GERMAN AND BRITISH NAVAL EXPENDITURE.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."] Sin,—In view of the agitation in this country about the enormous relative increase of the German Navy Estimates in comparison with our own, it may be useful to set out the exact figures from official sources. Return No. 299 of Naval Expenditure in the year 1905 gives the naval expenditure for the year ending March 31st, 1905 :—Great Britain, 241,696,313 ; Germany, £10,567,342. Adding £977,091 for expenditure under naval works bills to our gross Navy Estimates for this year, and taking the latest German figures, we obtain the present comparison :—Great Britain, £33,888,137; Germany, £16,579,095. In other words, from four to one we change to two to one. It should be added that to obtain exact cora- , parisons on the same basis, owing to the exclusion of pensions &c., from German naval figures, 23,674,880 should be deducted
from the British figures for 1905, and about £3,800,00 from those for this year; while the deductions to be made from the German figures for fortifications are insignificant, being £95,162 for 1904-5, and a somewhat larger sum for the new year.. We find, therefore, that the relative gain in four years of German Navy expenditure over our own amounts in round figures to £14,000,000 per annum, and yet we are told that our relative efficiency never was greater, and a hundred and thirty- six Liberals have presented a Memorial in favour of further reductions ! It should be added that the Estimates for 1911 in Germany provide for an expenditure of £22,511,000, and in that year a new Navy Bill for further increases is likely to bo
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