r the purpose of inaugurating that Navy
which has now become world-famous.

In 1858 the naval school, which, as I have already stated, had been
established at Nagasaki, was transferred to Yeddo, and a few years
later the Japanese Government determined to obtain the assistance of
some English naval officers with a view of giving instruction in the
school. Application was accordingly made to the British Government
through the Minister in Yeddo, and the sanction of the Admiralty
having been obtained, a number of English naval officers were
selected, and despatched to Japan as instructors in the Yeddo Naval
College. Amongst these officers, it may be interesting to state, was
Admiral Sir A. K. Wilson, V.C., G.C.B., the late Commander-in-Chief of
the Channel Fleet. In the year 1873 a number of other naval officers
were sent out from England, the previous staff having been withdrawn
on the outbreak of the Civil War. This staff was in charge of Admiral
Sir A. L. Douglas, till recently Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth, and
for some years subsequently an English naval officer was at the head
of the instructing staff of the college. Japan was fortunate in one
respect--in the Englishmen she entrusted with the evolution of her
Navy. She was fortunate in attracting the men best fitted for the
work, and also in inspiring them with a high conception of their task.
Some Englishmen are of opinion that Japan has somewhat forgotten her
obligations in this matter. Young Japan, they suggest, desires to
forget the influences to which the country mainly owes its present
magnificent fleet. That fleet is undoubtedly, for the most part, the
outcome of English conceptions and English training. There is one man
whose name, I think, deserves to be recorded in connection therewith.
I refer to the late Lieutenant A. G. S. Hawes, of the Royal Marine
Light Infantry, who left the English Service and worked strenuously,
enthusiastically, and earnestly to build up the _personnel_ of the
Japanese Navy in the early 'seventies. There were others whose efforts
in the same direction assisted in that consummation, but Hawes's
services were unique and splendid. He believed in Japan, and he threw
himself into his work with a zeal and ardour which were beyond praise.
His services were dispensed with, as were those of the other English
officers and men, when it was felt that Japan had learnt sufficient to
work out her own destiny as a naval Power. The labours of the