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but with the rapid growth even beyond our imagination of 
thirty years ago will not enly help the Navies and Armies but 
in time possibly supersede them both. And all this gigantic 
machine of warfare which comes under the designation of 
His Majesty’s Forces shall survive and prosper not as an 
offensive weapon of might but as the champion and protector 
of right. As such, Gentlemen, I give you the Toast of * His 
Majesty's Forces.” (Loud and prolonged cheers.) 
The Toast was enthusiastically honoured. 
Vice-Admiral Sir RoGerR KEYES, Bt., K.C.B., C.M.G., 
C.V.0., D.S.0., who received a very cordial welcome on 
rising to respond, said: Mr. President, Your Highness, My 
Lord Duke, My Lords and Gentlemen, during my career in 
the Navy I think I have been more closely associated than 
most other sailors with the sister Services, and I have some 
very pleasant and happy recollections of good comradeship 
and common endeavour both in peace and in war. I am very 
proud to have the opportunity of replying for His Majesty's 
fighting forces in this distinguished company. I thank Your 
Highness for the very eloquent way in which you proposed the 
toast (Cheers), and you, Gentlemen, for the way in which you 
received it. It is seldom that a member of the Board of 
Admiralty has the opportunity of addressing an audience who 
are so vitally concerned in the Navy as the members of the 
Chambers of Commerce, and the representatives of our great 
Dominions. To both of you the free use of the sea is as 
vital both in peace and in war as the air you breathe. 
Whether in peace or in war it is to the Navy and Mercantile 
Marine that you owe your safety and prosperity. (Cheers.) 
I have purposely linked the Mercantile Marine with the 
Navy, because although it is on the Navy that the onus of 
keeping the sea routes reasonably safe rests, that would avail 
us little if the Mercantile Marine failed to play its part, in going 
resolutely about its work in spite of all the dangers it has to 
encounter. To these dangers has now been added, in certain 
areas, one more—that of the air. At the present time there is 
only one type of ship which can control the great ocean routes, 
and that is the surface ship, whether it be a unit of the Battle 
Fleet, which is the backbone of our naval strength, and on 
which the safety of the Empire ultimately depends, or the fat- 
flung cruisers and armed merchant cruisers which, relying 
on the support of the Battle Fleet, protect our trade on the 
seven seas. If you examine a chart of the world on 
which are drawn our great ocean trade routes, two things 
are apparent: firstly, how little aeroplanes, flown from 
the chore, can interfere with those routes, and secondly, 
in those places where such interference can take place