The Annual Dinner of the Association took place on the evening of the 23rd Feb., at the Hotel Metropole, London. was a large number of guests, and the pi ceedings were characterised throughout by the utmost enthusiasm and good feeling. Sir R. Jardine, Bart, M.P., was in the chair, and there were also present Right Hon, Lord Hannen, Admiral Sir N. Salmon, V.C., K.0.B., Sir E. Hornby, Sir T. H, Sanderson, K0.M.G., Sir'T, Wade, K.0.B., G.C.M.G., Vice-Admiral Brine, Sie Holliday Macartney, K.C.M.G., Sir - Leoe K.C.M.G. (Vice. Chairman After dinner the Chairman, whose rising was greeted with cheers, proposed the usual loyal torist, remarking that never at any time had the Queen steyd higher in the opinivu of, or been beloved more by, her subjects than she was at the present day. (Cheers.) In the melancholy event which lind recently occurred and in the sad bereavement which she had sustained Her Majesty had the full sympathy of the British people, not urily in this country, lover the world, (Hear, hear.)
ish residents in China always hailed this toast with great enthusiasm, and he was certain that the present occasion would prove no exception ty the rule. (Loud cheers.)
The toast having been duly honoured, Sir Thomas Sutherland, M.P., proposed the next toast on the list—" The Navy, Army, and Reserve Forces." In doing #0 he said it would have come very much more appropriately from the chair, but doubtless the Chairman was too deeply engrossed on the subject of Welsh Disestablishment—(laughter)—to find time to devote himself to the proposal of this toast. In all senses the proposal of this particular toast was one of an exceptionally easy character, because it was received in all countries of English people with the utmost respect and enthusiasm. (Cheers.) He believed that the naval and military forces of the Crown never stood higher in the estimation and regard of the peuple of this country than they did at the present moment—(cheers)—not owing to the fact of any sudden outburst of military enthusiasm on the part of the people of this country, not owing.t- the fact that we have been of into exposed to danger of invasion or to the threatening of a great war, but to the fact, in the first place, that the naval and military services never existed a higher state of efficiency and in a jiier state of scientific training than they id at the present moment—(cheers)—and in the second place, to the fact that the people of this country were never'more thoroughly persuaded than they were at the present time that, as a matter of national safety, as a matter of the independence and integrity of the country, and the protection of our colonies in distant lands, the efficient maintenance of the Navy and the Army was of the very greatest importance. (Cheers.) For tht Texson he ventured to say that during the Inst few years of legislative activity in the 'House ai Commons, when sv many valuable and excellent measures had been passed, no. measure had received "more. general acceptance at the hands of the people of this country than that important proposal for the strengthening of Her Majesty's Navy by an additional expenditure of something like ten millions sterling over and above the normal expenditure of the year. (Cheers.) In another way lie ventured to refer to the matter, and that was in connection with his experience xs an old inhabitant of Chins, for he was sure that no set of people connected with this great Empire knew or appreciated bettor the at importance and utility of our defen-services than those who lived, they had done, in that distant part of the world. (Bear, hear.) There were some of them presenit—not many, perhaps—who could carry their recollection back to the year 1857 when we were at war with China, when a price was put upon the head of every European, when they were puisoned, or attempted to be poisoned, by the baker Alum—(laughter)—when the forces which were sent to the succour of the people in China at that time were engaged in the enterprise of sttecouring the people of India in the. midst of the great rebellion there. Those of them who could recall that day would remember, as he did, that the safety of their life and property was due entirely and exclusively to the marines and bluejackets who were left to protect Hongkong and Canton, And, again, those of them who lived in the northern part of China some years afterwards could never forget that the great tide of rebellion was rolled back frum the very gates ut Shanghai by the gallant Gordon—whose name would ever live in the history of this country. (Cheers.) He could, if it were necessary, give instance upon instance of the experience that those who lived in that distant part of the world had of the value of the great defensive services of our country. He knew it was not necessary for him to do 8", because he knew that without it they would receive with the utmost enthusiasm the toast which he now begged to ive, coupled with the name of Admiral it Nowell Salmon and General Sim, (Loud cheers.)
The toast was then honoured with every display of enthusiasm, Admiral Sir Nowell Salmon, in responding for the naval forces, expressed hi thanks on behalf of the service he represented for the cordial way in which the toast had been proposed and received. He the faces of a good many old friends in China which, he suid, encouraged him in the somewhat difficult but agreeable task of adequately returning thanks for the compliments which had been paid to the Navy, In regard to the Navy, generally speaking, the efforts of the present Government had done n great deal to raise the Navy into the position ought to hold in such a country as where our bread was: dependent upon (Cheers.) With regard to the Navy in China i¢ would be interesting to them to know that the. old-fashioned ships that could not steam against the monsoon were gradually being replaced by more modern ships with more modern armaments, which would take better care of our trade in those regions, As they knew quite recently, the lives of Europeans in all the Treaty ports had been threatened with danger, but he thought they had found that there was a sufficiency of gunboats, The old gunboat regime had evidently not quite gone out, Tt had been said, especially by those at the Foreign Office, that the day of the gunboat was no more, and that diplomacy held the field: but we had to fall "back upon the gunboat again, (Laughter.) With regard tu his command in China, hie could only say that he had.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.