The Austro-Hungarian Delegations, which have the power of voting all
sums for naval and military expenditure, were asked last Saturday to appropriate to extra expenditure on armaments the large sum of £14,750,000. Of this amount, £6,250,000 is for the renewal of the field artillery, £2,750,000 for general armaments, and over £5,000,000 for the Navy. Over £8,000,000 of this will be required during 1905, and the rest within the following two or three years. The magnitude of the Estimates has occasioned general surprise in the country, the more so as no specific reason was assigned either on Satur- day or in Count Goluchowski's speech on Monday, with which we deal elsewhere. It is proposed to raise the money by a loan redeemable by annual instalments in the ordinary Army. and Navy Estimates. Money is not very easy to raise in Austria-Hungary for such purposes, and it is probable that the separate Parliaments of Austria and Hungary will have a good deal to say on the subject.
