THE BRITISH NAVY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3185, 10 May 1909, Page 5

THE BRITISH NAVY.

ABUNDANT SECURITY NECESSARY. Received May 9, 4.30 p.m. LONDON, May 8. The Ri>ht Hon. Lewis Harcourt, Liberal M.P. for Montrose Burghs, speaking at the Reform Club, said that the country should have an abundant security. It would be a crime to build more ships than was necessary. The "Daily News" declares that there was'no intention among sensible men fo build against phantom fleets or imaginary alliances.

THE TWO-POWER STANDARD. MARGIN OF SUPREMACY MUCH TOO FINE. MR BALFOUR'S VIEWS. Received May 9, 4.30 p.m. LONDON, May 9. The Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, leader of the Unionist Party in the House of Commons, speaking at a meeting of the Primrose League, urged on the Government that neglect of the navy was a grave peril. Britain was running her margin of superiority much too fine for national security. The Government was well aware that eight Dreadnoughts were needed. It was perfect folly for them no f . to come forward and make a clean breast of it, and admit that circumstances had so changed that they were compelled to hasten their building programme, and that their calculations had been run too close. His svery method, whether gentle or violent, had been to persuade the Government to confess that their actions were inefficacious. The gigantic sacrifices which the nation would be called upon to make during the next decade—perhaps long after —ought to begin at once. It was the duty of the Government, whatever the cost, to provide not merely a possible margin, as compared with any other country, and its immediate allies, but a superiority of the only kind which could secure honour for the country and peace for the world, namely, a strength which could not possibly be challenged.

AN EPOCH OF STEADY EUILDING. Received May 10, 1.15 a.m. LONDON, May 9. Mr Winston Churchill, speaking at Oxford, said that it was certain we were in for an epoch, not of panic building, but of steady building. It was deplorable that nations should spend money in this way, it being an impossible and severe strain on every State; but it would not be Britainjjthat would be first to show itself unequal to the strain. (Cheers). Happily free trade enabled us without the status of any class in the country being sensioly affected to maintain an ample and effective superiority of sea power over every likely combination.