BRITAIN'S ARMY AND NAVY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9158, 4 August 1908, Page 5

BRITAIN'S ARMY AND NAVY.

THE GOVERNMENT'S INTENTIONS.

Received August 3, 9 a.m. LONDON, August 2

Speaking at Falmouth, the Right Hon. R B. Haldane, Secretary of State for War, said the Government intended to maintain the navy at the highest state of strength and efficiencv, with a reliable second line of defence in an emergency. The reliable second line the army now provides, added Mr Haldane.

The net Naval Estimate amounts to £32,319, SOU. New construction accounts for £7,545,202, and gprovides for one improved Dreadnought, one large armoured and six fast protected cruisers, 16 destroyers and some submarines. In a debate in March, Mr Asquith said that the county must maintain unassailable supremacy. The twoPower standard was good, practicable and workable. On that there was no difference of opinion. By January, 1911, Britain would possess 12 vessels of the new type, and later on would be one short if Germany completed her programme in the time indicated. That assumed that nothing woi?ld be done by Br>tain in the way of new construction in 1909, or that the vessels would be laid down at such a date that they would not be completed by 1911. But without forecasting the programme for 1909 he could say without the faintest hesitation that if Britain found that there wa3 a reasonable probability of the German programme being real • ised on the lines which the paper figures suggested, she would feel it her duty to do and provide, and should provide, a sufficient number of ships at such a date of laying down that by November, 1911, the superiority of Germany which Mr Balfour foreshadowed would not be an aclual fact. Mr Asquith added: "That is the policy of the Government. It.remains on record, and ought to reassure the House that we do not intend to be left behind."