A SENSATIONAL CONFESSION

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2494, 6 May 1909, Page 2

A SENSATIONAL CONFESSION

It is now stated in the- House of Commons, on behalf of the Government, that from the Orkneys down to the en-. trance of the Straits of Dover England does not .possess a single dry dock capable of receiving a Dreadnought drawing more than its normal depth of water owing to accident. Germany, on the other-hand, it is cabled, has five such docks. A more pitiable admission of incompetence was probably never before made by the Parliament of any great nation. The talk of floating docks, as some kind of a makeshift, is of course good in its way. But such docks labor under the disadvantage of being subject to long range fire from an enemy able for tlfe moment to hold the British navy in check, and so to approach within seven miles of the British coast. As a matter, of fact a floating dock could be effectively shelled at twelve miles, by a hostile ship whose commander possessed reasonably reliable charts.— ‘'Daily Telegraph.”