CURRENT LITERATURE.
The Naval Annual. Edited by T. A. Brassey. (Griffin and Co., Portsmouth.)—This useful publication again brings some of the more important and anxious wants of the Navy before us. The Naval Defence Act, and the general interest taken in the subject, familiarised people at large with the constitution and strength of the Navy, and the weakest points in the first line of defence. Nervous people are calmed, and the speed with which a dockyard can turn out a firat-class battleship has been a solid fact that appeals to all and convinces all. Since then the construction of cruisers and torpedo-boat destroyers have been the main features of the naval programme. Quite recently we astonished our- selves and everybody else by a rapid mobilisation of a flying squadron. So far, satisfactory, and now we come to the point on which the whole of this splendid array of fighting war- ships must depend,—the efficient manning of each individual vessel. We have not enough men to man the ships properly,— no amount of writing and talking has as yet proved that we have. The editor thinks that if we can man all available ships to the extent of three-fourths of their crews with the permanent force, it is enough, and that, as the Naval Reserve grows in number and efficiency, it may be possible to reduce slightly the permanent force. It is generally acknowledged that the keeping up of a permanent force on a war footing would be a heavy drain. Lord Bra.ssey, when he spoke of this, also said that men in harbour lose their sea habits. The expense and strain would be heavy, yet think what a blow a great naval Power could strike with its available fleet and personnel ready to be thrown on an enemy at a day's notice,—a Seven Days' War would be added to history. But the idea is impracticable, we are afraid. The Naval Reserve must be strengthened by every pos- sible means, and bounties not spared,—the bounties offered during the great wars of the past were enormous. We could afford, surely, to pay them now, for we want the men. Opinions differ as to the amount of training required. We have heard Naval Reserve men confess that their month's training was absolutely inadequate; on the other hand, the editor quotes a writerjwho says that an elementary knowledge of the sea trade is all that is required of the Reserve man. It may be so, and war requires other qualities (which, fortunately, are never wanting in Englishmen) besides an intimate acquaintance with the internal organisation of these mechanical monsters of the deep, yet all this elaborate hydraulic and electrical machinery does require considerable training. The editor says that the demand for men in war time would not proceed so much from the "wastage ef war" as from the great capacity we have of supplying ships. Does not this prove how serious the question of manning is ? But the wastage of war, as we understand it, would directly put the matter to a test. In the old days a line- of-battle ship, when no longer capable of being fought, sometime3 supplied another vessel with her crew. But now a cruiser is sunk and five hundred men drown, a battleship is rammed and one thousand men go to Davy Jones, water-tight compartments and bulkhead-door notwithstanding, for we have set in motion destroying forces we cannot control. If the editor means that that particular ship will not want to put into harbour to make up her complement, we agree with him, but he is thinking of the new ships that will be added to the fleet to strengthen it,—in our opinion, to fill up the gaps left by the first naval battle. The usual chapters on ordnance, foreign progress, and the naval manceuvres are, of course, excellent. Particularly interesting are the French naval manceuvres, and it seems that though their scouting tactics might be improved, their tactics are not deficient. In our own " destroyer " manceuvres, a naval officer prophesied the extinction of the torpedo-boat, but the possibility of one destroying a battleship remains, and as long as it does, the torpedo-boat exists. The majority of them have as much sea- keeping quality as a pill-box, if we reckon the various dangers they are subject to ; but, as we have said before, men will be found to drive them to certain destruction if they can blow up a Brennus ' or a Reumberto.' In conclusion, we must thank the editor and writers of The Naval Annual for their labour,—it is a volume which ought to be in most houses.
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