Ir is a new experience for most British subjects to be in a part of the world where their maritime strength ranks below that of other Powers. Yet such is our position at the present moment in the Far East, where we are second to Japan, and to Germany, and shall be, unless reinforcements come in time, to Russia. This, in face of the strained position of affairs, might seem a very alarming circumstance in view of the imdensity of the interests we have at stake. There are, however, reasons for taking it quite calmly. In the first place there is no sign that any nation desires to break the peace, while we have reason to believe that all would be considerably relieved to find the Chinese question quietly disposed of. In the second, we may contemplate our comparative weakness with complacency since the squadrons that are strongest are those of our friends and allies, reasons quite solid enough to account for the equanimity with which the British community have seen our wonted supremacy taken temporarily into other hands.
But at home the matter is viewed in a different light. The Navy League and its supporters are taking the government to task for being so dilatory in the construction of vessels long since ordered. Mr. Archibald S. Hurd, in an article on the Lessons of the War in the "Nineteenth Century," thus sums up these shortcomings:—"* Taking two years as the standard of the time that should be occupied in building armoured ships—and it ought not to be difficult to construct cruisers with as great celerity with an adequate and efficient organisation—we are confronted with the deplorable fact that, owing to delays for the most part quite inexcusable, the British Navy is now short of three battleships of 12,950 tons, three battleships of 15,000 tons, four armoured cruisers of 12,000 tons, a first-class protected cruiser of the improved Powerful' type, a third-class cruiser, and at least half a dozen destroyers." This, as Mr. Hurd says, is "in itself a powerful fleet" not in being, awin; to the dawdling and delay permittes by the Admiralty. There is, of course, one grain of comfort in all! this. A navy which can afford to neglect so formidable a reinforcement: as this must be in fairly good fettle as it is. And this is not denied. Her Majesty's squadrons, we are told, have never been more efficient, though they should be more powerful. Officers and men were never more loyal or better trained, the guns were never more powerful than now, the gunners better able to shoot quickly or to shoot straight. The navy is, it may be added, nearer to perfection than ever before, though "sadly, dangerously in arrears." Dangerously, because it is ponter out that owing to the delays afore mentioned we have fallen behind the Two-Power standard which the nation has set up for itself, and which till now no government has for a long time permitted to fall into The question then arises; Why should this be? The Admiralty lames th. contractors, and the contractors throw back the accusations upon their accusers, Yetit has been proved that first-class battleships, complete in every particular, can be got ready for sea in two years, The Majestic and Magnificent both beat that record by a small margin, Yet at present three, four, five, and even more years are being dawdled away upon the construction of vessels which are half obsolete by the time they are launched. There is muddle somewhere. It appears that the government are entirely dependent. for certain armour-making and engineering work upon private yards, and these cannot be driven. Moreover there is a vast amount of construction going on' in British yards for foreign nations. With thirty-six vessels of all classes for the British navy undergoing completion in these yards, there were thirty for other Powers, a fact of itself sufficient to account for some of the arrears of work, since the builder is naturally anxious to conciliate his foreign customer who, Jasa rule, pays a better price than our own Admiralty. Probably also our authorities are only too ready to wink at shortcomings so far as our own work is concerned, on the ground that foreign construction is good for trade and thus indirectly tells in favour of the government in power for the time being.
It is not any one class of vessel that has "been "neglected for the benefit of the rest: all alike seem ito have suffered in pretty equal {ratio. The Canopus, Ocean, and (Goliath, which should have been completed years ago, have only left ithe builder's hands this season; the Glory, which is coming out to the East, has been hurried up for that purpose, while the Albion and Vengeance will not be ready for months yet, after close upon four years in construction. The Formidable, Irresistible, and Implacable are other battleships which have suffered like delay. Armoured cruisers, a type of vessel which would be most valuable to us in time of war, are experiencing their share of the gene-val neglect, as are the smaller second and third-class vessels. Of one class of these the Admiralty have discover-{ed, after building eleven of them, that
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.