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ADMIRAL T Y
ADMINISTRATION
[BRITISH
through the duties connected with naval gunnery, formerly elements of naval power are created, and the personal elements, with all that concerns the training of officers and in the hands of the master-general of the ordnance, and men, follow according to the necessities implied by the those of the Board of Ordnance—a department common to existence of that materiel. This is not to say that the the sea and land services—being vested in 1855 in the Secretary of State for war. A more satisfactory state of ship is more important than the company who are in her, only that the materiel of the navy constitutes the things has grown up through the appointment of the but conditions for which the personnel are embodied, organdirector of naval ordnance, taking the place of the naval ized, and trained. It will be obvious from what follows, officer who formerly advised the director of artillery at the War Office. Expenditure on ordnance has also been in regard to the shipbuilding programmes of recent years, transferred from the army to the navy estimates, and a that the development of the fleet, conducted by. the Admiralty under the authority of the I irst Lord and the Naval Ordnance Store Department has been created. It Cabinet, has been largely influenced by the voice of public cannot be said that the condition is yet satisfactory, nor opinion. A Government in power has strong inducement can it be until the navy has control of and responsibility for its own ordnance. The assistant-director of torpedoes to keep down expenditure and taxation, and the stimulus is an officer instituted at the Admiralty within recent of a strong body of public opinion appears to be necessary years, and his duty is to assist the director of naval in order to insure that the navy shall be maintained in adequate strength. This is a matter which cannot be overordnance in all torpedo matters. As to the operations of the director of dockyards little looked in any account of naval administration. In the need be said here. (See Dockyards.) This officer re- spring of 1870 Mr Childers assured Parliament that the placed the surveyor of dockyards in 1885, at about navy was sufficient for any duty it was likely to be called which time the inspector of dockyard expense-accounts on to perform—as did Lord Cardwell for the army. In was instituted. It is upon the director of dockyards June, when the Franco-German war broke out, £2,000,000 that the responsibility of the Controller devolves in regard was voted to put the armed forces in a state of efficiency, to the management of dockyards and naval establish- although the war did not directly affect Great Britain. At the time of the Russo-Turkish war great uneasiness ments at home and abroad, and to the performance of was manifested in the United Kingdom as to the sufficiency work in these establishments, ship and boat building, maintenance, repairs, and refits. In this department the of the navy, and on 25th January ,1878 a vote of credit programme for work in the dockyards is prepared, as veil of £6,000,000 was passed by the House of Commons to enable the Admiralty to make good the deficiency. as certain sections of the navy estimates. The existing programme was pushed forward, and a We now come to. the Stores Department, with the director of stores as its chief. This officer, about the year number of ships were bought, but consistent policy was still 1869, took over the storekeeping duties previously vested absent from the proceedings. Again, when the estimates of in the storekeeper-general. The Naval Store Department 1884-85 were presented uneasiness still existed, and Lord is charged with the custody and issue of naval, as distin- Northbrook said in the House of Lords that it would be an guished from victualling and ordnance stores, to be used extravagance to spend £2,000,000 in the construction of in naval dockyards and establishments for the building, large ironclads, and that the great difficulty the Admiralty fitting, and repairing of warships. It has, however, no would have to contend with, if they were granted concern with stores that belong to the Department of £3,000,000 or £4,000,000 for the purpose referred to, Works. The business of the director of stores is also to would be to decide how they should spend the money. receive and issue the stores for ships of all classes in It is true that at the time the minds of naval constructors commission and reserve, and he deals with a vast array of were not settled as to the type of vessel desirable, and objects and materials necessary for the fleet, and with coals that there were many fluctuations of opinion in regard to and coaling. He frames the estimates for his department, naval policy. But at about the same time alarm was but his purchases are made through the director of navy spread by the action of Russia upon the Afghan frontier, contracts. In practice the main business of the Stores in relation to what was known as the “ Panjdeh incident,” Department is to see to the provision of stores for the and Lord Northbrook introduced a special shipbuilding navy, and to the proper supply of these at all the estab- programme. He explained, in March 1885, that in the lishments, and for this purpose its officials direct the navy estimates for the year there would be an increase of movements of storeships, and arrange for the despatch of £800,000 for building ships by contract and carrying out colliers, the director being charged to be “ careful to pro- the programme announced in the previous December. In vide for His Majesty’s ships on foreign stations, and for addition the navy estimates of the year showed the further the necessary supplies to foreign yards.” Another im- increase of £700,000, making a total augmentation, exportant business of the director of stores is the examina- clusive of supplementary estimates, of about £1,500,000. tion of the store accounts of ships as well as some other The country had been profoundly moved by the political accounts. Although the director of stores is really in the situation abroad, and from that time may be said to department of the Controller, he is supervised in regard to date the great expansion of the fleet which has The Naval the coaling of the fleet by the junior Naval Lord. The taken place since the introduction of the Naval Defence Act I889 ’
inspector of dockyard expense-accounts has been alluded Defence Act of 1889. A powerful agitation was conducted by the press, and at length the necessity to. He is the officer charged with keeping a record of expenditure at the dockyards and of supervising expense of a great expenditure was recognized by the Government. In the previous year Lord Charles Beresford, being disaccounts. IV. The Materiel of the Navy—Recent Administration. satisfied with the provision made for the navy, had resigned Having now described the administrative system of the his seat at the Admiralty Board, proposing a programme navy, taking the preparation of the shipbuilding pro- of additional ships which he considered to be necessary. gramme as an illustration, it will be well here to recall the Many articles were contributed to the press, and a meeting recent history of naval administration in that regard. was convened in the City of London by the Lord Mayor, The shipbuilding programme is the beginning of the so that pressure was put upon the Government and the practical work of administration, because the Government Admiralty, and a five years’ programme was introduced by having shaped its policy and indicated its requirements Lord George Hamilton, then First Lord. As a ground of and the possibilities that present themselves, the material decision in regard to the naval strength required, the
