LATEST BRITISH BATTLESHIP.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 56, 6 March 1916, Page 2

LATEST BRITISH BATTLESHIP.

WONDERFUL ARMAMENT. The Agenzie Nazionale, Rome, states that Germany is making colossal preparations for a naval offensive in the spring. It is said that the enemy will have a new type of torpedoproof ship, armed with 16Linch and perhaps 20-incli guns. The following outspoken yet significant paragraph from the Dally News, London, in an article headed “The Next Fight,” says:

“The guns of that great battleship which joined the fleet not many days ago are very true. The few on shore who knew of the leviathan’s unheralded coming and watched with well justified pride the passing of the battle squadron —the last word in naval construction —said to each other: ‘The guns mounted on that boat are not intended to hit ships.’ No, nor will they. They will hit something else, and will crumble what they hit into ashes and dust.

“The Germans recently launched a new battleship, the von Hindenburg. There were realistic pictures in the German papers of the ceremony. Even in England excellent illustrations appeared of the great ship leaving the ways; the publicity was excellently stage managed, and the bulk of the von Hindenburg launching into the water, even though its engines may never be built in, was supposed to 1 show the people of the Central Powers that the German “command” of the seas is no chimera, and that organisation for its fruition is proceeding. “We have a different way of doing things in this country. .Legions of men work night and day among the w ve .,it steel ribs in the shipyards, legions mere are at work in the engine rooms, and still more legions are in the forges at Newcastle, Birkenhead, Barrow, and Parkshead casting the guns that will soon make the British nation open the eyes of the whole world. The great ships are finished c-'iently and secretly. Thep pass out to their appointed places and we hear nothing. Only a few on shore watch them sail away. Pride in their power beats fist in the hearts of those who speed the monarchs of the deep on their way. All is conducted behind a veil.”