The Navy debate was continued on Wednesday, when the most
important of the speeches was made by Mr. Arthur Lee. The Opposition believed that four additional ' Dread- noughts ' (including under that title ' Invincibles ') were " down" or "substantially commenced" in Germany before the end of 1908. Mr. McKenna had said that two of these ships were not laid down, but that one was and that he knew nothing of the fourth. The date of laying down, however, was of less importance than the preparations made for rapid con- struction. The Government admitted that ' Dreadnoughts ' could be completed in batches of four in twenty-six months from the time when the first order for materials was given. He therefore challenged them to disprove that those four additional vessels could be ready by January, 1911. If they were ready, Germany would have thirteen 'Dreadnoughts' to our ten. Then and afterwards our supremacy would be gone. He urged the Government to build at once all the eight ships (including the four contingent ships) mentiened in their Estimates. The firm of Krupp had developed under the care of the German Government to such a point that their output of guns, mountings, turrets, and other essentials could exceed that of our firms and arsenals. Messrs. Krupp had increased the number of their employees by thirty-eight thousand men during the last twelve months.
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