On Tuesday, the House of Commons during Government time occupied
itself with discussing the Navy Estimates. Sir Ughtred Kay-Shuttleworth announced that 76,700 men and boys would be asked for for next year, an increase of 2,600 in excess of last year, and of 7,900 over the vote of three years ago. More men were wanted as the ships built under the Northbrook Scheme and the Naval Defence Act of the last Government came into commission. An increase would also be necessary in the Marines. This increase would, indeed, go on till the total of 36,000 Marines had been reached. This is an excellent decision, for the Marines are a body of picked men, who, at an emergency, might prove most useful. The general policy of the present Board of Admiralty was to work out the programme of their predecessors. Lord George Hamilton, on the whole, accepted the statement as satisfac- tory, but feared the Government might be trying to do too much with too little money. At the evening sitting, Mr. Macartney called attention to the introduction of pleuro- pneumonia into the United Kingdom, and practically proposed that all foreign cattle should be slaughtered at the wharves. The Minister for Agriculture resisted the motion as unneces- sarily drastic, and as opposed to Free-trade principles. On a division, the motion was negatived by 186 to 151,—a majority of 35.
Previous page
