A Service paper—apparently inspired by the supporters of the Board
of Admiralty—solemnly declaree that the agitation against the Board's policy of withdrawing a large number of battleships and cruisers from full commission at sea and placing them in reserve with nucleus crews is due to the machinations of the Tariff Reform League. That astute body has, it would seem, not only been able to set the Standard in motion and to induce the Morning Poet to protest, but has actually inspired the Spectator to strike a shrewd if indirect blow for Protection! This sage suggestion is, we may add, endorsed by the Daily News. It is hardly necessary to assure our readers that the entire story is a piece of preposterous rubbish. What induced us to take the whole matter so seriously was the official Memorandum of the Admiralty in which its policy was set forth, clouded with ambiguous verbiage, no doubt, but still sufficiently clear to those who have grasped the fact that a sea-keeping ship is better than one which is laid up, or at any iste which is only occasionally allowed to go to sea. We may add that the strongest encouragement and support we have received for the line we have taken has come from Free- traders. The question, however, has in reality nothing to do with the Fiscal controversy, and we are sure that the Standard has in this case been as little influenced by any desire to attack a Free-trade Government as ourselves. If the sup. porters of the policy of the Board of Admiralty cannot find any better way of meeting our allegations their case must be indeed a weak one. The journalistic strategy displayed in this attack lacks both skill and discretion. As yet further illustrating the futility of this attempt to prejudice our criticisms of the policy of the Board of Admiralty, we may state that " Civis," the first of whose letters appears into-day's issue, is as determined and as convinced a Free-trader as ourselves.
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