THE BRITISH NAVY

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1425, 27 April 1912, Page 5

THE BRITISH NAVY

THIRD BATTLE SQUADRON. BIUT.U.VS HEPI.Y TO GERMANY. By TeiccraDh—Frcss Aesoclatlon— Copyright London, April 2-j. It is announced tliat a third battle ■squadron, composed of eight vessels of the Iviii;; lid ward \'ll class, v. ill bu formed, and that a fifth or chief nucleus crew squadron will bis made up o£ vessels of I lie Formidable class. This move is interpreted as Great Britain's reply to the format ion of a third active : quadron by Germany. The new German Navy Bill may bo divided under four heads, as follow: — (a) The creation of a new striking force, consisting of a third squadron of the lligh Sea Fleet, which will bo kept fully manned throughout the venr and stationed in, or closo to, tho North Sea. (b) Tho increaso of tho number of olhcers and men by one-third, tlio porsonnej being eventually raised to 80,000. (c) The construction of additional armoured ships and cruiser.-?. (il) Tho laying down ol' an unprecedented number of submarines. Under the new- schemo the active fleet of Germany will consist of the following force, with a fleet-flagship:— First Squadron: 8 Battleships, 2 battle-cruisars, 8 small cruisers. Second Squadron: 8 Battleships, 2 battle-cruisers, G small cruUcrs. Third Squadron: 8 Battleships, 2 battle-cruisers, G 6mall cruisers. All these ships, with largo flotillas of destroyers and submarines, will bo kept permanently in commission with a few hundred miles of tho British Eastern coast. Reserve Squadrons. Two squadrons of sixteen battleship?, four largo and twelvo small cruisers, will in reserve, with further torpedo craft. This is a larger, inoro costly, and moro powerful concentration of naval force than has ever been attempted by any naval I'ower in the world, uot excepting Great Britain. Tho German naval authorities are striving nfter a still higher standard of readiness for action. Under tho conscript system, with its scattered and only par-tially-trained reservists, the reserve fleet is a source of weakness.. Therefore, it is proposed to add 50 per cent, to tho strength of tho active fleet, which is always on .a war footing, by creating a third squadron.

FURTHER SHIPBUILDING. Over and above the provision for building new ships made in tl; present Navy Law, which will not expire, until 1017, it: is intended further to add to the material strength of the fleet. The progress which German ambitious have made and aro now making is revealed in Hie following statement, showing the establishment of large ships of tho fleet laid down in successive Navy Laws, and their amendment.?, the aggregate of the navy estimates in the first year of each enactment coming into operation being given in million sterling:— Battle- Armoured • £ ships. crui--ers. Law of isns n.sn 17 0 Law of 11100 7.11! as H Law of I'JOG 12.00 38 20 Capital ships. Law of 1008 1(1.-10 .IS Law of 1912 23.00 CI The transition in 1908 from an establishment of thirty-eight battleships and twenty armoured cruisers to fifty-eight capital ships—all of them eventually' to be of tho Dreadnought type—is a reniarkablc illustration of the" elasticity of the Navy Law. In the eight years 1807-1905 Great Britain laid down twenty-seven battleships, or ail average of just under 3J battleships annually, and slio built thirty-six armoured or less than -H a yiar —an average of rather less than eight armoured ships a year. Then we abandoned armoured cruiser construction, and from 1905-0 to 1907-S—threo years—we laud the keels of only ten capital ships of the Dreadnought type—that is, battle-ships of either twenty-ono or twenty-live knob —representing on average of 3 1-3 annually. This was a decrease in armoured construction from nearly 8 annually to 3 1-3 each year. In the eight years 1897-190!) Germany laid down twenty-one armoured ships, an average of just over 2?, each yinr. But in 190S she replied to" tho British plan of naval economy by deciding to lay down annually four Dreadnoughts—a greater number than tho greatest naval Power in the world was building; in efl'ec.t ti she determined, instead of ceasing to build armoured cruisers, that in future nil her armoured cruisers should be Dreadnoughts. and thus sho Advanced from thirty-eight ships of the line to fifty-eight, and now, in order to constitute her now, squadron, she is putting the establishment, up to sixty-one, and she is about to add to her strength in cruisers and submarines.