The Journal Officiel de la Republique Francaise for Decem- ber
25th, 1893, contains a financial report addressed to the Senate, which gives a complete list of all vessels now under construction for the French Navy, or contemplated in the Budget proposals for 1894. This paper shows that France will have either actually under construction, or in immediate contemplation, during 1894, no less than ten first-class battle- ships, four so-called coast-defence battle-ships, nine first-class cruisers, fourteen second-class cruisers, and four third-class cruisers, without reckoning a large number of smaller craft of various descriptions and a considerable flotilla of torpedo- boats. That is, in all, some forty-one battle-ships and cruisers of various classes. England, on the other hand, has only eighteen war-ships of various kinds building or contemplated. Will not even these figures prove to the Government that unless something is done, and done at once, our Fleet will soon be inferior in strength to that of France alone ?
Previous page
