Mr. Heir Hardie and Mr. Ramsay MacDonald entered pro- tests
against the expenditure on the Navy, but Mr. Leach, the Radical member for the Colne Valley, declared that, although a man of peace, he was "almost completely won over by the admirable spirit" of the First Lord's speech In his reply the First Lord commented sympathetically on the proposal to establish a Council of Defence in London, composed of
representatives of all parties and all the dominions. Our most urgent need at the moment was an increase in the numbers of our torpedo destroyers, and in eighteen months we might expect to have 51 added to the 116 we had already. The redistribution of the fleet would not entail the abandonment of the Malta dockyards. Replying to Mr. Ramsay MacDonald's appeal to the Government to set the example in reducing construction, Mr. Churchill reminded him that Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman's move in this direction had failed, the next strongest naval Power, instead of following his lead, having increased its rate of building. Mr. Churchill's state- ment has provoked an explosion of hostility in the German Chauvinist Press, but several of the most influential journals, including the Cologne Gazette, the Vossische Zeitung, and the Frankfurter Zeitung, deprecate excitement and pessimism, and assure Mr. Churchill that his frank utterances will be received in Germany without a feeling of irritation or offence.
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