23 JULY 1887, Page 3

Lord George Hamilton's answer to the late Chancellor of the

Exchequer's strictures was conceived in a thoroughly reasonable vein. He by no means attempted to defend the Admiralty in the usual spirit of official pedantry, though, naturally enough, he refused to apologise for the transgressions of the Department daring the last fifteen years. In stating that the real difficulty in the way of economy is the political and social pressure in- variably exercised the moment a Government attempts any retrenchment in dockyard expenditure, Lord George Hamilton mentioned the curious fact that dismissal in the case of dock- yard men is more than ordinarily difficult, since the workpeople form a sort of clan of which the families have for generations been in the employ of the Government.