In another speech made in Wales last week Mr. McKenna
declared himself strongly opposed to any idea of a naval loan. Though we must abstain from detailed comment for the present, it is worth while to point out that this absolute refusal to entertain the idea of a loan is by no means in accordance with the views expressed by Mr. Lloyd George in his lately published interview in the Review of Reviews, an interview in which he regarded the possibility of a naval loan as a reserve to which we might have recourse if the " beggar- my-neighbour game is to be played out to the hitter end." A letter from Mr. Winston Churchill published in Friday's papers must be regarded as showing that the Home Secretary sides with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for in that letter he tells us that the "very high expense to which we are put for new construction is largely due to special and peculiar circumstances, some of which are not necessarily, or even probably, of a permanent character."
Previous page
