NAVY ESTIMATES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 214, 4 June 1919, Page 5

NAVY ESTIMATES

WARSHIPS TO BECOME MERCHANTMEN FIRST LORD'S REViEW The House of Commons took up the Navy Estimates on March 12, and M>\ Walter Long made his first statement on the affairs of the Admiralty. He had r.n pronouncement of policy to make, and ins speech was necessarily of a very general character. The handicap on thn First Lord was made more severe by the apparent indifference of the larger part of the House of Commons. The Chamber was Aot half full while Mr. Long was speaking, the most noticeable grips b'/ng in the ranks of the Oppbsitkm group*. The Story of the Navy. Mr. Long devoted the first part of lus speech to a review of the work whirlt tue Navy had dune during tho war. He promised the Housg that it shouid soon be: placed in possession of a statement on the subject which the Board of Admiralty were preparing. It would bo a plain, straightforward statemeut, he eaid, but the etory was one of the most wonderful that had ever been told. By way of illustration,, he gave • the following colossal figures of military eea tran.-s----port from August, 1911, to March :', liU9:—

Personnel:— ' . Effectives, 23,388,228. Non-effectives, 3,336,241. Prisoners, including sick and wound- . Ed, 192,899. Animals, 2,'>G4,lM. Vehicles, 512,100. Militasp stores:— British, 47,992,839 tons Allied, 4,861,811 tons. After claiming that the surrender of the German Meet was a greater iiaVal victory than anything that we could have achieved by battle, Mr. Long oxplainc-d the circumstances in which ho was asking for Estimates amounting for the full year -to £149,200,000. • It was iin possible, he urged, for the Admiralty to present detailed Estimates until ' tlift Peace Conference had settled the general scheme of world armaments of the future. In any case, the Admiralty intended to work down from the figures which he was submitting to the House. For example, tho figure of 250,000 men in the Estimates was a maximum, and it would eteudilj go down. It was his hopo that more definite Estimates would bt prosented in June or July.

Cutting Down Construction. „ J n . e T most , interesting paesago in the iiftt Lords speech-was'that in which he told the House how the Admiralty vrere cutting down construction. He had a long list of ships of al! kinds which hsd been cancelled since November 11. It included three battleships, Howe, Rodney, and Anson, which wero being built under contract. These wero being cleared as rapidly as possible for use as merchant ships. There were also on the list light cruisers, minelayers, destroyers, submarines, and auxiliary vessels of f' k : iu £s In the dockyards, too, the Admiralty were making all the reduclabour With ° Ut dislocatin B Turning to the human factor, Mr. Long nnvi , !!'" 1 ,m' hIS I™ 1 «d™B Were ?hl T, i ' a u CV ? rj ' opportuny should be given for promotion from tho lower deck. Concerning the pay of of the Jorram Committee would he completed before tho end of March. In any eveut, the Board of Admiralty had made it perfectly phin that there must he .i considerable advance. In his vioiv, the case for revision of the officors , pay wajust as strong As for half-pay, he fell that tho question had to he dealt with m a very drastic manner, in order tli/it a rank mjustice might he removed,

Conditions on the Lower Deck, A good deal wns said about the conditiona ot the lower deck in the debate Mr. George Lambort declared from the front Opposition bench that at tho end of last year there was grave unival in the Navy, and preparations weru being made for ft very striking act of insuU ordination this year, not because of war weariness or disloyalty to their officers but- because of accumulated grievances about pay and other thiuss. He asserted that it was only tho tact of tho officers that averted trouble, and asked whether it was not possible to devise some machinery by which the men might make thoir grievances known.

A feature of the debate was the intervention of sevoral members who had been on aclivo service with JJie Navy cUiring the war. Mr. Norman Craig, for exumple, spoke of the light-hearted and irresponsible way in which tho naval defence of the Umpire was conducted in pre-war days, and expressed a doubt whether we ever deserved to win. Ho insisted that tho periT to this country at the outbreak of the war wns far more real than the country knew. Viscount C'urzon dealt with the question of pay. and described the position of eoruo of the officers as absolutely desperate. "They had to spend their savings," he said,"give up their life assurance policies, borrow money, and have their wives and children living on oharity." Before tho debate opened, Eear-Admiral Sir Reginald Hall hod taken tho oath, on his election for a Liverpool division. The welcome which the Housq gave to tho distinguished sailor wns the more cordial' for the perfect timing of the movements of the new member and his Bponeore in the ceremonial advance up tho floor of the Chamber to the table. The oldest member could not reoall when the familiar sceno had been so perfectly enacted. But when later in the evening Sir Reginald Hall rose to make his maiden speech, it wns to hear a sailor speaking of tho sea that members crowded into the House. They soon found that Sir Reginald Hall was a very different type ot man from Lord Beresford and Sir Hedworth Meux. Scorning their breezy style, he made a bnsinets-like speech on tho very practical question of the lower deck. Thore was general approval for his expression of the hopo that before lone it would be possible for a man of the lower deck to reach tho very highest rank.