APPENDIX II. STATEMENT EXPLANATORY OF THE NAVY ESTIMATES, 1907-1908. The Estimates presented to Parliament show a reduction of 1,000 men, from 129,000 in 1906-1907 to 128,000 in 1907-1908, and, as I explain below, a reduction of 1,427,091., from 31,869,500l. to 30,442,4091. The Vote for Works must be dealt with separately in the consideration of this year's Estimates, because a new policy has been adopted with regard to them. has been resolved that there shall be no more Loan Bills to complete the large Works authorised under the series of Works Loan Acts ending in 1905, but that an expenditure under the heads there detailed shall be charged on the Votes of each year. The estimate for Works schduled in the Loan Act of 1905 has been carefully reviewed with the object of reducing it to the lowest limit consistent with the requirements. of the service. Certain items of Works not actually begun have been struck out. Some of them may eventually require to be carried out, and will then be considered for future inclusion in the Works Vote. Of the funds authorised by Loan Acts already passed, about 1,916,000l. will still be available on the 1st April, 1907. With the objects of completing as many Loan Works as possible out of Loan Funds, and of affording some relief to the Ordinary Estimates of 1908-9, it is proposed that this balance should be thus approximately distributed : £ In 1907-8 In 1908-9 1,478,000 438,000 The total expenditure for Works, including a charge for machinery hitherto met by loan, will stand thus for 1907–8 :: The Admiralty have thus to bear this year an increase of 120,000l. on annuity to repay loans, and 977,000l. to pay for Works, a charge which, until this year, was found from money specially borrowed under the Loan Acts which sanctioned them. While, therefore, the total Estimate of 31,419,500l., compared with last year's total of 31,869,500l., shows a reduction of only 450,000l., the actual reduction of the Board of Admiralty have been able to effect in their Estimate for Naval expenditure for the coming financial year amounts to 1,427,0917. New construction for the year will cost 8,100,000l., as against 9,235,000l. for 1906-7, the corresponding reduction on the Ordnance Vote being 497,500%. Administration. The changes in the conduct of business at the Dockyards, introduced 18 months ago, have worked smoothly and well, and I think the nation has now every reason to be satisfied that the administration of its Dockyard work is conducted in a businesslike and practical manner. A reorganisation has been effected whereby the office of Chaplain of the Fleet in again combined with that of Chaplain of Greenwich Hospital, and the work of Isspector of Naval Schools, hitherto performed by the Chaplain of the Fleet, has been transferred to the Director of Naval Education. On the retirement of Sir Henry Pilkington, under whose able charge the vast series of Loan Works has been carried out during the past 12 years, the Director of Works has been invested with the additional office of Civil Engineer-in-Chief of the Loan Works, and has amalgamated, for the period remaining for their completion, the Works Loan Department with his own. The Admiralty has suffered during the year, and has to contemplate in the near future Sir Gordon Miller, Accountant-General of the serious loss among its highest officers. Navy, died suddenly in his room at the office, and the Admiralty has to mourn the loss of a most energetic and capable public servant. Sir David Gill, Astronomer at the Cape, has just retired after a service under the Admiralty of 28 years, during which he has made himself a reputation second to none in the scientific and astronomical world. and has brought the Observatory at the Cape to a condition of efficiency which can hardly be surpassed. The close of the present financial year coincides with the retirement, under the age limit, of Sir Evan MacGregor, G.C.B., Permanent Secretary at at the Admiralty under eight Administrations, after 47 years' service in the Admiralty and 23 years as Permanent Secretary. To the Department and the Service Sir Evan MacGregor's name has long been a household word, and he will, I am sure, carry into his retirement the best wishes of all who have been his colleagues and subordinates during his long and distinguished period of public service. A difficulty arose early in the year owing to the interference caused by the London County Council Electric Generating Station at Greenwich with the Royal Observatory. After considerable discussion, a joint committee, presided over by Lord Rosse, and containing representatives from the Admiralty (Dr. J. A. Ewing, Director of Naval Education) and from the London County Council (Sir Benjamin Baker, K.C.B.), was appointed to investigate the matter, and their report has just been presented to Parliament. The thanks of the Government are due to the committee for their labours and for the suggestions made by them to alleviate the difficulties arising from vibration, and for minimising the interference to observations from vapour issuing from the chimneys. The Admiralty are prepared to accept the recommendations of the committee as satisfactorily meeting the present needs of the Observatory, provided that they are faithfully carried into effect in the working of the London County Council electrical installation at Greenwich. Personnel. The changes in the establishment of the War Course College which have been in progress during the past year were completed in November 1906 by the commissioning of H.M.S. Terpsichore at Portsmouth as the headquarters of the War Course College, in command of Captain E. J. W. Slade, M.V.O., R.