ; the amendments of 1906 and 1908. The oonsequenoo of this definite and ordered development, of the German navy has been an enormous increase in the shipbuilding resources of the country.—Daily Ohroniole.