Mar. 15.
The London Gavotte of February 14 contained an announcement which will be read by all King George's subjects with special pleasure. It is as follows:—~ His Majesty the King has for some time been considering what steps can be taken to bring the British Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets into line with the other great Services of the Empire, by having as their titular head some member of the Royal Family, h this end in view, and in recognition of the aplendidervice which the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleots have rendered to the Empire for many centuries, both in peace and in war, His Majesty, after taking Ministerial advice, hus asked HLR.H. the Prince of Wales to assume the title of "Master of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets."
The above notice sets a crown on much that has been done since the war to ive public re~ cognition to what Britain owes to the Mercantile Marine. In recent years it has become customary to include representative merchant seamen among the King's aides-de-camp, The year before last saw the formation of the Company of Master Mariners with Sir Burton Chadwick as its Deputy Master. And in respect of the innovation announced by the "London
while the Admiralty and the Board of Trade and, of course, representatives of the two fleets in question were Called into consultation, the idea and initia tive were entirely that of the King himself. It is but another example of His Majesty's continual thought for and appreciation of all that most closely interests: his, subject It is emphasized that the new status given to the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleet has no military significance," Why this jeaution should have been conjsideved necessary, one fails to understand. Other nations surely will take no umbrage: if they Ido, they would scarcely be so foolish as to make mention of it, And the peculiar mental kink of certain native critics might be disregarded: they will scent militarism in a Band of Hope. Everyone knows what theamerchantmen and fishermen did for Britain and the Empire in the war: and if there were another war, their countrymen would look to them with perfect confidence to do the like again. It is a bare statement of fact that without the men of the mercantile and fishing fleets Britain would have been lost. kept going Naval Reserve, could not have thout the Royal Fifteen thousand men of the Merchant Navy lost their lives during the war; yet, at the very height of the submarine menace there was never a vessel that hesitated for Jan instant to put to sea. As for the work done by the Fishing Fleet in mine-sweeping and watching, though our best poets: have tried to hymn it, no one but those immediately concerned has any conception of the perils cheerfully faced and the indefatigable endurance shown. One may go back much further into history arid find that the Royal Navy itself had its angina in the mercantile marine, King Alfred is usually thought of as the originator of national naval fighting force. But it was Henry VIL who laid down the foundations of the Royal Navy. Before which date, of course, English ships had been pushing far and wide for centuries.
Furthermore it was undoubtedly the combined experience that English sailors gained, both in seamanship and in defending themselves against pirate corsairs during their wanderings lover the Seven Seas, which gave birth to the idea of a crew that should at one and the same time work the ship and fight her. In the Spanish Armada the sailors had nothing to do in the latter respect: their duty was to bring the ship alongside the enemy fand leave the rest to the soldiers she carried. But already their English antagonists had a new conception of naval warfare, the captain of the ship being also captain of her fighting power, and her: ability to manquvre constituting an important part of her attack or defence.
Here in China one can never tire of dwelling on what we owe ito the Merchant Navy. Only a few days ago an account was riven in these columns of the parti played in bringing hither that army which truly saved not only Shanghai but all central and south China, perhaps the [whole country, from being submerged by the wave of Communism, But at all times and in a hundred different ways we live and move and have our being by the men of the sea. Yet. in fact, how little we know Jof them. We make acquaint-
Jances among them on the long voyages to and from the Home lands, when the weather is fine jand officers stroll about the decks as if seafaring were the Jeasiest work in the world. But lof what that work really means, of the years of training it de-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.