The mobilisation of the huge fleet which is to carry
out this year's naval manceuvres has been a great success, the neces- sary work having been done quickly and well. The plan of operations is a very interesting one. We are supposed to be at war with a Continental Power, and a convoy of British merchant ships carrying our food supplies is crossing the Atlantic under a small escort. The enemy sends out a fleet to intercept the convoy, and we despatch a fleet to guard Why defeating the hostile and intercepting squadron. The enemy relies, however, upon a large number of torpedo-boats issuing from the Irish ports and harassing and destroying our fleet, while his fleet captures the convoy. We, on the other hand, rely upon our destroyers being able to settle matters with the torpedo-boats, and thus, in the words of the Pall Mall Gazette, whose able résumé of the plan we have condensed, "to give free play to our sea-going ships." The real battle is thus one of torpedo-boats v. destroyers, and the results cannot but be very interesting. Our future policy in regard to the con- struction of destroyers will no doubt depend to a very large extent on the lessons of the manceuvres.
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