Administration.—The control of the navy is vested in the Admiralty, composed of a first lord, six lords commissioners and two secre taries. The present organization dates from 1912. The first lord, who is invariably a civilian and a member of one of the Houses of Parlia ment, represents the navy in the cabinet and in the legislature. He is responsible for the general direction and supervision of all business relating to the navy, political and board ques tions, prombtions and removals, appointment of admirals and commanding officers, etc. The at tached salary is $25,000. The First Sea Lord is an active, experienced admiral and is responsi ble for making preparations for war; he ad vises on all large questions of naval policy. His salary, like that of the second, third and fourth lords, is $7,500. The Second Sea Lord attends to the manning and training of the fleet, de tails of complements of ships and establish ments, barracks, education, coastguards, re serves, hospitals and discipline. The Third Sea lord is responsible for machinery, armor, guns, aeroplanes, airships, dockyards, construction, etc. The Fourth Sea Lord deals with trans port services, including hired auxiliary vessels other than armed cruisers; coaling, victualirg, payments, allowances, pensions, etc. The Civil Lord. who is not a naval man, controls works, buildings, purchases of land, dock police, etc. There is further an additional sea lord, whose duties are chiefly connected with contracts for machinery, salvage, disposal of obsolete ships, etc. The parliamentary and financial secretary deals with all matters of finance. estimates, ex penditure, accounts, purchase of ships, stores, and payment for hire of auxiliary vessels. The permanent secretary controls the general office organization of the various departments and conducts correspondence with foreign naval at tachés. The Committee of Imperial Defence consider questions of imperial defence from the point of view of the navy, army, India and the self-governing states of the empire. Canada, Australia and New Zealand make direct con tributions to the navy, and the Federated Malay States also provided the cost of a battleship.
Naval Policy.— There has been consider able discussion in recent years as to the disposi tion and use of the navy in time of war. One side contended that the main strength of the navy should be concentrated in home waters. The so-called Water School," on the other hand, maintained that it was the duty of the fleet to be there where a possible enemy's fleet was located, whatever part of the world that might be. Until recent years Great Britain maintained strong squadrons on the China sta tion and in the Mediterranean. The Anglo Japanese Agreement enabled Britain to with draw her fleet from the former position, and the Entente Cordiale with France from the latter. Since 1905 the main strength of the British navy has been concentrated in the North Sea and in the Channel, in view of the growing menace of the German navy. Subsequent events have proved that this last was the better ar rangement, for it enabled the navy to apply an effective blockade of the German coasts the mo ment war was declared. As has happened so frequently during its long history, the British navy instantly became the predominant factor in the great struggle. The gigantic armies of Germany, Austria, France and Russia, number ing a possible 16,000,000 men, hardly aroused so much interest and speculation in the world as did the 150,000 men who then formed the per sonnel of Britain's fighting fleet. The navy was ready to meet any emergency. Only a few days before the outbreak of war the king had reviewed his fleet—or at least half of it. That half consisted of some 260 vessels, the most powerful fleet ever mustered in British waters.
The day before England declared war Mr. Winston Spencer Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, informed his colleagues of the cabinet that °the whole sea power of Britain was in readiness for war.* The Home Fleet was 'divided into three units, of which the first was arranged into four battle squadrons includ ing the flagship of the commander-in-chief. The first of these consisted of eight battleships— dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts — seven carrying ten 12-inch guns, and one of them ten 13.5-inch guns. In the second squad ron were eight super-dreadnoughts, each carry ing ten 13.5-inch guns. The third squadron con sisted of eight vessels of the pre-dreadnought type, armed with four I2-inch, four 9.2-inch and ten 6-inch guns. The fourth sauadron con tained three dreadnoughts of ten 12-inch guns each and one pre-dreadnought with four 12 inch and ten 9.2-inch guns. A battle cruiser squadron of four ships was attached to the first fleet, three with eight 13 5-inch guns, and one with eight 12-inch guns; the second cruiser squadron of four armored cruisers; the third cruiser squadron of four cruisers of the Devon shire class; the fourth cruiser squadron of four vessels of the Monmouth class and one light cruiser; the first light cruiser squadron; a squadron of six gunboats for mine sweeping; and four flotillas of destroyers with a flotilla cruiser attached to each. Behind this first line of defense there stood the second fleet of two battle squadrons, one of eight pre-dreadnoughts and one of six. To these were attached the fifth and sixth cruiser squadrons, seven mine-layers, four patrol flotillas of destroyers and torpedo-boats and seven submarine flotillas. Next. behind these came the third line, con sisting of two battle squadrons of comparatively old ships and six cruiser squadrons. In addi tion to this formidable array Great Britain had at the time, in the Mediterranean, three battle cruisers, four armored cruisers, four ordinary cruisers and a flotilla of 17 destroyers, besides submarines and torpedo-boats. In the Far East there were one battle ship, two cruisers and four smaller vessels in the East India squadron. On the China station there were one battleship, two armored cruisers, two cruisers, a number of gunboats, eight destroyers, besides sub marines and torpedo-boats. The New Zealand division contained four cruisers, while the Aus tralian fleet consisted of one battle cruiser, three cruisers, three destroyers and two submarines. Various cruisers and gunboats were statidned at the Cape, the west coast of Africa, and the east and west coasts of America; four armored cruisers and one ordinary cruiser patroled the Western Atlantic. To the total strength of Britain must be added two Turkish battleships at the time building in England, which were commandeered, and two destroyers purchased from Chile. The following figures show the principal classes in 1914: Super-dreadnoughts .... 14 Armored cruisers 34 Dreadnoughts 18 Cruisers 87 Pre-dreadnoughts 38 Destroyers 227 Super-dreadnoughts un- Torpedo-boats 109 der construction 3 Submarines 75 Total 73 Teta! 532 The following table, dating to 1 Jan. 1914, was issued by the British government on 6 March 1914 to show the comparative strength of the principal naval powers. Battleships and armored cruisers over 20 years old are omitted: During the first four years of the war the British navy had tripled its personnel and doubled its fighting armament. It transported by water over 13,000,000 men, 2,000,000 horses and mules, 25,000,000 tons of explosives, 51, 000,000 tons of oil and coal, and 130,000,000 tons of food and stores.