237 the Admiralty Return dated last May, and the figures of that Return show the state of affairs up to the end of March last. (5) If we now go further and take ships in commission in the month of July 1912, we find that according to the Official July Navy List, Britain had in commission 27 battleships (including the five belonging to the Mediterranean Fleet) plus five battle cruisers, or 32 battle vessels in all. (6) The German High Sea Fleet (having regard to the ships held specially in reserve for instant mobilisation with that fleet) would comprise at least 21 battle Ek vessels. (7) If we now make the necessary deduction of 25 per cent. or eight battle a vessels, from the number of British battle vessels which we shall have actually available at the moment of impact, we see that that number will be 24. (8) If the five Mediterranean battleships are sent back to that Sea, or based at Gibraltar, in response to popular agitation, the number of commissioned battle vessels which will be left in home waters will be 27. (9) Deducting from these the necessary 25 per cent.-say six vessels, the number remaining would be 21-which would be exactly equal to the lowest estimate of the German attacking force. A preliminary night attack by German destroyers would probably convert this equality into a British minority. (10) Great efforts are being made to prevent Parliament and the country from understanding these true facts of the case, of which, at present, they have for the most part no idea. (11) To these efforts most powerful and effectual assistance is being given by the Navy League, which has recently issued a paper on relative Naval Strength, dated from its offices on July 4, 1912, and signed by Mr. Alan H. Burgoyne, the Conservative member for North Kensington. (12) This paper purports to give a statement of "the Relative Naval Strength in completed ships of the British Empire and the Triple Alliance at the end of June 1912 and the end of June 1915." (13) From the figures given the requisite deduction of 25 per cent. is not made, and the omission to mention the vital necessity of making that deduction entirely invalidates the whole of these figures and makes them an instrument for misleading public opinion. (14) This paper has, it is believed, been sent to all members of the House of Commons, and its inevitable tendency will be to convince all Members of that House, except such as are already fully informed upon the subject, that no real anxiety need be felt about the Navy, and that supplementary estimates may well be postponed. (15) The figures are in other respects, which space lacks to particularise, exceedingly misleading. (16) To give an instance: Mr. Burgoyne assigns to the British Empire 104 destroyers, and to Germany only 61. He attains this result by the arbitrary creation of a Class B, into which he puts all destroyers of under 500 tons displacement. By this device he deliberately intermingles modern German destroyers of a most efficient kind with English destroyers of over twelve years of age, which are generally admitted to be useless, and he inverts the true lesson from the real figures, which is that Germany is, in destroyers, almost as strong ourselves. (17) It is difficult adequately to characterise the trick which he has thus played. (18) The real truth is stated in the Imperial Maritime League's letter, namely, that according to the Admiralty Return of last May, we possessed 113 destroyers against the German 104, all under twelve years of age. I now add that when from our 113 (supposing that they were all in home waters) we deduct 25 per cent., or say 28, the remaining number will be 85, and this, or, actually, less than this, will be the number which we may expect to have really available against the 104 German, until the processes of relative construction alter existing conditions. Jlster and Home Rule BY THE RIGHT HON. F. E. SMITH, K.C., M.P. The Intellectual Bankruptcy of Socialism By H. BROUGHAM LEECH, LL.D. Greater Britain: Canada, New Zealand, India Correspondence: The Stratford Monument of Shakespeare British Naval Decline By ANDREW LANG BY THE IMPERIAL MARITIME League PUBLISHED BY THE PROPRIETOR AT 23 RYDER STREET, ST. JAMES'S, LONDON, S.W. Registered at the G.P.O. for transmission to Canada at the special rate of 1d. per lb. Price 2s. 6d. net HAVING REMOVED TO THEIR NEW AND MUCH 43 PICCADILLY, W. 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