SUPREMACY AT SEA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 299, 13 September 1919, Page 7

SUPREMACY AT SEA

PASSED TO UNITED STATES

BRITAIN'S REDUCED FORCE

TWO HUNDRED SHIPS SCRAPPED

By Telegraph—l'rcsß Association-Copyright London, September 10. Mr. Archibald Kurd writes that Britain's supremacy at sea has temporarily passed lo the United States, which has 31 battleships in commission. Tho number will be reduced to 2!) in 1920. Britain has 22 battleships and Gvo battle-cruisers in a similar state of readiness. -Tho reduction to a reservo basis of the majority of tho ships of tho Homo Fleet reduces our forco ready for battle to lli battleships and battle-cruisers, of which 10 are in the Atlantic and =ix in the .Mediterranean. It is ridiculous to biggest that the Admiralty has'done nothing to economise. There will not ho a single man-ol'-war.on the slips hy Christmas. .The, position is without precedent in inodeni times. Already 2'HI ships have bceu j (scrapped, Ihe Grand Fleet has been disuersed, and. its war stations urn closed. or aro closing; the Admiralty Stall has shrunk, and is shrinking dramatically. The new order respecting the Homo Fleet, suggests that the whole of lliat forco will soon disappear.—Aus.-N.Z. Ca|>lu Assn. • tit was reported on Thursday that- tho . Admiralty had- ordered the Homo Fleet, .battleships aud the fourth and fifth destroyer tiotillas to be reduced to the,reserve'basis, on October'll. A similar, reduction will be ctt'ected in the twentieth flotilla, after its return from the Bnltic. The submarine flotillas attached to .the. Atlanic fleet aro to jie reducod to three.] necessity for economy FIRST LORD REPLIES TO CRITICISM. London, Soptember 11. Mr. Walter Long, First Lord of' tho Admiralty,, in a speech at Glasgow in reply to criticism of • the Admiralty's failure to economise, said it would have been a crime to relax the efforts mado to ensure preparedness for nil eventualities until peaco. was'signed. He recognised the necessity for economy, One result of tho war was -t he prospect of a considerable period of peace.. It was the Admiralty's duty not lo build'unesessarv ships, and not to .pursue a programme which was justifiable before the war, biit was unjustifiable how. In should do everything possible to develop commercial undertakings by releasing shipwrights from tho Royal yards and othc.wisei so' as lo increase employment in morchant shipbuilding.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. , CREWS MORE IMPORTANT THAN SHIPS LORD FISHER'PAYS A TRIBUTE TO ' BRITISH SEAMEN. '. London | September 11. Lord Fisher, dealing with tho reductions in the Navv, says the public fails to realist that a noii-obsolcte-'half-navy will equal in efficiency-all the navies of the world. "Fools count ships; wise men reckon the. ability of their- crews. Tho British sailors and officers are tho cream of the world. Nelson's statement that a British- seaman is worth three others'is-absolutely true" Lord Fisher says lie believes that all manner of submersible vessels, fitted with internal, combustion engines; will becomes as necessary as aerial fighting machines.. They will possess ability to sink all surface ships. He thinks that one ' fearful thing about tho late war. was. that no Admirals or Generals were shot. . Tliey wei'o only promoted. "We only shoot a poor devil like B.vng because lie has no friends."—"Tho Times."

|Thi) shooting,,of'Admiral John Byng (son of Viscount Torrington) .in 1757 is a famous .historical episode. He was ninsucctssful iii liu expedition... to. relieve Minorca, which was threatened by a French' fleet under the Duke of Richelieu in ; and at the instance'of the Ministry, whose ineffectual war policy liad rendered it unpopular, was tried by court-martini and found guilty of neglect of duty. He was shot (in Portsmouth Harbour, 011 bis own quarter-deck), in spite of'the unanimous recommendation to luerey by the Court, which deplored that the Article of War under vlncli ho was condemned admitted of 110 mitigation of punishment, even if the crinio were committed by a mere error of judgment.] •