The debate on the Navy Estimates in Parliament. on Friday
week was marked bytwo eminently able and satisfactory statements. In the House of Lords Lord Selborne, after meeting the tivades of alarmists and the strictures of serious critics with a good sense and a straightforward honesty which disarmed his opponents, dealt with the ship- building programme and the measures taken to make our present ships effective. Three battleships, six cruisers, and ten destroyers make up the list of proposed new constructions. By January of next year we shall have received three ships
of the 'Crecy' class, four of the 'Formidable,' and the last two of the 'Canopus' type. More important even than the fact of new additions is the question of increasing the internal efficiency of our Navy. To this Mr. Arnold-Forster in his able and luminous statement in the House of Commons specially devoted himself. The latest appliances, both in machinery and artillery, are being tested and, when proved successful, accepted. He dealt in detail with the difficult question of boilers, and insisted on "the absolute determination on the part of the Admiralty to exhaust all that experimental science can do" in order to reach perfection on this matter. Mr. Arnold-Forster is a severe critic and by no means readily optimistic, and we therefore welcome his statement with peculiar pleasure. "We are witnessing to-day in the delivery of armour and machinery, and in the con- struction of ships, evidence that we are returning to that normal and happy state of battleship building which we have been so proud to exhibit in past years."
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