The French have finished four of 23,000 tons, with 13 1/2-inch guns, and are finishing three more.

The Russians are at work upon six of 23,000 tons, with 12-inch guns.

The Japanese are building one superdreadnought of 30,000 tons, with 14-inch guns, and three battle-cruisers of 27,500 tons and 27-knot speed, with 14-inch guns.
Churchill, it will be remembered, figured that England could lose one battleship each month and still maintain her full strength.

While the building of war-tonnage seems to be well in hand, there is no corresponding replacement of mercantile tonnage.
I have the highest authority for the statement that the world possesses no machinery at the present time to manufacture war-material at the rate at which the nations of Europe have been using it during the first hundred days of the war.
At one time the German armies were exploding 120,000 shells a day in France and Belgium.

The response from the French alone was 80,000 shells a day, and General Joffre made a request that his supply be put up to 100,000 per day.