This measure was believed to embody at any rate the beginnings of a scheme which he had submitted to the Emperor some time prior to his appointment. At any rate, it enunciated a new and vital principle. As has been seen, the Government, whether Prussian or German, had on previous occasions drafted extensive naval programmes for the carrying out of which a period of ten or twelve years was required. Not once, however, had the establishment of ships and personnel been fixed by law; and the Parliament in each case committed itself to the entire scheme only to the extent of passing the first annual instalment considered necessary by the Government as the initial step towards the desired goal. In this way neither Diet nor Reichstag bound itself or its successors for the future, but left both free to deal with the annual naval estimates as they thought fit. And in practice it had been found that very liberal use was made of the budgetary prerogatives, that standards once approved were not considered binding, and that the fate of the naval estimates depended to a considerable extent on the relations which happened for the moment to exist between the Government and the majority parties on questions totally unconnected with the naval requirements of the Empire. Another disadvantage of the practice of leaving the Reichstag free to determine annually the number of vessels which should be laid down in a given year, was, that it gave the shipbuilding, armour-plate, and ordnance industries no sure basis for their plans for the future. The rule that Germany must build, engine, arm, and equip her own war vessels had been generally accepted, but the industries which should enable her to do this were still in their infancy, and were almost entirely dependent upon the orders of the home Government. If they were ever to be able to supply the demands of a powerful fleet, it was necessary that slips should be multiplied, plant increased, and workshops extended. But so long as the naval policy of the Empire was indefinite and subject to violent fluctuations, ship-builders and manufacturers would not endanger their businesses by locking up large amounts of capital in appliances which could be used for the building and arming of warships and for no other purposes. If German industry was ever to be in a position to satisfy the demands of a large and efficient fleet, some guarantee of steady and remunerative orders must, it was urged, be afforded to the trades concerned. And apart altogether from its own needs, the Government also hoped that, some day, Germany would be able to claim a share in those large profits which Great Britain appropriated to herself as the world's shipbuilder.