NAVAL CONSTRUCTION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2689, 20 December 1909, Page 5

NAVAL CONSTRUCTION.

CABLE NEWS.

.START-LING STATEMENTS

United Press Association — CorYiuairr. LONDON, Dec. 17. Lord Charles Beresford, at Hull,said that Mulliiier and Co., a Coventry firm, informed the Admiralty in May, 1906, of Germany’s accelerated shipbuilding, since which date the firm had never received an Admiralty order. The navy at present \vas 16,000 short in personnel. 'He condemned the short service system and the reduction of coastguards. If things did not improve, he was prepared to -take the r’-sk of offending the Official Secrets Act. During the last four years those in authority in the Navy had pursued a policy of evasion, prevarication, nd sometimes absolute falsehood in regard to the strength of the fleet. “So long as w-e were .wardens of the seas,” he said, “nobody assailed our supremacy, hut directly we became the bully of the seas we built a Dreadnought and held it up to the world, particularly to Germany, saying, “Look, with this we can sink your whole fleet.” The advertising of the Dreadnought placed us in the present position. Germany is now spending more money on construction than ourselves, and building ships faster.

Lieutenant Bellairs, speaking at Salford,. said that Germany would never pay with borrowed money for ships that last twelve years unless she meant business within three or four years. BERLIN, Dec. 17. General Keim, the’deposed leader of the German Navy League, declares that France iwants Alsace-Lorraine, Russia wants Balkan influence, Italy wants part of Austria, England wants naval world supremacy, and Germany wants nothing. (Received December 19, 5.5 -p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 18. Mr. Mulliner, in a letter to the newspapers, details his treatment by the Admiralty, and states that a series of interviews with Cabinet Ministers and members of the Defence Committee last February resulted in the Government accepting his conclusions regarding the danger of Germany’s preparations, which he had forwarded to the Admiralty in May, 1906. He declares that the present naval situation is graver than ever.