In the House of Commons on Monday Mr. Arnold-Forster introduced
the Navy Estimates, which are over£34,000,000, and show an excess of expenditure of £3,000,000 over the Estimates of last year. The personnel shows an increase'of 4,600 men, and the vote for materiel has gone up by £2,000,000. " As a citizen," said Mr. Arnold-Forster, " I cannot help sharing the regret, which I am sure every Member of the House must feel, that the bitter competition and rivalry among the nations con- tinues, and makes this enormous unproductive expenditure a necessary burden." That is a sentiment with which no one will disagree, and yet there are few who would not agree equally strongly that the only path of safety lies in the increase of our naval strength both in ships and men. The discussion which fol- lowed was chiefly concerned with criticism of the new Admiralty scheme for the education of officers. Mr. Arnold-Forster, we are glad to see, strongly deprecated the exclusion of poor men's sons from the Navy. But is not one of the best ways Df letting them in to refrain from charging parents the £100 a year they are now charged while a boy is on the Britannia' ? In the end the vote for 127,100 sailors (men and boys) and for 19,806 Marines was agreed to.
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