. At present ten ships of the 'Dreadnought ' type
are in commission, and on April 1st ton more will be under con- struction, two of whiCh—a battleship and a cruiser—will be completed by the end of the coming financial year, and all by March 31st, 1919, while five Dreadnoughts' of the new programme ought to be completed at or before the end of the financial year 1912-13. The date of completion of the ships in the German programme is a matter on which it is impossible to speak with certainty. But if acceleration similar to that adopted in regard to the German 1909 programme takes place, there is the possibility of fifteen German Dread- noughts' being ready for sea in the spring of 1912, as against a practical certainty of twenty British Dreadnoughts' being ready at the same time. This, as the Times shows in an interesting review of the naval situation, represents a fair margin in view of the superiority of our pre-' Dread- nought' ships, and the further provision of the five `Dreadnoughts to be ready early in 1913 and the two Colonial 'Dreadnought ' cruisers. But as the writer points out, "the very fact that our preponderance in pre-' Dread- nought' ships is so great will entail an immensely increased expenditure when these ships conic in their turn to be replaced in approximately the same proportion by Dreadnoughts.' " In face of these considerations, we cannot count on having reached the high-water mark of expenditure even in the formidable total of the Estimates now presented.
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