The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-07-10 00:00:00

THE COMMITTEE ON NAVAL

EDUCATION.

The committee which has been sitting for the last
year and a quarter, under the presidency of Admiral
Luard, to inquire into the education of naval execu-
tive officers, have now concluded their labours and
made the;r report.
The recommendations they make will so alter the
conditions of entry and early education of naval
officers that time will be required to carry them into
effect. It will therefore be necessary to make some
temporary changes to provide for the period of tran-
sition, and with these, and with remarks on some of
the more advanced courses which officers undergo, the
first two chapters of the report deal. In the third
chapter the committee give the result of their de-
liberations on the best mode of providing the navy
with officers.

The object aimed at is to draw the candidates from
the large schools of the country, and to seaure the
best of these boys, while at the same time getting ria
of cramming, and the overpressure sometimes conse-
quent thereupon. The committee think that a system
of nominations does not allow of the best material
being obtained, and that open competition would
intensify the evil of cramming which now exists. Such
competition would, moreover, be exceptionally injurious
for boys of the age of candidates for the navy, for
though the committee propose to increase the age at
which young officers go to sea, some preliminary
specialisation of their education is necessary, and the
first sifting of candidates must consequently be done
when they are very young.

- - - -
The committee therefore propose that the first
selection shall be made at about the age of 15 (that is
two years later than the time at which they now join
the Britannia) by means of the examination for lower
certificates conducted by the Oxford and Cambridge
School Examination Board. Successful candidates
are to remain at their own schools and be specially
educated for a further year in mathematics, elemen-
tary physics, drawing, and French or German, the
committee having ascertained that nearly all the large
schools are ready to make the necessary provision for
such instruction.

At about the age of 16 the candidates are to be
examined in those subjects by the Civil Service Com-
missioners, who will also assign marks for the previous
examination for lower certificates, the papers being
submitted to them for that purpose, and the sum of
the marks of the two eiaminations will determine the
order of merit.

The successful candidates will at once be sent to
the Britannia training ship where their instruction
will be chiefly technical and nautical, brigs and a
small steamer being provided for their practical train-
ing ; but they will keep up their elementary
mathematics under instructors. The discipline on
board the Britannia is to be Naval, not scholastic.

The terms of payment for cadets on board the
Britannia are to be based on regulations similar to
those governing the payment§ at the Royal Military
Academy and the Royal Military College, and in the
case of sons or orphans of officers of the Army and
Navy those fees are to be reduced. After a year in the
Britannia cadets will join a sea-going ship, with the
rating of midshipmen. They will remain afloat for three
years, during which their elementary study is to
cease, and the instruction to be distinctly practical
and professional, and to be conducted by the officers
of the ship and not by naval instructors. On com-
pleting this period of sea service the midshipman, at
about the age of 20 or 21, will be examined on board
in seamanship, and then join the Royal Naval College
at Greenwich, where he will be at once examined in
navigation. After this examination he will undergo
a four months' course of study in physics, surveying,
steam, machine construction, French, and mathe-
matics, or freehand drawing and German, or addi-
tional French, followed by an examination.
At its conclusion he will proceed to Portsmouth for
a month's systematic study of machinery, followed by
the prescribed courses of gunnery, torpedo, and pilot-
age. On the succesisful completion of all these he
will be confirmed in the rank of sub-lieutenant, but
will not be eligible for the rank of lieutenant till he
has completed two 'years' service from the date of his
examination in seamanship.
The committee condemn the whole present system
of naval education from the first collection of the raw
material to the advanced classes provided for gunnery
and torpedo lieutenants who obtain first-class certifi-
cates.

The fault lies, they find, in the want of due rela-
tion between the several parts of the system. The
parts in themselves are all fairly efficient; but absence
•of that connection between them which would make
them progressive paralyses their effect. One of the
principal causes of this lack of cohesion is the absence
of any central authority for the management of
Naval Education. When change, or consideration
with a view to change, becomes necessary, the custom
of the Admiralty is to appoint a special committee
for the purpose of advising on it. This system
Admiral Luard's Committee consider cumbersome and
inefficient. The members of the committee, being
generally unacquainted with the details of naval
matters, have to collect their information at great
labour, and however well they may digest that infor-
mation, and however sound the resulting advice may
be, it fails of a considerable part of its effect from
there being no one whose duty it is to see that their
lordships' decision on it is carried out.
In order that the educational business of the navy
may be properly administered the presence of such an
officer is indispensable. For this purpose, therefore,
the committee recommended that the authority of
the President of the Royal Naval College shall be
extended.

They propose that he shall combine the offices of
President of the College and "Director General of
Naval Education." His official residence is to be at
Greenwich; but he is to have an office at Whitehall,
where he will be Educational Adviser to the Board of
Admiralty, and all questions relating to education are
to be referred to him in the first instance.

Nearly all the examination work of the Navy, by
eluding the Britannia and the Dockyard Schools, is
now done by the Royal Naval College, and the Presi-
dent has an undefined jurisdiction over the educa-
tional arrtingements. Admiral Luerd's oommit:ee
would formulate this jurisdiction and responsibility,
and give the PreZ,
9ident executive power by investing
him with the no officer of Director-aoneral of
Naval Education. -