The Flag Officers of the Fleet, whether Admirals, Vice-Admirals or Rear-Admirals, are classed in Squadrons of the Red, White and Blue, and are (with the exception of the Admiral of the Fleet) authorised to fly their Flags of the colour of the Squadron to which they belong, this regulation necessitating the adoption of ensigns and pendants of a corresponding colour in every ship and vessel employed under their orders, each vessel is therefore supplied with three sets of colours, and the frequent alterations that have to be made when the Fleet is distributed as at present, under the orders of many Flag Officers, is attended with much inconvenience from the uncertainty and expense which the system entails. The increased number and size of merchant steamships render it a matter of importance to distinguish on all occasions men-of-war and private ships by a distinctive flag; the latter vessels bearing at present the same Red Ensign as Your Majesty's Ships when employed under an Admiral of the Red Squadron. It also appears to us to be desirable to grant (under such conditions as we may from time to time impose) the use of a distinguishing flag to such ships of the Merchant Service as may be employed in the public service, whose Commanding Officer (with a given portion of the crew) may belong to the Royal Naval Reserve. We therefore most humbly submit that Your Majesty may be pleased by Your Order in Council to prescribe the discontinuance of the division of Flag Officers into Red, White and Blue Squadrons, and to order and direct that the White Ensign with its broad and narrow pendant be henceforward established and recognised as the colours of the Royal Naval Service, reserving the use of the Red and Blue colours for such special occasions as may appear to us or to officers in command of Fleets and Squadrons to require their adoption. It will be seen that the reasons for the change given in this memorial are, first, the inconvenience and expense of keeping up the three sets of colours, and then (apparently as an afterthought) the need of a distinctive flag for the mercantile steamship. But in fact the man-of-war was already clearly distinguishable from the merchantman by its pendant and jack, a distinction that had been found sufficient for a period of two hundred years; a period during which the merchantman was, for the most part, much more like the man-of-war in outward appearance than it was in 1864. The real reason undoubtedly was that the squadronal organisation of the days when squadronal colours were first invented had become obsolete, and changes in tactics had rendered the squadronal colours unnecessary.