§ SIR E. ASHMEAD-BARTLETTI beg to ask the Secretary to the Admi- 652 ralty whether it is a fact, as stated by the correspondent of The Times, at St. Petersburg, in that paper on 9th November, that the Russian Government will very shortly have six first-class battleships in the Black Sea, besides gunboats and torpedo vessels, and that there is no ship in the British Navy capable of overtaking and capturing the new Russian cruiser Rurick?
* SIR U. KAY-SHUTTLEWORTHIt is well known that when the battleships, now building in the Black Sea, are completed, the Russian fleet in that sea will consist of five first-class battleships and one second-class, besides cruisers and smaller vessels. We have no cruiser of equal size and speed with the Rurick; but the Fowerful, about to be commenced, will be of greater speed and possess heavier armament.