§ SIR G. CHESNEY (Oxford)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether, with reference to the assurance given by him that neither the House nor the country need entertain, in the existing circumstances, the smallest apprehension as to the maintenance of the distinct naval supremacy of Great Britain, and having regard to the time which must necessarily intervene between the laying down a plan of shipbuilding operations and carrying it out, his assurance may be understood to apply to the immediate future as well as to the present, in view of the rate of progress of building ships of war now obtaining in this and other countries?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. W. E. GLADSTONE,) Edinburgh, MidlothianThe question of the hon. and gallant Gentleman is evidently, I think, founded upon certain assumptions as to the necessary interval between the adoption and the execution of any plan of shipbuilding. I understand from the Admiralty that arrangements for the reduction of that time as far as possible have been engaging the attention of the Admiralty. Therefore, when the Navy Estimates are explained to the House, it will be found that further shipbuilding will be begun at an early date, and, together with this, fresh provision for avoiding delays in pushing to completion the work which has already been ordered. These facts enable me to assert to the House that when I spoke of maintaining—I said the naval supremacy, but I conveyed what I think is the idea chiefly intended in another phrase perhaps more appropriate—the relative naval strength of this country, I referred to the future, without any exception or distinction between immediate and remote, as well as to the present time.