The main point, however, which Lord Brassey laboured was that
we ought to get a Naval Reserve by passing a number of boys through the service. An incidental advan- tage would be that the Navy would become a training-ground for the mercantile marine, which was suffering from the dearth of able seamen of English blood. Lord Spencer could not adopt the proposal. It would mean short service side by side with long service, and this would destroy efficiency and discipline. Possibly. In that case we would boldly press home Lord Brassey's point. The mercantile marine is suffering terribly from the want of efficient seamen, caused in a great measure by the dying out of apprentice- ship. Let us carry State-aided technical education into our most important industry, and train boys to be good sailors. In exchange for that training, let us keep the names of the boys on an English inscription maritime. In this way we should supply our mercantile marine with good material, and get a call on a large body of able-bodied seamen. If we only trained a thousand boys a year, it would be something.
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