BRITAIN’S NAVAL POSITION.

Hokitika Guardian, 7 June 1924, Page 4

BRITAIN’S NAVAL POSITION.

IllK CTU'ISKB I’ROBLK.M.

(liy lit. lion. L. S. Amur.)', -M.P, cx-First l.ord of the Admiralty).

The existence of the British Kmjjire as a whole, ami of this country in par. liciitnr. depends upon keeping open the highways of the son. If those highways wore closed by the action ol enemy forces the different, parts ol the Km pi re could not assist each other in the hour of dancer, and would he separately open to invasions and conquest. Apart from that, their whole economic life would he immediately paralysed, and this country at any rate would have to face wholesale unemployment ami actual starvation. To appreciate the extent to which we as a country

re I v upon seaborne supplies, it is only necessary to point out that we import every week about six million tons of food, to the approximate value of over C-,000.000. To carry these supplies there are at any given moment some I hit) British merchant ships of ;t(>r»;» tons and over, scattered over SO.tIOO miles of trade routes, and another 1-100 loading or unloading in the different harbours of the world. Two things are essential for the de-

fence of this immense line of communication. The first is a hattle-lloet capable of dealing with any hostile lleet. That Heel will require its complement of lleet cruisers sufficient to match those of any possible adversary. The second is a .sufficiency of fast seagoing orui'crs in afford direct protection to l lie ocean routes. What is

involved ill such protection call lie iutcrrcil from the fact that in the late war I I cruisers had to he collected to search for the Kmdeii. and IS to hunt the Karlsruhe. In other words. by the necessities of the case, even when the general couimaud of the sea is as'Urcd, the number of cruisers required to deal w ith even a few raiders is very large indeed. In this respect our position differs absolutely from that of a.iv other Bower. We have agreed at tii>' Washington ( oiifeivnce to wlmt is in effect an equality of battle-lleet -1 reiigth with the I'nited States. But obviously it would he impossible t« arrive at any familiar figure with regard to the strength of the cruisers lequiretl tor commerce proteci ion.

For us. at any rale, a sufficiency of i rinser- is a matter ot life and death, t 111 ISKB.S.

At the present moment otir cruiser strength is absolutely inadequate for the ta'k of commerce protection, and is dwindling rapidly. In April. I'll I. we had lIA cruisers on the effective li-l. .‘•■niv then we have built .Vi and .-crapped I-11. so that to-day we have only I s oil the effective list, i.c.. under 1") years old uounting one year ol war service as two of peace) and lour building. Ol the IS only _’n are suitable for commerce protection. The reason lor ibis is iffat the great mass ol our pre-cut cnii'crs were built simply ami -iilely for the licet work in the Norili Sea. .Veil her in size nor in seagoing rapacity nor in range arc they suitable for work on the ocean routes, or comparable to the new crui•ers being laid down bv the other "real naval Bower-, which arc ali working tip toward, the maximum standard laid down bv the Washington ('olllercncc. viy... 111.(Mil lolls, with '-in guns, and a .-need of :tl! knots or over. .Meanwhile, our cruiser lonia, such a> il is. I- rupidlv becoming obsolete. Simply to replace existing cruiser- winch will cec.se to be of value tor lighting purposes we ought to lay down • cruisers in the next ten years. I' r-'in the figures Jveii by .Mr Ammon in the 11 oil st* ot ('ominous on .March A il is dear that hetwien the present del • and 1h" end of the year I !!:*.!l-.'t I li' of cur cruisel-s will have become oli'oleto. As the building and cemmtsioning of the." t t-.scis 1.d.i,. .me thing like lour tears, that lie.ill. 1 li.it v. c oi' gin to Icy down 17 new cruisers in the next three years. The fell extent ol our decline in this respect is show'll by ihe fact that on April I. |!i2l), wo shell have only .'ld cruisers on the effective list, as against iff) oil the part < f •latum, and i f I lie-e latter I I will have boon commissioned since the present date. In other words, iffe git will be a iiiTit'll more modern cruiser forco tlicn our ol*. I here is no doubt that a compichciesive replacement is long overdue. Only considerations ol ffiinmv pr'-veiileil the Admiralty lieginning with it when the County class was -crapped soon alter the war. Keen in spile () j' these con- ; ideralioiis t!m necessity for laying down at any rate live- in the coming financial year had to lie faced. This "'as a bar" minimum, and undoubiedly involved a. wholly undue oiling up of replacement work in subsequent years, not only in respect of the large number ot cruisers, which would have had to be laid down in subsequent years, but also because from |(l'J7-8 onwards \vc shall have to lace a large programme of destroyer replacement, while after ID’.I V' .•■hall, under the provisions of the Washington Treaty, begin to be laced with heavy expenditure in the replacement of capital ships.

I'BGKNT NKKIIK. Ii was clear, therefore, that from the point ol view of a more even distt'ibiitiMi oi work and cxpetidil nr*, and in eider to secure belter tenders, it was highly desirable to lay down a I"i '"!' number of cruisers in the next two or three tears, and the Admiralty were able to p'-T-uade I lie late Government that in view of the exfretue gravity of the miemplm mein sitiiiitiott in the great dockyard eeiilres, such a pokey would he justified, not only on naval grounds, hut also from the act mil point of view of fiiiaiusv and national welfare, by saving both the eo.-t and the demoralisation of I (tat i mil'll unemployment. The late Got ('i tniieiit accordingly sanctioned the programme which 1 laid before the House ol Commons o:t January ill. Ibis provided lor the immediate laving down i,| eight light- cruisers, and iff addition of three submarines and a submarine depot ship, two destroyers, and a destroyer depot ship, two gunboats lor the A attgtse, a special ship lor the I’ersiau Gulf, an aircraft carrier and a minelayer. All these were

necessary requirements urgently needed fur replacement. The whole programme would have given direct em-

ployment to :V2.flfltl men. and would have involved a special addition of Co,000,(MO to the Navy Kstimntes for the touting year. The present Gov-

eminent has cut down the provision to the laying down of five cruisers and two destroyers, on which only Cl.>00,00(1 are to he spent in the oomiiur year. This is less than half the programme I put forward, and naturally, from the point of view of employment. means less than half the work. As a matter of fact as three of the cruisers are to he laid down at the Royal Dockyards, this means that there will only he two cruisers and two destroyers to go round something like a dozen great shipbuilding centres. all of which it had been hoped

would be helped by the original programme. From the point of view of naval necessities tho programme is also essentially inadequate and involves a heavy piling up of cost on future naval estimates. This was the very least that even a Pacifist Government could do. Jhlt so little have tho requirements of naval defence ever been seriously considered hy their followers, that tho announcement of this inadequate programme of mere replacement evoked a storm of protest from the Government's 'Supporters. A large section of the l.iboral party, out for mischief, sought to lake advantage of this and il required all tho authority of the Prime Minister, us well as the help of tho Ftiioiitst party in the division lobby, to defeat an amendment which was in effect a direct vote of censure.

The Government have announced that they are investigating the whole programme of our needs in regal'd to cruiser replacement. What, is essential is that their investigation should be determined, not by political pressure within their own party, hut by actual facts of a situation which, in view of our absolute dependence on keeping open the sea routes of the world, can only he regarded as disquieting.