§ MR. H. S. SAMUELI beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty if, having regard to the admitted want of an efficient Naval Reserve to man Her Majesty's ships and vessels under stress of war, the Government will take steps to utilise the offers which have been made by Canada, New Zealand, and Malta, to provide local Naval reserves for service in the fleet if required, or to encourage such loyal and patriotic efforts.
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTYAn exposition of the character of the offers which have been made by different Colonies in respect of the Naval Reserve cannot be put into the limits of a Ministerial answer at question time, and without explaining the offers it is impossible to explain the difficulties which surround their acceptance, and the doubts as to their providing the results desired. Generally, I may say that I would gladly utilise the seafaring population of the Colonies for increasing our power at sea, but the difficulties in the way of adopting any scheme which has up till now been brought to my notice, have thus far been insuperable.