BRITISH NAVAL STRENGTH.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1414, 22 November 1904, Page 3

BRITISH NAVAL STRENGTH.

A paper by Lord Brassey on "Our Naval Strength and the Navy Estimates," is opportune at the present juncture. Lord Brassey points out that in 1901-5 the expenditure for tho navy be in round figures £l'2,000,000, and ho echoes the words addressed by Mr Chamberlain to tiho representatives of tho colonies at the coronation conference : "The weary Titan groans beneath the orb of his too vast fate." The expert indicates one or two directions m which he thinks (hat a reduction in tihe expenditure may be safely made. The permanent force of the British Navy, lie says, is too large, and tho reserves too few. There are 4300 commissioned oflicers in the British Navy, exclusive of midshipmen, cadets, and warrant, oflicers, while tihero are 100,113 bluejackets, 47-1 marine olhcers, and l'J,lo(> marines. But the reserves number only lio,ooo men. France, on the other hand, with less tihan half tho number of commissioned olliccrs and bluejackets, has 100,000 men on the rolls of the reserve, and Germany has 71,000 trained men in her "naval service. Lord Brassey thinks that for many of the lobs on board a battleship intelligent landsmen or men with a small amount of sea training would be. equally ellieient and less costly than the highly-trained men, which it is now ihe rule to require. The United States, ho points out, makes a far greater use of untrained men for jobs of unskilled labor on board of ship that Croat Britain does. Lord Brassey considers that the reservesare starved with a vote of onlv £ 101,000. while a sum of £10,000,000 is voted for tlio permanent service. He advocates train hit; a portion of the army as an amphibious force, by q'uaidoring certain regiments permanently at naval ports . and lie suggests that men for the stokehold should be recruited from the tropical races. Lord Brassey goes exhaustively into technical 'questions of construction and engineering. With a view to curtailing expenditure the only way that it can be done effectively he urges that 'new responsjjiyiilics should not be undertaken. The British Empire is at present big enough to tax.all the resources of (he British Navy, and the acquisition of fresh territory must mean fresh naval expenditure, which the nation can ill afford. 1