THE NAVY.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 314, 8 June 1888, Page 3

THE NAVY.

*•' The London correspondent of the Argus writes ; —We are just now hearing weekly of an addition to the Heavy. The latest is the Victoria, which will he the largest ship afloat. She has been built by Armstrongs, and carries, or will carry, two 110-ton guns. I say will carry because we are woefully behind with our guns. The Globe says: “(1) That at Portsmouth the new and improved ironclads Collingwood, Howe, Anson, and Camperdown are practically completed for sea, hut are without guns, and that when the gtins will be ready is quite uncertain; (2) that at Chatham the com\f pletion of the belted cruisers Australia and Narcissus is L Jug delayed, and the work almost at a standstill, r ecauso c" tho non delivery v f their 22-ton guns from Woolwich; and (3) that two of the

Spithead forts, after all those years have up to the present been furnished with o. !y four instead of the 59 heavy guns they have been built to mount.” These are serious charges, but they are very likely true. And this week the Times’ correspondent at Calcutta telegraphs that the condition of tho artillery in India is simply shameful. Tho gv s are a'f obseleto, and were tho laughing stock of tho foreign critics who were present at the recent Delhi manouvres. Clearly there is groat scope for Lord Randolph and hls reforming satellites.