SEA POWER.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 41, 12 November 1907, Page 5

SEA POWER.

- 0 FIRST SEA LORD'S VINDICATION OF THE FLEET. FIFTY-ONE WARSHIPS INSTANTLY READY. A FRACTION OF OUR STRENGTH. DY TELEGRAPH—MESS ASSOCIATION—COITBIGIIT. (Rec. Nov. 11, 10.16 p.m.) London, November 11. Speaking at the Guildhall, Admiral Sir John Fisher, First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, responding to the toast of " The Navy," declared that ho was unablo to find anywhere so fine a fleet as tho twenty-six battleships and twenty-five cruisers that had just finished manoeuvring in the North Sea, yet that was only a fraction of our sea power. . Sir John Fisher added that tho gunnery and efficiency of tho fleet were unparalleled arid surpassed all records. The fleet was ready on tho instant for war, so tho British poople might sleep quietly in thoir bods undisturbed by the bogeys periodically resusoitatcd by all sorts of leagues. ' Tho centre of attack by hostile critics has boon 'the Home fleet, which, it would appear from I tho cablegrams, was represented' in the recont Jjorth Sea manceuvres only by the Nore Squadron. The.following from tho "Standard' is typical of tho criticism which has beon indulged ,in" Homogorieity is regarded nowadays as a sine qua non in a fleotof ships intended to act together j yet the six battleships of tho Nore Fleet (represent three distinct classes—Dreadnought, London, . and Majestic— and the same is the case with the armoured cruisers, which comprise ships of : the Duko of Edinburgh, Warrior, and Leviathan classes. But this! is not tho worst. It was promised, as has* already been stated, that tho fleet should bo ' fully manned and in all respects readv for war'; and yet it has beon officially admitted that the proportion of. boys'is far greater than Ims hitherto been , regarded ns cither justifiable or safe in any sea-going fleet. How much (neater is the danger when such a state of affairs exists in a fleet which is supposed to bear the brunt of a conflict with Germany! Tiring practice is restricted within limits unknown in other fleets, and stores and arnmunition are cut down, to mich an extent that some considerable time would necessarily olapse beforfe tho ships could be completed for 6ea service."