BEA SUPREMACY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 158, 29 July 1909, Page 2

BEA SUPREMACY

THE DANGERS OF XIIE SITUATION. NARROW MARGIN OF BATTLESHIP STRENGTH. THE EMPIRE'S RESPONSIBILITIES. uy Cable.—Press Association.—Copyrigm Received 28, 10.40 ji.ui. Loudon, July in. At a meeting >» Loiluon today, M-. lialtour (Leader of the Opposition) remarked that the .present Government was afraid of their tuil. They seeuud alarmed about laying down lliu keels of battleships before IIJIO, although they were doing everything except laying down the keels. It WUd diilicuit to di«covcr whether even now the Government meant to deal with the situation ia a bold and courageous spirit. "I do not believe the country realises the danger of the situation, and how narrow i» the margin in battleship strength upon which we are relying," he concluded. •If your remember our responsibilities in the Mediterranean, the North Sea, the need for defending, besides our choree, all the colonies and all the routes to the colonies and foreign markets, you will see how preposterously meagre has been our building programme of the past three year?. It hag imperilled the greatest and most vital interests of the Empire." (Cheers).

SPEED IN CRUISERS. London, July 27. The Hon. R. McKenna, First Lord of the Admiralty, replying to Mr. A. H. Lee, Conservative memoer for Fareham, said the contracts for the first two 1UUI) aud 1010 Dreadnoughts would be completed ill July, 1011. The bovemment liad information that a foreign Power was building a faster cruiser than the Invincible.