THE STATE OF THE NAVY.
[lu Tus NoITOtt OF TOE • SPIV:TATOU:1 SIR,—One of the strongest reasons for a searching inquiry into naval administration lies in the loss of Parliamentary control over the Admiralty through the refusal of that body to grant to the House essential information. Even finance can scarcely be said to receive proper attention. I think the following typical example of a failure to obtain an explanation of contracts in which the profits to the firms concerned could not have been less than £600,000 in the aggregate will impress your readers. I may add that the fact that the contracts were given in this extraordinary way was never made public until the question was asked. On December 11th last year the following dialogue took place as reported in the Parliamentary Debates :— " Mr. BELLems I beg to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty whether it has not been the established custom to secure com- petitive tenders for the construction of warships from firms whose premises have been declared suitable, and whose financial position is satisfactory ; and whether, in the case of the three cruisers of the 'Invincible' class, this custom was departed from, and the three firms selected for contracts of several millions sterling, without any opportunity being given to other firms to tender.
Mr. EDMUND Itonxirrsow This question was settled by the late Board.
Mr. BELLAIRE; : Is there any continuity of policy ?
Mr. EDMUND ROBERTSON: I am not responsible for the action of the late Board.
Mr. %Luaus But are not the same Sea Lords at the Admiralty ?
Mr. EDMUND EOBIHTSON: The hon. Member can answer that for himself."
On December 18th the matter was referred to again, and Mr. Robertson said :—" I have already told the hon. Member, in
reply to a previous question on the 11th December, that this matter was dealt with by the late Board, and I do not feel in a position to make any statement as to the reasons which may have led to their• decision." In -other words, Parliament is denied all information as to why well-established practice is departed from in the case of three monster cruisers which were laid down since the present Government came into office, or less than nine months ago.
The reason why the plausible answer about keeping the designs secret was not given was that I had already shown in the House that the secrecy had broken down by the publica- tion of details of ships of the new programme in journals favourable to the Admiralty. When Engineering oh October 5th said of the ' Dreadnought': " We are freer to deal with these elements than was the case when we first described the vessel in February last, because she has now passed from the closely guarded secrecy of the dockyard to the open sea, where she meets the attack of the photographic camera—as fatal to official secrecy almost as the guns of the ' Dreadnought' will be to foreign aggressors," I maintain that the great technical journal was far too modest. On May 25th, 1905, or months before the ' Dreadnought' was laid down, it gave full particulars,—where the ship was to be built, speed, armament, displacement, muzzle energy of guns, horse- power, nature of machinery, and nature of boilers. It was all given, and we were told that "the sound judgment and immense practical knowledge of Sir John Fisher and his colleagues at the Admiralty, in combination with the vast accumulated experience of the department, is sufficient to eliminate all uncertainty as to the result, so that there need be no doubt as to ultimate success." This may be true, though I cannot help remembering that the last ship over which there was a great fuss about secrecy was the ill-fated • Captain.' I can well believe that the Dread- nought' will be able to manoeuvre with other 'Dreadnoughts,' but I have my doubts of a ship with turbines manoeuvring with the present line of ships with reciprocating engines. Instead of this being tried, she has been sent on an independent cruise, when the obvious thing was to let Admiral Wilson test her at the Lagos manoeuvres. I did not know that the wept.° test a battleship which is supposed to act with a fleet is to send her to cruise by herself, and, according to present policy, it will be 1911 or 1912 berme we shall have a fleet of ' Dreadnoughts' to act with each other as a fleet. Surely the all-important point is to ascertain the capacity of the ' Dreadnought' to manoeuvre with our most modern battleships with recipro- cating engines.-1 am, Sir, &c., CARLTON BELL/LIES.
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