STATE OF THE NAVY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 481, 14 April 1909, Page 7

STATE OF THE NAVY.

INQUIRY URGED. THE ARMY PRECEDENT. BETTER TO RE SHOCKED BEFORE THAN AFTER. Hit TEi.Eciurii.-ritr.ss association—corTitiaur.l London, April 12. Tlie Prime Minister, Mr. Asquith, has promised, to carefully, consider a letter from Lieutenant Bellnirs, Liberal member for King's Lynn, and several members of the Houses of Lords and Commons, suggesting that there should be an inquiry into tlio scope and effect of the changes in. the Navy during the last forty years. The writers suggest that the witnesses should be guaranteed that their • testimony will be treated as confidential, and as. not affecting their promotion. They urge, that it will be better to inquire before a crisis than after, as. in the case of the Army after tho Boer war.

"THE TIMES" DEFENDS ADMIRAL FISHER. London, April 12. "Tlio Times" publishes a long special article defending tho existing Admiralty system and Sir John Fisher, the First Sea Lord.

I ADMIRAL BERESFORD ON NAVAL DEFECTS. REPORT TO PRIME MINISTER. (Rcc. April 13, 9.32 p.m.) London, April 13. The "Daily Chronicle" states that Admiral Lord Charles Bcrosford has. sont to Mr.. Asquith, Prime Minister, a State paper embodying his views on the defects of tho Navy, and the conditions necessary to secure maritime supremacy.

f CHANGED NAVAL CONDITIONS. ', HAS ADMIRAL FISHER KEPT PACE? Tho indirect' suggestion of Lieutenant Bellairs and liis supporters that the Navy mightoven "might"—be somothing like 'What tho Array was at tho, time of the Boer War, will give a shock to most people. Certainly ' the. changes in naval conditions during the last forty years have been revolutionary, but an ability to meet thoso revolutionary ciiauges has always baen claimed to be part, of. Sir John Fisher's peculiar genius—at loast, so bis adI mircrs have told' us. "X," writing in tho "Daily Mail," covers all this ground as follows :— " Nominally, tho First Sea Lord is G7, Practically, if vital spirits are any index to a man's real age, he is the youngest Admiral in this or. any other service. His great opportunity did not come until he was over 60. Then, camo a day when there was offered to him the highest prize of a sailor's ambition in time of peace—tho position of First Sea Lord. But even that honour ho would only take ou terms. Revolutionary, but Constructive "He carried in his brain a full scheme of reorganisation, no believed tho. training and the distribution of the Navy to be perilously out of date. He had watched the change from wooden walls to iron, citadels packed with tremendous and exquisite machinery. Yet there had been no fundamental change since Nelson's tune in our method of training officers for their profession. There had bean a revolution in our political relations, and it was clear that the struggle of life and death in the future would be iought ia the North Sea and no other where. Yet our fleets were still organised as though the Jlediterraiie.au would be, as in tho eighteenth century, the chief scene of crisis. Our ships wero stationed nnvwhere but where we would probably have, to fight. Sir John l'ishcr o early stated his intentions. They wero approved. He came into the Admiralty to carry tllcin out. That is what he has done. His activities have been revolutionary though constructive. He has been denounced for the sheer daring and resolution of the changes he has introduced. But he was, commissioned from tho outset to effect them. That is what ho was there for. To the foreign mind, as has been said, he has appeared like nothing so much as an incarnated torpedo waiting for its warhead to be fixed on it. His Record. . "And what has he done? At Osborne ho is training the officers of the future !o handle the grim machines which have superseded for ever the old vision of masts and sails. He vastly increased efficiency while reducing expense. He struck out of the Estimates every penny which did „„ t yield real fighting most wvcilessly scrapped scores of weak vessels that could neither attack nor run. He transferred with the inspiration of nothing less than genius the system of nucleus crews, by which every n»=? If w res ? r ™~ as " ,e silc we and swiftness, of last week's great object-lesson showedcan be mobilised for war in a few hours. Above all, he swung the wholo fleet, as. it were clean round to face the tasks of the futureHorecT. msed that in the twentieth centurv, as in the no I t e 'in ee ?hlS t>e r? mi,ire wil ! be «Ved or lost! i, lu n th( ;, il < ! d'terranean, but in the North Sea. Quietly, he massed onr strength in tho narrows as until, in Admiral JfahaVs words Eighty-six per cent, of the British batt eship strength is concentrated i„ 0 r near home waters.' That settles it for the vast majority ?hit WH n r IShCTIS co,,nh '-™<*- They know . Ik , b " tt! H Sh,ps '"",' 0 K»n-pla!for : >i S , and not on.lj are. the vessels now where we ought to have then,, but the gunnery efficiency of our fleet has risen almost by leaps and bounds and never has been so formidable as to-day "