Well, a navy is of no far-fighting value unless we have auxiliary ships and a lot of 'em.

Admiral Jellicoe has 3,000 ships under his command; and he couldn't keep his fleet on the job if he didn't have them.
Most of them are commandeered merchant, passenger, and fishing ships.

Now we haven't merchant, passenger, and fishing ships to commandeer.

We've got to build and buy auxiliary ships to our navy.
This, to my mind, makes the new ship-purchase bill, or something like it, necessary.

Else our navy, when it comes to the scratch, will be of no fighting value, however big it be.