Mr. Alan Burgoyne, M.P., editor of the Navy League Annual,
in a striking letter headed "Two Keels to One" in last Sunday's Observer gives authoritative facts in regard to the ship construction of the Triple Alliance. These facts illus- trate the spasmodic and dilatory methods of Italian ship- building; they show that Austria is not much better off. In short, " dealing with these two Powers together, it would much surprise me were the eight vessels in commission before the beginning of the really critical year 1915." Turning to Germany, his dates and figures show that, of ten German ships afloat, the average time on the stocks has been 12.9 months from laying the keel to the launch, while of the five vessels complete the average time from the commencement to the date of commissioning has been 34 months. The corre- sponding figures for seventeen British ships launched and fourteen British ships completed are 922 months and 26 months respectively.
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