NAVY MAN JOINS LABOUR

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 845, 13 December 1929, Page 9

NAVY MAN JOINS LABOUR

iDEWAR URGES ABOLITION; OF BIG WARSHIPS GREAT ECONOMY INDICATED ! United P.A.—By Telegraph—Copyright j Reed. 11 a.m. LONDON, Thursday. Rear-Admiral Kenneth G. B. Dewar, | who was concerned in the Royal Oak j i court-martial, and who recently joined j the Labour Party, furnishes an article l in the “Daily Herald,” in which he I ! urges the abolition of the battleship, I the battle-cruiser, and the giant] aircraft-carrier. He describes the last-named as a 1 i costly monstrosity, which no country ! would have thought of building had Lngiaiid not set the example. The real work of trade protection in war* ! time was always carried out by small j cruisers and destroyer flotillas. The continual growth in the size of warships was not due to functional necessity, but to unreasoning rivalry. There was no reason why the limit should be 10,000 tons. This was suggested merely because the maritime | Powers possessed a number of such ! ships. A downward scale could only j be limited by a sufficiency of sea-going ; qualities, fuel, endurance, speed and gun-power, all of which were obtainable in a vessel under 5,000 tons. The abolition of battleships would entail a huge contingent economy. For example, the demand for the Singapore Base was based solely on the maintenance of battleships.