There was an interesting discussion on Admiralty policy in the
House of Lords on Tuesday. Lord Goschen cordially approved of the numerical redistribution of the Fleet, and the action taken as to the Reserves. But while he admitted that the administrative reforms were all in the right direction, he expressed the gravest misgivings as to the results of the scheme of interchangeability which was to be the foundation of future efficiency in the Navy, and held it to be "little short of an injustice to the Service and to the public to withhold the names of those who had recommended this revolution, the terms in which it had been proposed, the evidence taken bir 'the Committee, and whether or not there was a minority Report." The whole movement grew out of the grievances of the engineers; but the remedy might prove far more serious than the grievance, and the sudden abandonment of specialisa- tion at a time when it was held by naval officers "with passionate conviction" to be more necessary than ever was incomprehensible. He appealed to a patriotic Press not to discourage criticism of the Admiralty proposals, or to treat honest criticisms as merely fractious or old-fashioned.
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