NEWS OF THE WEEK
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BY far the most important event of the week is the statement as to the standard of British naval strength made by the Prime Minister on Thursday night. Mr. Lee asked him " whether the Government accepted the two-Power standard of naval strength as meaning a pre- ponderance of ten per cent. over the combined strengths, in capital ships, of the two next strongest Powers." To this Mr. Asquith replied that the answer was in the affirmative. There is no need for ns to express our intense satisfaction at this answer. We do not like it the less because it was expressed iu so English and so unsensational a way. The immediate result on our shipbuilding programme must be the laying down certainly of five, probably of six, capital ships early next year. We are no hard-and-fast enemies of the 'Dreadnought' type, and naturally do not feel competent to express an opinion as to whether it has justified the claims made for it. Considering, however, the immense importance of the subject, we trust that in the time intervening before the ships are laid down the question of the best model will be carefully considered by the Admiralty, and that no thought of dialectical victory in a heated controversy will be allowed to deflect, even by a hair's-breadth, the right decision.
