§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY (Mr. G. J. GOSCHEN,) St. George's, Hanover SquareI desire to state, with reference to my answer yesterday to the Question of the honourable Member for the Ecclesall Division of Sheffield as to Russian shipbuilding to the effect that—
the Russians propose one, or at the most, two battleships, according to the last precise information I have received, but since that there might be more,that on returning to the Admiralty I found a dispatch had arrived which gave some apparently well authenticated, though not official, information on Russian shipbuilding, and stated that the number of new battleships to be laid down in Russia in 1898 was three. I gave the communication to the House yesterday, and I thought it right to communicate the correction to the House to-day.