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because there were many men who, had they not served as Royal seamen, would have gone afloat in the merchant navy. If they added the 119,000 men of which the Navy now consisted to the 175,000 British seamen of the mercantile marine, they got a total of 294,000, and this, applied to 20,000,000 of the population, gave the result that at the present time one out of every sixty-eight males went to sea, either in one service or the other. How did this compare with thirty years ago? In 1871, of the 197,000 seamen in our mercantile marine, 180,000 were Britishers and 17,000 were foreigners. This 180,000 applied to the population as it then was showed that one in eighty-five males became a seaman; but if they added the 180,000 to the 48,157 employed in the Navy they got the result, applying it to the population, that one in sixty-seven males went to sea in either one service or the other. Therefore, the comparison showed that the sea-going tendency of the nation had not decreased, and at the present day, more or less, the same proportion of male population went to sea as was the case in the past. Although the gross number of British seamen was less, it must not be forgotten that the Navy has been increased from 48,000 to 119,000 men in thirty years, and that there had also been an increase in the mercantile marine, and this would affect the extent of the supply. He did pot see why the shipping industry should be outside the ordinary laws of supply and demand. The conditions of life in our service were much better than in any service in the world. As a consequence, foreigners were always glad to join our ships. The shipping industry came off badly in competition with shore employment, but that was a state of things which there was every reason to hope in course of time would cure itself. The British « seaman was better off now, as regards pay and comfort, than he was twenty or thirty years ago. He was glad to say that the improvement was being maintained, and when it reached a certain point he did not think there would be any difficulty in obtaining British seamen. When the merchant service offered greater advantages, or advantages as great as the ordinary shore employment, he believed it would be able, easily and readily, to draw seamen from the working classes. Until that was done he did not think we could reasonably expect a greater proportion of men to go to sea than was the case now. With regard to school ships, there was, no doubt, much to be said in favour of the extension of training ships, but there were at present a certain number of them round our coasts, and although the training imparted on them was, on the whole, satisfactory, they were not made use of to the fullest extent. What guarantee was there that, if the number of these ships were increased, they would be filled with boys? And what guarantee was there that the boys so trained would remain in a seafaring life? In view of the difficulties it would be well to await the result of an experiment now being made by the Shipping Federation, which called upon all the shipowners within its body to carry at least two boys in all ships of a certain size. As that corporation embraced four-fifths of the total shipping of the United Kingdom, it was obvious
