==========+============+===========+=============================================== Financial | Amount. | Personnel.| Ships provided. Year. | | +-----------+----------------------------------- | | |Battleships|Battle-cruisers|Armoured |Prot. | | | | |cruisers.|cruisers. ----------+------------+-----------+-----------+---------------+---------+--------- 1902–03 | 31,003,977 | 122,500 | 2 | | 2 | 1903–04 | 35,709,477 | 127,100 | 3 | | 4 | 1904–05 | 36,859,681 | 131,100 | 2 | | 3 | 1905–06 | 33,389,500 | 129,000 | 1 | 3 | | 1906–07 | 31,472,087 | 129,000 | 3 | | | 1907–08 | 31,419,500 | 128,000 | 3 | | | 1908–09 | 32,319,500 | 128,000 | 1 | 1 | | 5 1909–10 | 35,142,700 | 138,000 | 6 | 2 | | 3 1910–11 | 40,603,700 | 131,000 | 4 | 1 | | 3 1911–12 | 44,392,500 | 134,000 | 4 | 1 | | 3 1912–13 | 44,085,400 | 136,000 | 3 | 1 | | ==========+============+===========+===========+===============+=========+========= Later in 1912 the sum of £1,000,000 was handed to the Navy out of the Budget surplus. This sum, the “supplementary estimate,” was allotted in order to set off a corresponding German increase. The decrease of 1905–1908 is probably directly responsible for the increase 1910–1912; owing to the fact that the British decrease was met by a corresponding rise in German expenditure. It was the fashion before the war to deplore the sums spent on naval armaments, while little or nothing was said about the military estimates. For 1912–13 the Naval Estimates were £45,075,400. For 1912–14 they increased to £48,809,300, and for 1914–15 they stood at £51,550,000. On the face of things, this ever-increasing naval outlay looked likely to lead to ultimate financial ruin. This, however, is really a somewhat superficial view, and mostly nothing but a modern equivalent to that “Insular Spirit” which has been referred to in previous pages. Compared to the national interests at stake, the increase regarded as an insurance is more apparent than real. It is, if anything, a smaller percentage on national existence; also over a period of a hundred years it is far less than the corresponding increase in the Civil Service Vote, which lacks any claims to be considered an “insurance.” The entire amount spent in shipbuilding is expended in the country, and about 70 per cent. of it goes in direct payment to “Labour”: which is probably a larger percentage than would be achieved were the same sum spent in any other way whatever.