A Ready Navy.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXV, Issue 9731, 7 January 1908, Page 4

A Ready Navy.

REMARKABLE SPEECH BY LORD CHARLES BERESFORuX

(London Daily Chronicle)

Lord Charles' Beresford' made a remarkable,, speech..on ths-statc of preparedness of the "navy 1 , at a'dinner at the Salters* Hall lecentlj, following his admission as a freeman of the company. At the outset the Admiral gave his reminiscences of the service since he joined' it, and said' that although we did! the same things now as we did then, we had to do tbem in a very different way. The life wasi far harder andf the tension greater, and' the work was extraordinarily increased. Having joined the service in 1859, he. had now had 48 years', experience in the navy. The fleets were then so large that they had to be divided into Red, White, and' Blue Squadrons, and his chief of staff reminded him only the other day that with the great fleet of a hundred l vessels he had! in the North Sea it would be wise to have red-, white, and. blue fleets; again. He remembered that when, as a boy he climbed out of a I wherry into am old ship, the boatswain's mate said, "I'nat poor little beggar ain't. long for this world'."—(Laughter.) He had been/ on every station- to which ships were sent- and in. every colony except British Guiana. Things were much altered! now; we did the same things, but employed different methods. Now instead of daiis we had! steam and eleci tricity. The guns' on. the ship on which he first ! served were 32-pouriders, the same that Xelsora had on the Victory, and they had lire discharges of from 41bs to lOlbe,' the explosion being rather like -that of a popgun. Now we had 12-inch guns for [ shot like an avalanche, and every discliM'Se was like a volcano eruption. The projectile weighed! over 8001bs, and the : charge was- 2541bs cordite. These guns \ required more practice and more care than 1 the guns of the old days. The men were the same; they had the same ideas of pluck and chivalry, and- the same respect for discipline as they ever liad. Since the days' when he joined we had started other methods of warfare. We had get underwater warfare and torpedoes which had a range of three thousand yards and a speed of forty knots; we had got wireless, we had got a shocking amphibious animal called 1 ■ submarine, of which we were very frightened, as <ve had not tried it yet in "warfare. Then we had- mines' wliich a man might strike in the open sea, and all the ship could do if -she hit one was to sink, and the crew would play "God, Save the King."— (Laughter.) Another operation which spoiled their appearance very much was that of coaling, which was a. very essential operation, and it was. the life and death of the fleet. The great* thing was to get the coal into the bunkers as quickly as they could, and get outside again in case an enemy mi "lit be there. We had also got the torpedo destroyer, on which they could not i lio, they could not cat, they could not do anything. Still they had got officers aiid men tumbling over each other to get into these boats, because they knew itwould be the most-.desperate work in war. He wanted to say a word on seamanship. Thene was an idea prevalent that seamanship had passed because we had got rid of masts and sails, but he would say it was nothing of the sort. Seamanship required more knowledge than in tire old d'ays, -creator quickness of the eye, and a quicker turn, of the helm and instant decision of action. If a young lieutenant gave a wrontr turn to the helm he might lose three millions to the State, aixf, what was more important, 18C0 men. Seamanship required more nerve, and, of course, .there was greater tension.

The other night on manoeuvres, when they were very hard at it all the time in practising war, he must say he was proud of his brother officers and men. They were nractising to try and train themselves for what would occur in war. They were steaming at great speed- with lights out looking for each other, an operation requiring the greatest nerve possible for men in action. I Strategy, continued Lord Charles, meant making out beforehand what they were going to do in war. They must have a clear perception of what was aoihg to be done. They must look out all the ships they were going to eeind', and where they had to be cent, and what they were going to do when they got there. They must look out their norts, make their -plans for relief and for lines- of communication. Success- in war depended upon the accuracy and forethought of their action in time of peace. In these days our strategy should be perfect, because they were the days of a quick line of communication, of steam, and' speed; in other words, as the Americans said, "That ileet can get." Therefore we ought to have everything ready and everything prepared before we go to war.—(Cheers.) "With regard to strategy, with regard to war, if ever we were, called upon, that side, would win which has prepared itself best, in peace. - There'was*a .strategicil side cind there, was a tactical side. The two arts were totally distinct. Tactics required' continual practice night and day. Whenever a fleet went "to sea it should steam from one port to another, but always use its coal under circumstances which represented war. Send out the cruisers, have tactics, divide the fleets one against the other, and' then we were utilising .the fleet properly. That did not cost anymore money. The preparation of the fleet did not cost any more money than the original sum voted for it. Tactics was am art that could not be bought. Tactics are important for this reason : I take an ironclad 1 fleet of fourteen vessels, and have another ironclad fleet of eight vessels. If once the eight vessels come on their oiT-oneuts and get on their flank and rear thoy must win, although they are inferior in numbers, because they can fire all their guue and cross the T as it is called', of "their opponents, who .. can only fire the guns of one of their ships, and who can never get at them. Ail formations are upset when once the T is crossed, and that teaches us the very necessary idea ot practice in peace what we have to do in war.

Another very great point, and perhaps more important than the others, was- the maintenance of the very best comradeship with each other. The officers must have confidence in each other. They must be gocd-fiatured under discipline and be good comrades in every way. He had never believed hi exalting himself for a moment at the expense of one of his comrades. It was the greatest, point to maintain in our great navy, and tended to the efficiency of the service and the safety of the nation. .

We had administration now as we had then. We now took a good deal more care oveT the comfort and convenience of the men than .we used to do. We tried' to run our fleets by commendation,

and not by condemnation, and the consequence was. that the officers' and men. had more confidence .and far more respect in each other. There was a great deal more leave eiven. to the men, and they were treated now like human beings. Tlio consequence was that there was less drunkenness and a great deal less insubordination than when he joined the service. We miaht have what sized' ships we

liked, and as many as wc liked, the most aa-mor, the most-boilers and engines, but we had to remember that it was the human element that won. And that was wiry the auestion of comradeship was so important "in the navy. -They could not Sn better than follow the example set by Ne'son : Nelson and his cantaihs were like"brothers. He (Lord Charles) did not forget, and no admiral should forget when hj» "arrived at that-position of great responsibility, th'at he owed it to those who served under him, and helped l him to eet there. - These remarks about the navy were not bclliccoe remarks : they all referred: to one point ; that our navy was there, and that we "paid for our navy as insurance for peace. It bad to fieht if. necessary, to be prepared to fhrhVif necessary, and, if thoroughly well prepared', would win. But the greatest wish in this country was for peace, because if we went to war, there would be a tremendous disturbance in our trade, in- commercial matters, and in' our securities. _ . "It.is your business, and! it is our business," concluded 1 Lord Charles, "to have our navy in such a, state that, war is impossible: an* .any country that does provoke war, our sense of security and practical state of preparation will pulverise that country if they dkre to molest us." ■ ■ .