Mr. Goschen, in his reply, met Sir William Harcourt's criticism
very well when he asked him squarely whether he was or was not in favour of our keeping pace with our rivals among foreign Powers. Mr. Goschen made another good point when he complained that people who compared our Navy with that of France always counted as effective French vessels which were well known to be obsolete or else failures. To support this he quoted from M. Lockroy's very scathing criticisms of his own ships. " There are," said Mr. Goschen, " many obsolete ships and many indifferent ships in other navies besides our own." As to the much criticised Belleville boilers, it was an absolute fact that there had been no trouble with the boilers whatever, but only with the engines driven by the boilers. The net result of the discussion was to show that the House, like the nation as a whole, feels that the Navy cannot be too strong, and is willing to spend anything it is asked to spend upon that without which we should cease to be a nation.
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