The German Navy Estimates have been analysed in a series
of despatches during the week by the Berlin correspondent of the Times. The total estimated expenditure for the year 1908 is £16,966,186, or very nearly seventeen millions sterling. The expenditure of the current year is £13,628,247, so that the contemplated increase for the coming year is over three and a quarter millions sterling. The greater part of the new expenditure will be allocated to shipbuilding and armaments. One reason for hastening the rate of building is the recent decision to reduce the age-limit of battleships from twenty- five to twenty years. The programme provides for three battleships in each of the years 1908, 1909, and 1910, two battleships in 1911, and one battleship in each of the six following years. In 1914 the German Navy will consist of thirty-seven battleships, of which thirteen will be of over nineteen thousand tons, and fourteen large cruisers. This important programme is a notable commentary on the Prime Minister's hope for an all-round reduction of armaments. We have only to remark that Germany has every right in the world to build as many ships as she pleases. We shall not resent her policy. But we, for our part, have an equal right, as it will be our obvious duty, to adjust our programme proportionately. In maintaining the two-Power standard we shall offer no menace to any one, but shall only be taking the steps considered necessary by common consent to make our defences secure.
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