New Demand for High Speed.

All these vessels are not subsidised, but they are all held by the owners for the use of the Admiralty. Besides these there are numerous others of our ocean steamers which have fulfilled the requirements of the Admiralty as regards construction fitting them to carry effective armaments, though they are not under contract.

Indeed the demands of the Admiralty as regards speed, have within the last few menths been made more stringent, their Lordships having decided that all new vessels open to be subsidised must, to obtain subvention, posses speed of not less han 20 knots per hour, so as to be able to cope with the swift cruisers of any page 4 enemy. For example, the new vessel "Gothic," recently in Wellington, although strongly built and fitted for warlike purposes, is by the new rule not included in the Merchant Auxiliary Reserve list, because her speed does not reach the request twenty knots per hour. So I was informed by one of the owners of the "Gothic."