The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH Is INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1914. NAVAL LOSSES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 274, 17 November 1914, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH Is INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1914. NAVAL LOSSES.

In following the course of the war it is essential that we should measure British losses at sea solely by their military importance, remarks a special writer in the Christchurch Press. It is, of course, quite na'tiiral' that we should be sliqcked by the heavy losses of life, wliich have attended the sinking of several of our ships, but viewed in the light of the grim realities of war, our losses to date are comparatively insignificant. But sorrow at the loss of so many British lives must not blind us to the real position. Disregarding the losses of submarines and small craft, an analysis shows that Britain has lost ten cruisers, including the Pegasus disabled at Zanzibar. All of these, with the exception of the small cruisers Araphion and Pathfinder, which have since been replaced, were old ships, and more or less obsolete, five of them being armored cruisers from twelve to fourteen years old, which, until the war started, were not in full commission. Including the Geier, which has been interned at Honolulu, Germany has lost ten or eleven cruisers, six of which were comparatively new ships. The German navy is weak in cruising ships, .and the loss of these vessels is therefore a serious matter. Without counting Britain’s undiminished and overwhelming superiority in battleships and battlecruisers, she still possesses twentynine armored cruisers—all built since the Gressy class—while Germany has only eight, including the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, which are cut off from the North Sea. In light cruisers of all classes, not including the Australian ships, Britain's strength is even more marked. We have no fewer than eighty-three light cruisers, including eight nearing completion and due to commission very shortly, while Germany has only thirty-five* including two which will not be completed for some months yet.