BRITISH NAVY ESTIMATES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 260, 13 March 1911, Page 5

BRITISH NAVY ESTIMATES

REVERSE FOR THE "PEACE PARTY." ENGLISH PRESS COMMENTS. By Gable—Press Association—Copyright. London, March 10. The Daily News states that the new naval estimates will be adhered to. The keels of twenty Dreadnoughts, including the colonial ones, have been laid in three years. This is inexplicable and unjustifiable by anything known to the public. The German Navy Law is on the eve of expiry, and the present is a hopeful time to promote an agreement concerning this mad shipbuilding race. The gigantic expansion of the navy is rapidly eating into the magnificent resources of the 1909 Budget. The Leader protests against laying down five Dreadnoughts, and considers that the peace party in the Cabinet has met with a serious reverse. It also suggests that the party has been weakened by Mr. Lloyd-George's illness. The Daily Chronicle defends the Estimates, pointing out that Germany will have 21i Dreadnoughts in 1914, and if Britain held her hand she would only have 25, not counting two in Australian waters. It is impossible to think this would render Britain's security unassailable, remembering that Austria will have five Dreadnoughts. The Pall Mall Gazette (Conservative) says that the system of professing to provide a long list of ships in one year, and then throwing a disproportionate burden of the cost upon future years is being perpetuated. ' The gradually accumulating congestion and delay in building makes the vote for new construction a farce. The paper urges issuing a naval loan to redeem the position. The Westminster Gazette (Liberal) believes that the new construction will be enough to make us secure, but not so much as to induce competitors to believe we have aggressive designs calling for further efforts on their part.