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28 MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. CANADA TO ESTABLISH A COLONIAL NAVY. The St. John's, N. F., correspondent of the New York Times is authority for the statement that Canada is about to create a colonial navy, and as the first step towards this end will establish a naval militia on the Atlantic seaboard where there are thou- sands of men engaged in the off-shore and Grand Banks fisher- ies. 'To provide the requisite machinery for the founding of this organization the government has dispatched the British naval commander in charge of her fisheries protection squadron to this port to examine into the workings of the Newfoundland naval reserve with a view to modeling the proposed Canadian battalion upon the highly successful little brigade in the island colony. The Newfoundland reserve is an imperial body, a branch cf that trained around the coast line of the British isles. It is re- cruited among the young fishermen, and regulations as to enlist- ment, training, payment, and service are identical with those in vogue in England. There is a permanent drillship, the dis- classed crtiiser Calypso, stationed in St. John's, the officers of which "lick into shape" the raw material, and this is then drafted aboard regular warships for a term of sea service. A detach- ment of eighty men from Newfoundland is now serving aboard the cruiser Charybdis, Com. Montgomerie, flagship of the allied fleet recently blockading the Venezuelan coast, and 150 are now being trained at St. John's to join her and the battleship Ariadne at the end of October next, when they finish their summer patrol of the "French shore" of this island. With the similarity in conditions along the Atlantic fore- shore, both in Canada and Newfoundland, the former country has naturally looked to the latter's naval force as the model for her own. 'The legislation to create it is to be enacted at the com- -ing session of the Ottawa parliament, and the officer now at St. John's will formulate the details of the scheme. It will not, however, be an imperial force, like Newfoundland's, but a purely domestic organization, like Canada's militia, though it may be used for imperial defense in an emergency, as Canada enlisted her several contingents for service in South Africa during the recent Boer war. Canada has already the nucleus of a navy in her flotilla of fishery cruisers, sixteen in all, of which twelve are stationed on the Atlantic, two on-the lakes, and two on the Pacific. 'They are stout and serviceable steamers, armed with machine guns and the latest additions strengthened to carry quick-firers, if desired. The effective personnel is ninefy-two officers and 680 men, and these are all grounded in the rudiments of drill. 'The twelve on the Atlantic patrol the coast line from Fundy bay to Belle Isle strait, a stretch of 5,600 miles, and enforce the fishery laws, pre- vent smuggling, and supply the lighthouses. Their period of service is usually from May until November, and they are, with one or two exceptions, laid up for the winter and their crews dis- charged. This causes many breaks in the personnel from season to season, and the idea of the naval enlistment would be to train them for this service during the winter months so that a substantial backbone will be provided permanently around which the casual force enlisted from year to year could be grouped. : There are 30,000 deep-sea fishermen in the maritime prov- inces, besides some 20,000 other men employed: in the coast fish- eries, and this makes a total considerably larger than that of the _ Operatives in the New England fisheries. From this total it is estimated that 10,000 yong men can be obtained to enlist in the naval reserve, the period of training being arranged for the winter as in Newfoundland, because much of the seaboard being then. blockaded by ice fishing on a large scale is impossible, and the greater portion of the trawling fleet is laid up in the coast har- bors until the spring, while the men seek other employments in the mines and the lumber camps, until the season re-opens. It has been found possible in Newfoundland to enlist hundreds of young men of the finest class of mariners for service and drill during that period, whereas during the fishing months it wouid be impossible to procure them without seriously dislocating the ordinary industrial conditions of the island and interfering with the successful prosecution of the cod fisheries. ne Newfoundlanders have proved to be admirable recruits, their seamanship being exceptional. Bred to their maritime pur- suit from early youth, they are proficient in all sailorly arts and can handle boats and small craft with unequaled skill. They are stout oarsmen and masters of compass, logline and lead, and they have little to learn about the internal economy of sail- ing craft. The more intricate naval material they acquire readily and they pass about 95 per cent. of their number into the grade of "qualified seamen" after a six months' cruise. 