The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-17
GREAT BRITAIN NAVY
FIRST LORD OF ADMIRALTY JUSTI-
 FEES INCREASE.
He Declares That No Matter What the Coat, the safety of the Coun-
 try Must Be Aanured.

London, March 16.--"The safety of the country stands above all other sacrifices and no matter what the cost, the safety of the country must be as- sured."
 Tis was the reason which Egnilad McKenna, First Lord of the Admiralty. justified the increase of nearly $le,- 100000 In the navy estimates when they were introduced by him In the House of Commons this afternoon.
 NO one could suppose" went on Mir. McKenna. that the present Gov ernment assumed the responsibility of these estimates with a light heart. but there were cases when even the most determined economists would have to make sacrifice"
 It was automatic, the speaker con tinued. that Great Britain should have to maintain a navy. the limits of which must be fixed by the progress of Tor eign powers. Several powers were rapidly developing their naval strength xt the present moment. but not one at a pace to be compared with Germany. Mir. McKenna explained that he only selected Germany IS standard by which to measure British requirements for arithmetical purposes. The present difnculty of the Government lay in the fact that 1t did not know the rate at WHICH 1eIiIldu COnbtA hShAoh "oo 6NNho on. It Is estimated that thirteen Ger man Dreadnaughts and four Invinci- bles might be completed by 1911. as against twelve Dreadnaughts and four Invincibles which Great Britain would have by November of 1911. If Ger many accelerated her construction work, she would have seventeen of those ships by April of 1912. Great Britain could not afford to take rfsks, and if she was to maintain her supe- riority, the admiralty must be in a position to obtain the delivery of four additional Dreadnaughts by March of such vessels against Germanys pos sible seventeen. MT. McKenna said he considered that the maintenance Of su- periority depended upon superiority In Dreadnaughts alone. He paid trfb- ute to the "extraordinary growth In the construction of ships of the largest size in Germany."
 Two years ago, there were no ships capable of competing with the British Dreadnaughts, while today Germany had several such vessels. besides three in course of construction. The same was true of guns, armor and mount ings. In view of these facts. if the House of Commons approved the esti- mates, orders would be given out inn mediately for guns. gun mountings, arr nor and other material. so that four additional Dreadnaughts could. If nec- essary. be completed by March of 1912.
 After McKenna had concluded, A. J. Balfour made a speech in which he de- clared the condition of the navy to be a national danger and said that the Governments program was altogether insufficient to meet the needs of the times.
 Premier Asquith admitted the grave importance of this debate and depre- cated the idea that the Government might sacrifice the national safety to a question of expediency. It must not be supposed. he continued, that the calculation between Germany and Great Britain, implied unsatisfactory diplomatic reasons. On the contrary, the recent course of international af- fairs had tended to remove all bar riers. The Government had more than once suggested a mutual reduction in the naval expenditures. but 1t always had been assured in the most formal manner that the German naval expen- ditures were governed solely with ref erence to Germany's needs and did not depend upon Great Britain's pro- gram.
 "The Government had been given the distinct declaration" the Premier went on, that 1t was Germanys in tention further to accelerate ship building and the Government could not present to the House of Commons a program based on the assumption that this declaration was incorrect. ]"
 It must however, be admitted. he said, that Great Britain no longer en- joyed the superiority in ship construc- ton, and this vast, horrible devastat- ing and sterilizlng expenditure was a supreme necessity of national security which the Secretary said he hoped Parliament will accept.