§ MR. YERBURGH (Chester)To ask the Secretary to the Admiralty whether the Admiralty have any information to the effect that the Russian Government has determined to strengthen the fleet which it maintains in the Far East and also to add to its force in the Black Sea, and, in accordance with this decision, to lay down forthwith two new battleships of 12,000 tons at Nicolaiev and Sevastopol and to take in hand three new destroyers in the Black Sea; and whether, including the ships which are to be laid down in the Baltic at the close of the present year, this makes a total Russian programme for 1903–4 of eight new battleships.
(Answered by Mr. Arnold-Forster.) The Admiralty has received no special information to the effect of the first paragraph of the hon. Member's Question, but it is the practice of the Russian Government to send new ships as completed to the East and to recall older ships when thus relieved, an operation which tends to increase the fleet in Eastern waters. In reply to the second paragraph of the Question it is believed that it is the intention of the Russian Government to lay down the battleships and destroyers referred to. In reply to the third paragraph, as far as the Admiralty are aware, the number of battleships or first class cruisers which are laid down, or are about to be laid down, is six.