A. summary of the Austro-Hungarian Army and Navy Estimates for
the next financial year—July lst, -1914, to June 30th, 1915—is given by the Vienna correspondent of the Times in Wednesday's issue. Naval expenditure stands at £7,386,083, of which nearly £2,000,000 is a first instalment of a new naval programme to be completed in five years at an estimated cost of 217,784,830. In order to provide for the altered balance of naval power in the Mediterranean, four new Dreadnoughts, each of 24,500 tons, are to replace the three old vessels, whose displacement ranges from 5,600 to 8,300 tons. These will form the second Dreadnought divi- sion of the Austro-Hungarian Fleet. Three will probably be laid down this year, and the total cost is reckoned to exceed £13,660,000. The new building programme also includes three fast cruisers, six torpedo-gunboats, and two new gun- boats for the Danube service. The joint Army Estimates amount to nearly £24,000,000, of which £1,000,000 is required for the completion of Army reform, £1,250,000 for new howitzers and mortars, and £100,000 for aviation.
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