On Tuesday Mr. Goschen, speaking at a Conservative banquet at
East Grinstead, dwelt with legitimate pride on the manner in which the Admiralty had equipped the Flying Squadron. The notion that the Squadron was to be sent to any special place was not well founded. It would simply remain at the orders of the Admiralty to go wherever it was wanted. To show the general efficiency of the Admiralty—of which we ourselves have no sort of doubt—Mr. Gosehen mentioned that in every yard there were apportioned to every ship in reserve all the stores that were necessary for her. " They might go through vast buildings and see the names of all the ships and all the stores that were necessary to put these ships to sea at once. They were there, docketed, labelled, ready to be put on board at a moment's notice." On the question of manning Mr. Goschen expressed himself as satisfied. They were not afraid of falling short in the number of men. While dealing with the question of men, we may note that through inadvertence we omitted to say that the figures used in our article last week were quoted from the Daily Chronicle. We must also add that while we are most anxious to see a real reserve created, we are by no means willing to let the question of more ships alone. We hold an increase of ships a vital necessity. In an emergency we might conceivably manage to improvise crews. Ironclads are entirely outside the region of improvisation. If we must choose between ships or men, it must be ships. But why not both P
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