HC Deb 06 May 1889 vol 335 cc1247-8
MR. CREMER (Shoreditch, Haggerston)

I beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty whether his attention has been called to a speech reported in the Times as having been delivered at the Institution of Civil Engineers on the 11th ult. by the Senior Naval Lord of the Admiralty (Sir Arthur Hood), in which there occurred the following passage:— He first denied positively that the Navy was in an inefficient state; further, he asserted that the Navy at this moment was in a better state of preparation for war than it had been at any time for the past 20 years, and, if so, whether these statements were made with the sanction of the Board of Admiralty?

ADMIRAL MAYNE (Pembroke and Haverfordwest)

I beg to ask whether at the same time Sir A. Hood did not say that a large increase of the fleet was necessary to bring it up to its proper relative strength in 1874?

LORD G. HAMILTON

The two sentences quoted by the hon. Gentleman were used by Sir Arthur Hood, and they merely express what, both in this House and outside, I have frequently before said. They do not refer to the sufficiency of existing naval establishments.