NAVAL BUILDING.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 August 1921, Page 2

NAVAL BUILDING.

FOUR NEW BATTLESHIPS. STATEMENT IN COMMONS. AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CAULS ASSOCIATION. f .Received This Day at 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 3. Hon Amery, in the House of Commons, in submitting the Naval Estimates, including a provision for four capital ships, said the latter was not a policy of competition or challenge, -but simply the replacement of obsolete ships. A few hours actual fighting in the late war was sufficient to revolutionise the ideas as to the necessary type of battleship. The other Powers were not slow to .make use of that experience. There were at present under construction whole Toattle fleets- of a typo incomparably more powerful than any afloat at the Battle of Jutland. Japan would have eight completed bv 1925, and eight more completed by 1928; while the United States would have twelve of these supreme engines of war, each over forty-three thousand tons, completed by 1925. The construction of four ships could not. under the circumstances, be regarded as provocative. Contrariwise, the Admiralty might he open to a channel of allowing the Navy to fall below .the standard of other Powers. This was a. risk only justified by the general financial situation, and the desirability of avoiding any step inviting competition in arm a. ments on the eve of a conference whose objects were to avoid competition. (Cheers.)

In the matter of design, we were not trying to steal a march cm other Power's, %ut were only bringing ourselves up-to-date with modern developments. The new ships would bo battle cruisers of the Hood type, but improved in regard to armaments and protection in the light of war experience. Mr Amery added that they would be equipped'with sixteen inch guns. The day of the capital submarine or aeroplane Intel not yet arrived, therefore the i capital ’ship remains the pivot of naval warfare. The ships would be constructed in private yards, as the Government dockyards were not large enough for the Hood size. It was intended as s oon as the finances would permit, that the Government dockyards be brought up-to-date. Hon H. Asquith referred to the resolution, by the Imperial Conference, deferring ft eomihittment of the naval policy, until after the- result of Hie Washington Conference. He gravely doubted if it would T'e necessary or wise to commit ourselves to these new ships. He put- their fo&t &t- £30,000,000, which a serious nt' the mo* mbut. j