On Tuesday the second reading of the German Navy Law
Amendment Bill and the Supplementary Estimates was carried in the Reichstag. The extra amount to be spent on new construction during the year is £342,466, of which £97,847 is for the aerial service and the rest for submarines. Three additional Dreadnought battleships will be built dur- ing the next three years as well as more small cruisers and submarines, and there will be an increase in the personnel of 15,000. In the House of Commons on Wednesday Mr. Churchill announced that there would be a supplementary estimate for the Navy. This was, of course, only to be ex- pected, iu accordance with the Government's promise that if Germany decided on supplementary expenditure we should respond to it. On Wednesday evening, speaking to the Shipwrights' Company, Mr. Churchill pointed out how the British Fleet must now be concentrated in the decisive theatres of European waters. The reduced mobility of the Fleet would have to be compensated for in some new way, and thus a new opportunity was created for our great self- governing Dominions. Probably naval development in the oversee Dominions would be the feature of the next ten years.
