THE quidnuncs who told us to look out last week for the
revelation of a serious split in the Cabinet over the Navy
Estimates were very much out of it in their prognostications. The
Chancellor of the Exchequer was to have had a fall with the First
Lord, but these two gentlemen walked away from the Cabinet meeting
arm-in-arm to enjoy tea for two at the Admiralty House.
Nevertheless, the Navy Estimates are a subject of deep concern to
the Radical Party. There is an extreme section of Little Navyites,
among whom that true Briton, Sir Alfred Mond, is conspicuous, as he
is also among the would-be despoilers of the Welsh Church. So loud
have been their demands for the reduction of our naval armament
below the barest minimum of safety that the Westminster
Gazette has been compelled to enter a strong protest, and to
assert what it says are the general naval principles to which the
Liberal Party adheres. The Navy, it says, is the special guarantee
to this country that it will not be involved in the militarism that
affects Europe. If we starve the Navy,we shall have to increase our
military strength, unless, of course, we are prepared to go under
the moment we are threatened with invasion. . . "If we wish to be
masters in our own house, and to be secure against irruptions of
Continental militarism, we must be prepared to pay the price." We
may assume, therefore, that Mr Churchill will obtain what heasks,
and Mr Lloyd George, as we know from his own lips, will not
resign.
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