On Tuesday, a representative meeting of City men was held
at the Cannon Street Hotel, convened by the London Chamber of Commerce, under the chairmanship of Sir A. Rollit. The Lord Mayor was to have presided, but at the last moment was prevented by an attack of bronchitis. Sir A. Rollit put the case for the immediate adoption of a new naval programme very clearly. Here are some instances of our inferiority. We have 186 torpedo-boats, and two other nations have 395. Again, on January 1st, France and Russia will have 23 ships of 210,300 tons aggregate in course of construction, and we shall have only four of 56,000 tons aggregate ; while the 'Victoria' had been lost and not replaced. Next, our cruisers are not so well armed as those of France and Russia, and our torpedo-catchers can only steam 15 knots, while the French torpedo-boats can steam 26 knots. Lastly, Gibraltar is without a proper harbour and without a repairing-dock. Hence, ships disabled in the Straits—and it is there that the great battle will be fought—would have either to go 1,000 miles to Malta to be repaired, or else to steam home to Plymouth, a distance equally great. Then 53 per cent. of our guns are of patterns more or less obsolete, and while the sailors of France and Russia have repeating-rifles, ours have not. Lastly, the numbers of' our men are inadequate. We have neither enough sailors nor engineers,— the most serious matter of all, for trained seamen cannot be improvised, spend what you will on them, The other speakers, Lord Roberts, Mr. Ritchie, and Sir John Colomb, repeated this indictment in various forms. One of the features of the meeting was the speech of Mr. Allan, M.P. (for Gates- head), who evidently feels as strongly about the Navy as any service Member, and insisted that all our ships are under- manned in the engine-room. It is a most satisfactory sign that the new Radicals are not afraid of supporting the Navy.
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