Ñ., under whose superintendence the courses had previously been conducted. The War Courses had been started earlier in the year at the Port, in the building which had been at one time the School of Naval Architecture and which required only small structural alterations in order to adapt it to its new purpose. The War Course College as now constituted will be in the same position as the gunnery and torpedo establishments, and will rank among the Fleet services and no longer among the purely education services with which it was at first associated. In placing the headquarters of the War Course College at Portsmouth care has been taken to provide for the continuance of modified courses at Devonport and Chatham, where lectures have been given on strategy, tactics, naval history, and international law, and modern improvements in marine engineering, besides other naval and military subjects. One full course was held last year at Portsmouth, which was attended by 38 Naval Marine, and Military officers. The course which commenced in October has been attended by 40 officers. The full war course at headquarters has been extended to four months, and lectures were given during the course on the following subjects :-marine engineering, naval history, international law, tactics, trade, wireless telegraphy, organisation of signal stations, armour plates and explosives, telegraph cables, mining, gun mountings, control of fire and effects of fire, combined operations and coast defence, battle practice. Representations having been made that existing Engineer officers under the orders promulgated since 1902 have not been given certain advantages which they had been led to expect at the time the new scheme of entry and training was promulgated, and it being also desirable to ascertain whether further instructions are necessary with a view to the qualification of officers for duties with the Royal Marines under the new scheme, a committee consisting of Executive, Engineer and Marine officers has been appointed to consider the matter. Their enquiry has only just been completed, and their report has not yet been laid before the Board. It is not, therefore, possible to indicate the nature of their recommendations. The education of Naval Cadets under the system introduced in 1903 is making satisfactory progress. The first batch of cadets will complete their educational course on shore, and leave Dartmouth for training in a seagoing cruiser after next summer term. The most recent reports from the officers and masters at Dartmouth confirm in a remarkable way the anticipations formed of the present method of selection of candidates, which has settled down from being a tentative experiment into a permanent system. The cost of the thorough education given at the two Naval Colleges obliges the Admiralty to call upon the parents for a substantial contribution towards it; but in the case of officers of the Navy and Army who can show that the fees paid are a serious burden, a large reduction is made in the charges. The question of finding means to extend this privilege of reduction of fees to such other parents as may need it deserves careful consideration. One Exhibition for this purpose has already been provided through the generosity of a private donor. Possibly county or other public authorities may be led to follow this example and that of the Argyll Fund, founded for the benefit of Scottish boys, and provide for naval cadets who belong to their several districts. I have already stated that the number of men has been reduced by 1,000. The present number of seamen borne is in excess of requirements, while the number of stokers is still less than is needed for manning the Fleet. The entries of boys have therefore been continued at the same reduced total as last year, viz. :-1,500, and this has permitted of the entry of a large portion of the stokers required to make good the deficit. As the seamen drop to the required strength, the stokers will be increased. This process, however, takes time, as notwithstanding the popularity of the Royal Fleet Reserve, only a limited proportion of men can be allowed to take their transfer to the Reserve before the completion of their ordinary engagements. As compared with last year there is really a rise in Vote 1 (Pay and Wages) of 175,5001. Notwithstanding the reduction in numbers, this increase is inevitable and at the same time satisfactory, owing to the reduced force containing a larger proportion of mature men and higher paid ratings and also to the fact that the effect of the grant in recent years of better pay and allowances is not felt all at once. Such increases in pay are on a gradual scale, and at present the general tendency to rise is not counter-balanced by the reduction in numbers of young and first entries. A new plan of issuing clothing in kind instead of a money gratuity to new entries has involved the transfer of a sum of 116,500l. from Vote 1 to Vote 2 (Victualling and Clothing), and consequently the Estimates only show an increase of 59,000l. in the actual Vote for Wages. The question of rating, advancement, and conditions of service of Seamen and Petty Officers has been carefully reviewed during the year, and certain proposals, having for their principal object the improvement in the position and responsibility of the Petty Officer, are now under consideration with a view to their adoption in the course of the coming financial year. At the same time it is proposed to establish a new rating of Telegraphist for working the wireless telegraph instruments, independently of the Signal branch, which has hitherto conducted those duties. From the 1st April last a new system of training for the Royal Naval Reserve was introduced, its main feature being the substitution of modern ships at the Home Ports for shore batteries as the place for carrying out drill and training. By the end of 1906 some 1,300 men and 186 officers accepted service under the new system. Recruiting for the Royal Naval Reserve was reopened in November, and in the coming year it is proposed to enter 1,000 seamen and stokers, sixty engine room artificers, and eighty officers. The introduction of the gratuity of 50l. after twenty years' service, in lieu of pension at the age of sixty, has been apparently much appreciated, as practically all the men who completed the necessary service since the 1st