FUTURE BRITISH NAVY.

Taihape Daily Times, 18 February 1919, Page 4

FUTURE BRITISH NAVY.

DISPERSAL OF GRAND FLEET LONDON, January 30. Admiral Sir David Beatty, when receiving the freedom of Edinburgh on Saturday, announced that the Grand Fleet was being dispersed. Mr Archibald Hurd, naval expert, of the Daily Telegraph, discussing the effects of this great transformation. says that a considerable proportion of the ships must be placed forthwith on a peace footing, under the nucleus crew system. With the removal of the target in northern waters, a considerable force must be retained in the Channel, and an edequats squadron in the Mediterranean, but the' navy must in a largo measure be employed on die outer seas. The flag must again be shown in Canada, the Pacific, China, and tne Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf.

Whatever the Admiralty’s plans, they must fit in with the idea of the Dominions, which will certainly desire to bear a larger .share in the defence of the Empire, as their request for Jellicoo’s advice seems to indicate.

The opportunity now offers of creating something in the nat ire of an force —an Imperial squadron of Queen Elizabeths, or some such, ships, for ocean going work, each Section of the Empire .making an appropriate contribution of vessels, officers and men, and leaving to the Dominions the provision of localised mobile defence forces.

The most experienced statesmen of the Dominions admit that the problem is not insoluble, but the matter will need the more careful hand dr. g if the opportunity now offered is net to be lost.