'There is a total seafaring population of nearly 80,000 in the island to re- cruit from and the admirality aims to put through 600 men every year which will be all that the squadron in North American waters can accommodate. This will give a trained force of 6,000 men in ten years, and if Canada's scheme prospers to a similar extent the result will be the formation of an auxiliary to the imperial forces which will be very acceptable in the day of trial. Last year the British navy had a total effective force of 155,000, of whom 120,000 were at sea, 28,000 in the reserve and 7,000 composing the coast guard. Within five years it is calculated that this total will be swollen [Feb. 26, to 200,000, which will be about all the naval recruiting that the British isles will stand, cwing to the simultaneous need for the enlargement of the army. For this reason an overseas reserve of 5.000 or 10,0co men will be very satisfactory, more especially when composed of such approved material as the Newfoundland branch has shown itself. The prospect, indeed, is that the port of St. John's will be fortified within a few years, and converted into a naval base with a special application to the more effective safeguarding of the Atlantic grain route, which passes across the grand banks almost within sight of St. John's and is dom- inated from this port. At present the only naval stronghold of Great Britain hereabout is Halifax, Nova Scotia, but grain ships, whether from American ports or plying via the St. Lawrence, do not approach that place and are utterly devoid of protection or shelter when east of Cape Race, against an enemy in mid- ocean. : For this reason St. John's is being considered as a suitable site for another stronghold, because it already has a squadron cf British cruisers stationed there in summer, owing to the French shore dispute, and the reservists could be more easily mustered there than elsewhere, while the natural features of the port are such that it can be made impregnable at a very small cost. The harbor is almost landlocked, inclosed within high hills crowned with batteries which command the whole sea face, and which could, with modern artillery, be rendered so effective that the port would become the refuge for all the convoys crossing the ocean. 'he advantageous geographical position of Newfound- land has been made more manifest latterly through the discus- sion about fast lines and ocean routes, and the further fact that all the ocean cables cross the grand banks and could be cut with- out hindrance as things now are, accentuates the néed of station- ing warships here and adopting adequate defenses so that an aggressive or defensive course could be taken as circumstances warranted. The cruisers could be used to scout beyond the grand banks or sweep these waters of an enemy's shipping. 'The port could be utilized to fall back upon, to shelter merchantmen, or to refit war craft and recrew them from the reserve. 'The men of this force would be gathered there if war impended, and would be employed to partly man the batteries, and with St. John's and Halifax so provided the defense of the western ocean would be virtually assured. The complete success of the naval reserve plan, so far as Newfoundland is concerned, is admitted by the naval experts, but they are doubtful of the Canadian experiment for a variety of reasons. Canada declined last year to share in the contribu- tions to the imperial navy which the other colonies made, and has adopted this policy as an alternative. But the objection to this is that it is not an imperial arm and is not available for imperial purposes except when Canada pleases, whereas the imperial navy has to be always employed to defend Canada's territory or commerce if these are menaced. That navy is obliged, by the peculiar relations between the mother country and the colonies, to defend all of them as well as her own shores. For many years past Australia has contribu- ted to the maintenance of a special squadron in her waters for the defense thereof, but the other colonies made no such endeavor to assist Britain. Last year, during the coronation functions, Mr. Chamberlain submitted to the colonial premiers the matter of imperial naval defense, and they all undertook to provide an- nual subventions, Canada alone excepted. Her refusal was due to an unwillingness to become a party to all Britain's European entanglements, and she is adopting the local naval organization instead. But this is of merely negative value to the empire, because it relieves the British taxpayer of no burdens and obliges him to provide his full naval force, as at present, seeing that Canada's help may not be forthcoming when he expects:it. 'The battalion will undoubtedly be a good one, as Canada's military force was in South Africa, but it is not subject to levy at all times. Moreover it has no ships of its own except the fishery cruis- ers which are not armored and cannot be regarded as effective, judged by the standards of modern war craft. Likewise, it has no experienced men whatever, no sea drill under the actual con- ditions of war ship life, no familiarity with the contingences of scouting and fighting work, and would be worthless if set to act for itself. It is contended that it could be employed to defend the St. Lawrence route, but the fallacy of this is obvious, as it could do nothing without the aid of the British navy, and the contention of the British authorities is that it should be organ- ized as an imperial force and part of the cost of its maintenance borne by Canada as a contribution toward the war fund, the admiralty supplying ships in which to train the men, and the whole scheme being assimilated with that for imperial defense in which the other colonies are all enlisted. The isolation of Canada is the weak spot in the plan, and until she has joined the other colonies the permanence of the project cannot be assured, The Canadian government seems to think that the alterna- tive they a.'e wedded to will satisfy all the obligations for which they are liable. The fact is overlooked that a formidable combi- ~ nation of European powers may work such disaster to England's navy that it would be unable to keep the sea, and in that case Canada's force would count for naught, whereas if included in