April, have elected to take the gratuity. The Commanding Officers of His Majesty's ships in which the Royal Naval Reserve men have been embarked for training report satisfactorily on the men. 530 seamen and 230 stokers have been embarked for training since the 1st April, 1906, in addition to the 587 stokers who served during the manœuvres, some of whom elected to count this service in lieu of their biennial training. In the spring of 1906 some 120 of the 590 men forming the Newfoundland Reserve visited England during an extended cruise on board three of His Majesty's ships. The most favourable impression was created by their general appearance, and the Commodore in command of the squadron reported in high terms as to their conduct and efficiency. Good reports are received from the Colonies of the other branches of the Naval Reserve there established; and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve at home continues to justify the high expectations which were formed of this body when first raised three years. An inter-departmental conference is now in session to consider whether any modifications can be made in the present system of Revenue Protection and the use of the Coast Guard, with a view to reducing the cost falling upon Naval Votes. The conference has not yet concluded its deliberations, and any recommendations which may be made will receive careful consideration both from a naval manning point of view, and also from the point of view of ensuring that adequate provision is made for the life-saving services as well as revenue services. As indicated in last year's Statement, the training of boy artificers and mechanicians has been reorganised on the new lines the former has been concentrated at Portsmouth and Chatham, and the latter at Devonport. The placing of these training establishments under the control of an Inspecting Captain has been attended by good results, and there is every reason to believe that the scheme of training, now well established, will fulfil the expectations entertained by those who initiated the policy. Candidates of good qualifications are presenting themselves for training as mechanicians, and though a small proportion have had to be eliminated in the early stages of their training, the remainder have shown themselves fully competent to meet the demands of the instructors. It has not been possible yet to test the mechanicians who have been trained with a view to their undertaking duties in the Engine Room, as the men who were put through the new course of training have only just been drafted to seagoing ships. The same may be said of the boy artificers. Those first entered have only just completed their four years' course, and arrangements are now being made for them to join ships for their first work as engine room artificers of the 5th class. With one or two exceptions they have passed out of the training establishments with credit. During the past year an enquiry has been made into certain questions connected with canteens on board ship and the victualling of the Fleet. It is hoped that the result of this enquiry, when carried into effect in combination with the reforms now being carried out in the cookery arrangements of the Fleet, will remove, or at least greatly reduce certain existing shortcomings. I am glad to be able to report a very striking increase in the improvement already begun under former Administrations in the gunnery of the Fleet. In Battle Practice, by which the gunnery organisation of the ship as a whole is tested, and which is therefore the best criterion of efficiency, the average number of hits per ship in 1906 was practically double that of the previous year, although the conditions in the last year were considerably more difficult than before, the mean range being 1,000 yards greater, and the time available for firing one minute less. In the Test of Gunlayers with heavy guns, which is a necessary preliminary to Battle Practice, but during which the efficiency of the gunlayers and guns' crews alone is tried, the average number of points obtained per man was 68 26 in 1905, as compared with 80-065 in 1906, or, comparing the percentage of hits to rounds fired, it was 56.58 against 71 12. In the Test of Gunlayers with Light Quick Firing Guns the percentage of hits to rounds fired rose from 21.63 in 1905 to 34 53 in 1906. In the Battle Practice of the torpedo boat destroyers there was a corresponding increase in efficiency, the percentage of hits to rounds fired being 20 02 in 1905 and 34 60 in 1906. It is particularly satisfactory that the improvement is general throughout the Fleet, and not by any means confined to a picked selection of crack ships. The greatest credit is due to all the officers and men who have worked together to produce this result. Shipbuilding and Repairs, The new construction for the year will cost 8,100,000l., as against 9,235,000l. for 1906-7. It will include two or, unless an understanding between the naval powers be arrived at by the Hague Conference, three large armoured vessels of the Dreadnought type. They will be of slightly larger displacement than the Dreadnought, and full advantage will be taken of experience of the Dreadnought in carrying out the details of their construction, motive power, and armament. One fast unarmoured cruiser, five ocean-going destroyers, twelve first-class torpedo boats, and twelve submarine boats are also provided for. 7,340,6187. will be spent on the continuation of ships already begun; 759,3827. in beginning new ships; of this 107,100l. will be devoted to the fast unarmoured cruiser to be laid down at Pembroke, 307,4821. on torpedo vessels and submarines, 344,800l. on new large armoured vessels. Between the 1st April, 1906, and the 31st March, 1907, the following ships will have been completed and become available for service : : 4 Battleships (Africa, Britannia, Hibernia, Dreadnought). 3 Armoured Cruisers (Achilles, Cochrane, Natal). 7 First-class Torpedo Boats. 11 Submarines. Floating Dock for submarines. |