The Vlissingse Courant dated 1 March 1895 reported that the budget commission of the German Parliament [the Rijksdag] disapproved the request for a budget of 2,400,000 mark for the building of torpedo boats. The commission approved earlier the budget of 42,500,000 for building new cruisers and mend that enough finances were available for the defence of Germany.
The Middelburgsche Courant dated 6 March 1896 reported that the budget commission approved the building of two new cruisers and torpedo boats.
The same newspaper dated 9 March 1897 published again a news item dealing with extension of the Germany navy and spoke of a secret navy program. The minister of navy explained this program to the budget commission. The needed budget of 200,000,000 Dutch guilders even shocked the minister of finance. The navy wanted to built 10 cruisers, 5 aviso’s, 2 monitors, 2 floating batteries and 22 torpedo boats. When the minister of finance wasn’t able to inform the budget commissioned was the meeting ended and to ask the Reichs chancellor for clarification. However on 30 March reported the newspaper that the Reichstag approved the reduced budget despite protests from Hollmann. The journalist wondered if the Reichstag would have taken another decision if she had heard the rumours that France intended to spend the next 8 years 100,000,000 francs for building 45 large warships and 175 torpedo boats.
