estimates and expenditure is very important, and the accountant-general is his officer, while he has financial control over the director of contracts. The financial secretary also examines proposals for new expenditure.
A most important official of the Board is the permanent secretary, whose office has been described as the “nerve-centre” of the admiralty, since it is the channel through which papers for the lords of the admiralty pass for the intercommunication of departments and for the correspondence of the Board. The tradition of admiralty procedure largely rests with the permanent secretary, and it is most important that he should be chosen from one of the branches, and should have served in as many of them as possible, in order that he may possess a thorough knowledge of the theory and practice of the admiralty system. In addition to the secretarial duties of the permanent secretary’s department, the permanent secretary has charge of the military, naval and legal branches, each under a principal clerk, the civil branch and the record office. The various branches deal with matters concerning the commissioning of ships and the distribution of the fleet, and the manning and discipline of the navy, with other associated matters, being the channels for the operations of the naval lords. It is a highly important function of the department of the permanent secretary to preserve the inter-related working of the various departments, and to keep unbroken the thread of administration when a new Board is constituted.
3. Business and Responsibility.—The manner in which the Admiralty Board conducts the great operations under its charge has been indicated. It would be impossible here to describe it in detail, though something concerning the civil departments, which are the machinery of naval administration, will be found below. It will, however, indicate the character of admiralty administration if we explain to some extent the conditions which surround the preparation of the estimates and the shipbuilding programme, the more so because this matter has been the battle-ground of critics and supporters of the admiralty. It has already been pointed out that the naval lords, if they dissent from the estimates that are presented, have no remedy but that of protest or resignation. Into the controversies that have arisen as to the responsibility of the several lords it is unnecessary to enter here. The Admiralty Board possesses, in fact, the character of a council, and its members can only be held responsible for their advice. It has even been contended that, in the circumstances, it should not be incumbent upon them to sign the navy estimates, and there have been instances in which the estimates have been presented to parliament without the signature of certain naval lords. It is in any case obvious, as has been explained above, that the ultimate responsibility must always rest with the first lord and the cabinet, by whom the policy of the country is shaped and directed. In the report of the Hartington Commission in 1890 (the chairman of which became 8th duke of Devonshire) to inquire into the civil and professional administration of the Naval and Military Departments, and the relation of these departments to each other and to the treasury, the following recommendation occurs: “On the first lord alone should rest the responsibility of deciding on the provision to be made for the naval requirements of the empire, and the existence of a council should be held in no degree to diminish that responsibility.”
Two conditions primarily rule the determination as to the strength of the navy. They are, the foreign policy of the cabinet, and, on the ground of practical expediency, the amount of money available. “The estimates and strength of the navy,” said Rear-Admiral Hotham before the select committee on the navy estimates, 1888, “are matters for the cabinet to determine.” “Expense,” said Sir Anthony Hoskins, “governs everything.” The needs of the empire and financial considerations, as it is scarcely necessary to remark, may prove to be antithetical conditions governing the same problem, and in practice it follows that the Admiralty Board directs its operations in accordance with the views of the government, but limited by the public funds which are known to be available. Such considerations suggest a practical limitation of responsibility, so far as the several lords of the admiralty are concerned, but it may be presumed to be their duty individually or collectively to place their views before the first lord; and Lord George Hamilton told the select committee of 1888 that, if his colleagues should represent to him that a certain expenditure was indispensable for the efficiency of the service, he would recognize that all financial considerations should be put on one side. The commissioners reported that this was the only common-sense view of the matter, and that it was difficult to see on what other footing the control of navy expenditure, consistently with responsibility to parliament, could be placed.
Two practical considerations are bound up with the shipbuilding programme—the carrying forward of the work in hand and the new construction to be begun, since it is absolutely necessary that proper provision should be made for the employment and distribution of labour in the dockyards, and for the purchase of necessary materials. Through the director of naval construction and the director of dockyards, the controller is kept informed as to the progress of work and the amount of labour required, as also in regard to the building facilities of the yards. These matters, in a general way, must form a subject of discussion between the first naval lord and the controller, who will report on the subject to the first lord. The accountant-general, as the financial officer of the Board, will be called upon to place the proposed estimates upon a financial basis, and when the views of the cabinet are known as to the amount of money available, the several departments charged with the duty of preparing the various votes will proceed with that work. The financial basis alluded to is, of course, found in the estimates of the previous year, modified by the new conditions that arise. There has been in past times a haphazard character in our shipbuilding programmes, but with the introduction of the Naval Defence Act of 1889, which looked ahead and was not content with hand-to-mouth provision, a better state of things has grown up, and with a larger sense of responsibility, a policy characterized by something of continuity has been developed. Certainly the largest factor in the better state of things has been the growth of a strong body of public opinion as to the supreme value of the navy for national and imperial welfare.
Another important and related matter that comes before the Board of Admiralty is the character and design of ships. The naval members of the Board indicate the classes and qualities desired, and it is the practice that the sketch-design, presented in accordance with the instructions, is fully discussed by the first naval lord and the controller, and afterwards by the Board. The design then takes further shape, and when it has received the final sanction of the Board it cannot be altered without the sanction of the same authority. A similar procedure is found in the other business of the Admiralty Board, such as shore-works, docks and the preparation of offensive and defensive plans of warfare—the last being a very important matter that falls into the operations of the Naval Intelligence Department, which has been described, though not with perfect accuracy, and certainly in no large sense, as “the brain of the navy.” That department is under the direction of the first naval lord.
The shipbuilding programme may be described as the cornerstone of the executive business of the admiralty, because upon it depends very largely the preparation of all the other votes relating to numbers, stores, victualling, clothing, &c. But if the Admiralty Board is responsible through the first lord for the preparation of the estimates, it is also charged with the business of supervising expenditure. In this matter the financial secretary plays a large part, and is directed to assist the spending department of the admiralty in their duty of watching the progress of their liabilities and disbursements. Some notes on admiralty finance will be found below (section 4). The shipbuilding votes set the larger machinery of the admiralty in motion. The executive departments, except in regard to the hulls and machinery of ships and the special requirements of the director of works, do not make purchases of stores, that work resting with the director of navy contracts. Most of the important executive and
