London, Feb. 15.
In the House of Commons tonight, in a speech introducing the Navy Estimates, Mr. Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, emphasized the efficiency of the Navy at the outbreak of the war.
Great Britain had a fleet, with a good margin.of safety in vital matters, fully mobilized and equipped with every requirement, with reserves of ammunition and tor-far quantity, with ample supplies of fuel and oil and with adequate reserves of all kinds. The Navy had also adequate numbers of trained officers and men; adequate establishments for training new men; an immense programme of new construction maturing to reinforce the fleet and a pre-arranged system for accelerating new construction which had been found to yield even surprising results. Particularly did he draw the attention of the House to the supply of ammunition. They got little credit for such expenditure in time of peace, but in time of war, they thanked God it had been made.
The estimate of the quantity of oil to be consumed in the war had
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.