[To ray EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—There are twenty-one points upon which the opponents of the Admiralty are silent. Since October 21st, 1904, the gunnery of the British Fleet has doubled in accuracy at long range,—an improvement equivalent to a reinforcement by half of the Fleet. At battle-practice the average ship to-day shoots better than the best ships four years ago. The Admiralty took gunnery out of swaddling clothes, and by giving Rear-Admiral Sir Percy Scott a free hand, the result is bewildering.
The disposition and management of the Fleet have produced just the opposite effect in Germany to that produced on the minds of critics at home. The evidence of this is to be found in the significant courtesy and moderation now characteristic of the Press of Hamburg, Bremen, and the Haase regions. .Anglophobia to-day finds expression only in South Germany, where the people are in no danger of maritime attack in time of war. The Kaiser's naval policy has broken down ; and so far from the German Dreadnoughts' being laid down, as stated by Mr. H. W. Wilson, within a month from November 15th, the plans have not yet been settled, and even the armament was not ordered a few weeks ago. The big ships will not be laid down for some months. Why ? Because the policy of our Admiralty has compelled a halt in Germany.
The other reforms effected by the Admiralty are as follows :—The engineers have been quieted; the status of warrant officers and petty officers has been improved; instruc- tion at Whale Island has been reorganised with the happiest effects ; the pay of the higher gunnery ratings has been increased; the captains of the guns are specially trained; naval cadets receive modern training ; regular instruction in navigation has been started; brigs have been abolished; sea- going ships have been added to the establishment for naval cadets ; a naval school of music has been started ; Greenwich College has been modernised ; the school of submarine train- ing has been started; the physical training now in force is the best in the world and has produced marked effects on the Fleet; signalling has been vastly improved; the status of Marine officers has been changed into one that enables them to take their share of ordinary ship duties ; mechanical train- ing has been introduced into naval barracks; officers and men are trained in mechanics ; the fighting fleets have been con- centrated, useless squadrons abolished, and the ships that can neither fight nor fly placed on the scrap-heap.
The effect of these reforms, according to the belief of German officers, is that England enjoys to-day not a two- but a four-Power standard; and the relations between Germany and England, being now founded on the respect of the latter by the former, are improving every day.—I am, Sir, &c.,
ARNOLD WHITE.
[The improvement in gunnery is an immense gain, and great credit must be given to Mr. Arnold White for having kept the matter so constantly before the public. We may point out, however, that such improvements come, not from suppressing criticism and inquiry in regard to the state of the Navy, but from encouraging them.—En. Spectator.]
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