The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-03-10 00:00:00

STRENGTH.

Lord George Hamilton, speaking on the subject of
dockyard administration, says that the various altera-
tions and improvements made during the past year
for the purpose of obtaining a firmer and more reliable
hold over dockyard expenditure have begun to realise
satisfactory results. The rapidity of construction
shown in the advance of the ironclad Trafalgar has
rivalled, if not beaten, the best record in private ship-
building yards, and other ships building are being
pushed on with almost equal celerity. The reform of
any great Government establishment must necessarily
be a work of gradual development, and attended
with constant hostile criticism. But the general
result of the operations during the past two
and a half years has been encouraging, and
Lord George gives a tabular statement showing the
savings upon the original estimates for ships building,
and also some of the savings effected upon ships re-
paired and refitted. In concluding his remarks upon
the dockyard system, he says: "The amount of
labour imposed upon the department of the controller
of the navy during the last 18 months has been ex-
ceedingly heavy. The departmental officers have proved
themselves fully equal to the onerous task imposed on
them, and lam glad to be able to point out that the
State. commands the services of officials who are able
to meet all the modern requirements of the day, and
capable of giving to the country a good return for the
expenditure entrusted to them." The subjects of
the naval ordnance, the personnel of the navy,
educational establishments, and the organisa-
tion of the navy, are referred to at some
length, and the noble lord concludes his memo-
randum with some general remarks. He says:
" The experience gained since last year, and the
opportunities afforded during that time of making
close and minute comparision between the strength
of the navy of this country and that of foreign nations
confirms my previous statement, that our relative
superiority is undoubted, and that we shall, if the
present expenditure be maintained, each year increase
that superiority. Our organisation for war has much
improved during the last year, and satisfactory pro-
gress has been made in working out and fitting
together the complementary parts of a scheme for the
full utilisation in the time of emergency of the naval
resources of the country. Looking, however, at
the three main component parts of a fleet,
ships, guns, and men, we have no reason to
be dissatisfied with what we have got, if we
take not an ideal standard, but that common to
the fleets of our neighbours. The ships recently com-
pleted and commissioned have fulfilled, on the whole,
the undertaking of their designers, and although one
or two casualties have occurred in the past in the
manufacture of our larger guns, out of the great
number issued during the last 18 months for service,
none have in any sense failed. The determination of
the Government to effectively arm the coaling
stations abroad, and the Home ports must largely
increase our offensive naval power, for the bases of
operations from which our fleet can issue will re-
quire little or no naval defence. But, if it is permissible
to speak with confidence of our superiority as far
as actual fighting power is concerned, when
we consider the defence and protection which
our commerce may require, extreme caution
and reserve must be exercised. The conditions
of naval warfare have so changed, and are so chang-
ing from day to day, that nothing but actual ex-
perience could justify any confident prediction as to
how a thoroughly effective protectima can be given by
any fleet to a commerce whose seagoing steam ton-
nage is double that of the rest of the world. In the
revision and preparation of our present estimates we
have made provision for all immediate requirements,
and we have not hesitated in every direction to cut off
extraneous and questionable expenditure. But new
_wants may more than counterbalance future econo-
mies, and it would therefore not be safe in our judg-
ment to attempt hereafter to place at a lower total
than the aggregate BUMS to be spent this year upon
naval objects the future anneal expenditure of the
navy."
MR. FORWOOD'S MEMORANDUM.—THE PARLIA-