3 APRIL 1909, Page 3

Mr. Balfour severely criticised the " contingent " programme as

a strange, unprecedented, and unjustified expedient, and asked whether the April 1st ships belonged to next year's or this year's programme. If next year's programme proper consisted of eight ships, they might have to build twelve ships next year against four this, which would be preposterous. Mr. • Balfour pointed out that the amount to be spent on construc- tion in Germany and the United States in the year 1909-10 was in each case more than that put down in our Estimates. He concluded by declaring that no Government could afford to ignore public opinion, and that the forces focussed at this meeting must do much to retrieve a situation which, though imperilled, was not wholly lost.