THE BRITISH NAVY

Hokitika Guardian, 13 September 1919, Page 3

THE BRITISH NAVY

ADMIRAL FISHER. VALUE OF BRITISH SAILOR.

(By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) fAUSTRALIAN & N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION] LONDON, Sept. . 10. Admiral Fisher dealing with reductions in the Navy says the public fails to realise that the non-obsolete half of. the navy equals in efficiency all the navies of the world. Fools count ships and wise men reckon the ability of the crews. British sailors and officers are the cream of the world. Nelson’s statement that one British seaman was worth three others, is absolutely true. • Fisher believes all manner of submersables, fitted with internal combustion engines, will become as necessary as air fighting machines and possess possihilites of sinking all surface ships. I think one fearful thing of the late war, was that no Admirals or Generals were shot. They only shoot a poor devil like General Byng, because he had no friends.

NAVAL SUPREMACY. LONDON, Sept. 10. Mr Archibald Hurd says Britain’s supremacy at sea has temporary passed to United States, which has thirty-one battleships in commission reducing to twenty-nine in 1920. Britain lias twenty-two battleships, and five cruisers in similar state of readiness. The reduction to a reserve basis of the majority of the ships of the Home fleet, already cabled reduces our forces ready ; for battle to sixteen battleships and cruisers, of which ten are in the Atlantic and six in the Mediterranean. It , is ridiculous to suggest that the Admiralty lias done nothing to economise.

There will not he a single man-of-war on the slips by Christmas, an unprecedented position in modern times. Already two hundred ships have been scrapped. The Grand Fleet has been dispersed and the war stations are closing. The Admiralty staff has shrunk, and is shrinking dramatically. A new order to the Home fleet suggests that the whole of that force will soon disappear.