Los Angeles herald., 1908-05-10
Foreign

Inc British admiralty has issued a
return showing the result of the battle
practice of the fleet in 1907. Last year
~ ships on seven stations took part in
the practice, as compared with 81 in
the previous year and 68 in 1905. while
the guns firing were respectively 1904,
$40 and 957. The average points OBJ
tanned by the whole fleet in 1907 were
l94.O2. For 1906 the average was 1917.
and 1905 only 1874. The China SQUAD
ron headed the list, her five ships,
with 20 guns. making an average of
297.16 points and a total score of
527.26 From the 20 ships of the home
fleet 276 guns made score of 410. with
an average of 237.39. The Mediter-
ranean squadron, with IL ships and ISL
guns. averaged 207.73, with a score of
339.4S. The Atlantic squadron's score
of 210.7 was made by 10 ships with
14O guns, and the average was 164.S2.
on the Australia station the score was
2S7 and the average $685. seven ships,
with 70 guns. taking part. The rec
ord of the channel fleet. with Is ships
and 265 guns was a total of 2255 and
an average of 1903. The Cape of
Good Hope squadron of three ships
fired 29 guns, making an average of
12S.H and total score of 20a1. The
first ships in each squadron were the
Kent (China), the Dreadnought (home
fleet, the Queen Mediterranean, the
Albemarle (Atlantic), the Pegasus
(Australla), the Hibernia (channeI
fieeD, and the Hermes (Cape of Good
Hope). Six gunboats, using six guns
each. averaged 1902 points. and eight
scouts, with 1856 guns, averaged
1852 points.
The United Kingdom at present en-
joys the unpleasant distinction of be-
ing the only place in the English
speaking world which labors under the
humiliating stigma of being unable,
as remarked by Mr. Pinero, to keep its
stage clean and wholesome without
resorting to the anachronism of a cen
sorship. A glance at the masterpieces
of dramatic literature which have
fallen under the ban in England, and
at the list of great works with which
all the world is familiar, but which
are taboo to English playgoers, Is
sufficient to show the absurdity and the
futility of the system; but there is
another view of the matter. Plays
have passed the scrutiny of the reader
against whose judgment there is no
appeal-which are so UNANIMOUSLY i'm
moral and demoralizing that it is i'm
possible to characterize them in de-
tail. The wonder is, with such OBJ
ject lessons before them, as we'll as the
patent fact of the exclusion of certain
of Ibsens masterpieces and of the
work of some of the brightest and
most original of the modern school of
British dramatic writer's, that this
standing bar to the freedom which
Englishmen hold dear has survived SO
long.
Speaking in the house of lords on
March IS, Lord Tweedmouth, first lord
of the British admiralty, defended the
policy of the government in refralning
temporarily from laying down large
number of battleships, and said that
the construction of battleships just now
partoolS largely of the nature of an eX-
pertinent. Great Britain's three vessels
of the Temeraire type, he declared,
were infinitely superior to the Dread
nought type. and the three vessels or
the st Vincent type would be an nm
provement on the Temeraire type. In
the spring of 1911 Great Britain would
have three squadrons of four ships each
of the st. Vincent type. No power N
the world would be able to assemble
such fleet of first class battleships.
Lord Tweedmouth declared. and ne
could almost say that combination OF
all the powers of the world would not pc
able to put an equal squadron on the
sea.