Arizona silver belt., 1895-01-19
SHORT or SEAMEN.
A Lack Which Is Ono of Eng
 lands Gravest Dangers.
somc Interesting Faots About Great Brit aIn's Huge Naval squadrons-Not Enough Trained Men to
 Handle Them.

It may be said without exaggeration that the question of the hour is the supply of seamen for our fleet, says the Pall Mall Budget. No jugg,'Es with figures can conceal the fact that in ease of war we cannot send even all our modern vessels to sea. Though every nerve was strained at the maneu- vcrs, though the depots were depleted of Seamen and stolSers, we had to leave in port DO less than lGS fighting craft In this total are included ten first and second class battleships, ten third-class battleships, seven coast defense iron eladS, four old ironelads, seventeen cruisers, eleven torpedo gunboats, forty destroyers and sixty-nine serviceable torpedo boats. Many of the vessels in this enormous category are of the new est construction, and, though some are not vet completed for sea, all should be finished by the end of the financial year. We have none too many cruisers as it is, and when war Is upon us we shall want every single one to protect our colossal trade, All the older iron clads will be needed to convoy our slow ocean trumps, all our coast defense vessels to protect our unfortified ports and towns on the coast, The French are known to contemplate the bom- bardment of open towns, and this Is the only means by which we can prevent stray cruisers doing us terrible harm. Our battleShips win be wanted for the combat and to watch our enemies ports. Our ironclads lack their proper complement of torpedo gunboats and torpedo boats; ind eed, our first line, the Mediterranean fleet, has still only two. The crews required for the ships which woul q not be able to put to sea amount to no less than % ,Gl0 men, or, rcduc ing them to the lowest possible limit, 20,000 ships we can build in three years and less, but sailors can hardly be trained for war in twice that time. Since 1889 we have been building faster than we could obtain seamen. We have on the stocks, or projected, to-day another mass of vessels which require at least 10000 more men. It is true that the naval es- inmates for 1894 contemplate an addi- tiod to our personnel of over G,0O0 men, ! the number which we require. We must understand that the English fleet diSposes of practically no trained re- serve. Though the naval conflict of tomorrow will be bloody beyond be- | lief involving holocausts of ships and men, we have not merely too few sail ors 10 take our effective ships to sea, but no one to replace those who fall in | the struggle.
 Year by year the proportion of Eng. | fish seamen in our mercantile marine 1 dwindleS, while the proportion of for 1 eigners increases. Of our 5000 able ! seamen no less than 27.0Ou are forelgn- | CTS. and half the remainder have had less than four years service Nor k it ! question of wages, From the ship owners goes up the oninous complaint 1 that the Swede or the German k bet 1 ter educated, more sober, more respect fuI. He does not desert, he is better sailor, and his physique is superior.
 ''The supremacy of the English sailor is waning" says the chairman of the
 West India and Pacific Steamship conn pany. These are terrible words for us,
 whose pride and whose heritage in the
 past has been the sea.
 Our naval reserve numbers in it's first
 class 2GOOO men. Their training is
 limited in the extreme. They arc,
 many of them. ignorant of the manipu-
 lation of the breechloader, for such is
 the wisdom of our rulers that they per
 sist in drilling our reserves with ob-
 solcte guns At Wick, where 1l60
 men are trained, there is not single
 modern weapon. After this they get a
 month at sea on war ship. And that
 is all. The trumpet will sound; as
 many of them as can be obtalned in
 our home ports will De huddled on
 board our ironclads; heutenants and
 officers will be borrowed from ships in
 commission, and our fleet will be put
 t0 sea--to sure and certain defeat.
 Abroad there is readiness for instant
 action, at home unreadiness.