INDIA'S MOST PRESSING NEED—A NAVY.
[To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIB,—Before the storm and stress of the Home Rule and Disestablishment Bills are upon us, and while interest is still directed to India, I would draw attention to one of our most urgent problems of Empire.
Nearly fifty years ago, on April 3rd, 1863, the flag of the old Indian Navy was struck in Bombay Harbour, its head- quarters for two centuries, on the fiat of Lord Halifax, the Secretary of State for India, who acted in a fit of mistaken economy, as he afterwards owned. An attempt was made to resuscitate the service, but bad to be abandoned, as the officers, a highly qualified and experienced body of about 300 men, were scattered to the four points of the compass, and occasionally the question was mooted, but nothing was done. As the historian of the Indian Navy and its representative for forty years at all great State ceremonials, I have constantly advocated this measure of revival, and in June 1910 you pub- lished a lengthy communication from me to the same effect in support of a letter by Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge, per- haps our most thoughtful and able naval writer. Therein I gave a reswea of the services of the Indian Navy ashore and afloat from 1613, when it was raised at Surat, the East India Company's only possession, to defend its factories and com- merce against Dutch and Portuguese rivals. But I was assured then, as before, that the Admiralty would never permit the re- vival of any independent n aval service, and a famous Indian field- marshal, on reading my letter in the Spectator, wrote to me that all the money available for Indian defence was required for the Army. Now, however, with the establishment of a local Navy in Australia and perhaps in other colonies, and the increasing urgency of one exclusively to guard the vast coast line of our Indian Empire, extending over some thousands of miles from the Persian Gulf to the Straits of Malacca, with the three Presidency towns and Kurrachee and Ran- goon, all accessible from the sea, no time should be lost in establishing a special Navy for the protection of the shores and vast commerce of our Indian dependency. All the maritime nations of the world are purchasing or building Dreadnoughts and submarines, while India, with a population of 300 millions and a revenue of seventy millions, is content with a few third- class cruisers and some gunboats to guard her wealth and inde- pendence. What would an indignant public say were the fast foreign cruisers to gain a few days' start of our fleet and appear before Calcutta and the other towns I have named with a demand for an indemnity of one hundred millions sterling, failing which these ports would be reduced to ashes P The instance of the 'Alabama' shows the havoc that may be wrought by a single ship commanded by a daring seaman like Captain Semmes. More than ever now, with the Persian Gulf as the danger spot in our maritime ascendancy in the East and our hold of India, is an ever-present Navy a cardinal necessity.
Cannot India afford to pay as much for her security as Australia, or is she to be left defenceless before her potential enemies of both hemispheres P—I am, Sir, &o.,
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