THE BRITISH NAVY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 308, 7 February 1910, Page 5

THE BRITISH NAVY.

A NEW POLICY. ARMORED CRUISERS AS AGAINST BATTLESHIPS. ByCaole—Press Association.—Copyright Received ]. 1.5 a .m. '.oml.m, February (i. The Daily M-.til state,, that the'policy of the new .'....uii.ii of the Fleet (S:V Arthur Fishrr] differs from Loid Fisher's. He is convinced the need <,i the Navy is not so much Dreadnoughts as armored cruisers. He is also indisposed to continue the wholesale ••scrapping" process. Lord Fisher bequeathed a programme for the coming year including only four Dreadnoughts. The Mail adds that by the end of 1912 Britain will have 20* Dreadnoughts and 44 pre-Dreadnonghts, compared with Germany's 13 and 21 respectively. Last year Ihe new shipbuilding pro-' gramme consisted of four batthVni >.- of the Dreadnought type, G protecird j cruisers, 20 destroyer* and a number c.i submarines, with four contingent Dreadnoughts, which have since been put in hand. These will be complet-d by March, 1012. Mr. Balfour declared that the programme was insufficient. He based his criticism on the acceleration of the German naval programme, and upon the possible contingency of that Power having 21 or even more ships of the Dreadnought type by Ap"'l 12 while England would not have more than 20. Mr. LToyd-George (Chancellor of the Exchequer) assured the House that if they still Tuuf any lingering suspicions that any member of the Government proposed, in an ill-judged fit of parsimony, to risk, even for an lion v. the national freedom and independence, they could dismiss these unworthy suspicions entirely from their minds. Sucn a stupendous act of policy would be. in the present temper of nations, not Liberalism, but lunacy. On the otb'r hand, it would be an act of criminal insanity to throw away millions of money which was so much needed for other purposes, in building gigantic flotillas merely to encounter myth'.■:.•! armadas.