Swinding, the current First Lord of the Admiralty, said, "The Russians cannot possibly purchase such an enormous fleet. The Russo-Austrian Naval Agreement is merely a smokescreen; the Austrians' true target is us.
"The Empire must take countermeasures and use absolute strength to shatter the enemy's unrealistic fantasies."
This was an open secret, obvious to anyone with eyes. To deal with the Japanese Navy, two super-dreadnoughts as the main force would have been enough.
The Holy Roman Empire Navy was already no small force. Add another thirteen super-dreadnoughts, and the Royal Navy's advantage would cease to exist.
Though strength on paper did not represent final combat power, the Royal Navy could not afford to gamble. No one could guarantee that once the balance was broken, the Holy Roman Empire would not strike first.
Although the Vienna Government had always proclaimed its "love of peace," Emperor Franz had also made promises to the outside world: that he would guarantee he would not take the initiative to start a war.
Yet before profit, such guarantees could not withstand scrutiny. Never breaking a promise only proved that the temptation of profit had not been great enough.
If they truly wished to start a war, would they be afraid of being unable to find a pretext?
Chancellor of the Exchequer Asquith said, "Countermeasures are necessary, but how can we be certain that the enemy is truly building warships?
"In the years past, the enemy has deliberately released false information, repeatedly disrupting our shipbuilding pace.
"A large number of warships appearing all at once may seem to lower construction costs, but in reality, it comes at the expense of optimizing warship performance and increases maintenance costs.
"Once or twice would not matter, but if it happened too often, the overall performance of the Imperial Navy's warships