The debate in Committee of Supply was maintained at a
high level on Tuesday, an unusually large number of Front Bench men and ex-Cabinet Ministers taking part in the dis- cussion, which was mainly concerned with the two-Power standard. Nearly all the speakers concurred in deprecating the growth of expenditure, and Sir Edgar Vincent pointed out that tested by the outlay of France, Russia, and Germany, we were now up to a three-and-a-half-Power standard. Lord George Hamilton, in whose tenure of office the two-Power standard was adopted, besought the Admiralty to watch the fad of the moment, but not to let it capture them. Over and over again large sums had been prematurely spent on some new idea, and so far from benefiting the country, it had had to be compensated for by additional expenditure in correcting designs. The weightiest warning, however, came from Sir Michael Hicks Beach, who stated his belief that-the Estimates involved excess of expenditure much beyond what was required even for the maintenance of the two-Power standard, and declared that the increase on new construction was wholly unjustified by any increase in the building programme of any other naval Power.
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