24 MARCH 1933, Page 3

Parliament . Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes : The Navy Estimates

last week produced another good speech from Sir Bolton .Eyres-Monsell, which made one wonder once again 'why he was allowed to spend so many years as a party Whip instead of being given administrative office. He modestly convinced the House that the increase in Navy estimates was Unavoidable and that the warning of a future increase given last year had not been bluff. His most. popular announcement was that of a reduction in the Admiralty staff, which he supported by a neat quotation from Pepys. It is unfor- tunate that an increase in the estimates, however inevitable, should coincide with the Government's special efforts to promote disarmament ; but the increase is, after all, only a measure of our past unilateral efforts in that direction. Members who take an interest in naval affairs are quite free from the suspicion, to which other groups are exposed, of being rabid Die-hards, and the Parliamentary success of the First Lord is due to the justifiable impression that he stands up for the Navy without shoving it down the taxpayers' throats.