Part of Report by Hugh Watson, Naval Attaché at the British embassy in Berlin, 12th March 1913.
Crown copyright. Reference: Churchill Papers, CHAR 13/19/44-6.
"People in Germany had begun dimly to see that they were treading an expensive Naval road, especially as the cost of the upkeep of the Fleet came home to the Reichstag members; which uncomfortable consciousness of the cost of upkeep naturally had the greater effect as new Ship-building programmes, and their consequent excitements, became less possible; as opposed to the growth of criticism of the expansionist Party, the winter of 1911-12 was the first time that the idea of a 3 to 2 proportion was raised in Germany by the Naval Party."