25 OCTOBER 1913, Page 3

Speaking at the annual Trafalgar Banquet of the Navy League

on Tuesday, the American Ambassador announced that the British Government had accepted the invitation of the American Government to be represented at the international naval procession on the occasion of the opening of the Panama Canal. It is proposed that this fleet shall assemble at Hampton Roads before proceeding to Panama and passing through the Canal, which, by a singularly happy coincidence, would he declared open in the very year which was the hundredth year of peace between all English. speaking men. The American admiral who would lead that great fleet would be able to say with Nelson that he had the happiness to command "a band of brothers."