On Tuesday in the House of Commons Mr. McKenna explained
the Navy Estimates, and the debate was one of the most memorable that have taken place for years. After com- paring in detail the progress being made in ships of the ' Dreadnought ' and 'Invincible' types in British and German yards, he pointed out that our difficulty was that we did not know, as we thought we did recently, at what rate German construction was taking place. Germany's constructive power was so great that our own yards would be hard put to it to keep level with her. The Government's calculations as to the number of ' Dreadnoughts ' which the Germans will possess in the years 1911 and 1912, and at different times in those years, are so confused and so tentative that we shall not attempt to enter upon them in detail. According to Mr. McKenna, however, Germany would have seventeen of these modern ships in 1912,—certainly in the autumn, probably in the spring.
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