TO THE NORTH SEA.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 781, 2 April 1910, Page 5

TO THE NORTH SEA.

GERMAN DREADNOUGHTS. ■ TO BE BASED ON WILHELMS- ■;■ -. '■-■.■ ■ HAVEN. .:. ' ; fly TelemDh-Prejs AeeociaMon-Cobyrieht.- ■ Berlin, March 31.. Germany is transferring her battlefrom the Baltic to the North Sea, and is making 'Willielmshaven the new base, with •■Borkum and Heligoland as advanced'positions. ' ."■'". : THE.HIGH SEA FLEET. ' ..The North Sea base of Wilhelmshaven is connected with the Baltic base Kiel by toe Baltio-Ncrth Sea canal. Germany is making Wlhelmshaven the base of the High-Sea Fleet, and at tie same time is spending a laTge sum in widening the' canal to permit. tho passage of' Dreadnoughts. As these great-new battleships are completed, they.are being added to the High Sea Fleet,-making a North Sea fighting force such as no Continental Power has ever yet controlled;' At latest advices the ..High Sea Fleet was. composed of the following vessels (the two first-mentioned are Dreadnoughts), and others will shortly Thudded:— .-." : Battleships (16).—Nassau, Westfalen Zaehringen, Preussen, Elsass, .Wettin Xleutschland, Schleswig-Holstein, Hannover, Mecklenburg, Pommern, Lothringen. Schlesien, Wittelsbach, Hessen, Braunschweig. . ' ..-..- Armoured . Cruisers (4).—Bluecher, Gneisemn, Torek, Boon. Also, six small cruisers and. about .fifty destroyers.' : There ie a, reserve division, manned i?ith reduced crews like the'.reserve division of the British Home Fleet, consisting of the battleships Karl der Grosse, Barbarpssa, three vessels of the Seigfried class of ooast-defence ships, and' three of tie- Brandenburg class of old battleships. For training and. experimental purposes there are in commission, in addition, one modern battleship, one old battleship, one modern armoured cruiser, two coast deence ships, and two small cruisers.- The only ship of any great fighting value on distant service is the Scharnhorst, armoured cruiser, serving as flagship on the China station. It has always been the German prinoiple of strategy to concentrate the fighting force of the fleet in home waters, and to' tram it in large masses of ships. ,