A SECRET FLEET.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 394, 30 March 1937, Page 3

A SECRET FLEET.

RUMOURS FROM .SOVIET Small Credence Given Them. Reports of a powerful fleet secretly built by the Soviet union at carefully guarded shipyards in the far north recur from time to time to arouse public interest and stir discussion, though experts are inclined to laugh at them, says a London message. Despite the experts’ laughter, fear of the Soviet fleet is one of the reasons given for Germany’s insistence on more sea power, and Moscow engaged, not long since in talks with London for a naval treaty between the two powers.

The difficulty of obtaining any accurate information about Russian naval vessels and the impossibility of learning anything definite of building plans has helped the rumours. Study of such accurate data ae fire avlailable, however, shows that there is little chance of the Soviet Union’s having any great surprise in store tor the navies of the world. Aside from the actual ships and their condition, naval experts agree that the organisation aboard Soviet raen-of-war makes efficiency like that of the British and American navies non-existent. Every ship carries a political staff headed by a military commissar, who all too often is entirely ignorant of naval affairs. He is independent of the captain and has power to override his orders on all but purely technical matters. All disciplinary action must .be approved by the commissar and his staff; and If they see fit to complain to Moscow of the captain he stands little chance of winning the argument. Naval men have agreed for the most part that shipyards in the tar north of Russia, while they might be kept secret from the rest of the world, would have no other advantage and would have the somewhat serious disadvantage of being practically useless as shipyards. Reports that submarines are being built inland in pieces and shipped to the coast for assembly may be perfectly true, it Is said, but these are probably small submarines, and if a really large fleet of them is built it probably will be Impossible to keep its existence secret.

Some 60 submarines are known to be owned by the Soviet Union, although only 23 were reported by the official answers to questions by the British Admiralty for its annual report on world fleets. Most of them are said to be stationed at Vladivostok, in the Pacific, with a smaller supporting force of destroyers and other smaller surface craft. As for larger warships, the state of those whose existence is known is considered proof that if any others exist they are not a formidable force to be reckoned with in world sea power. Of the navy’s four battleships— Of the navy’s four battleships he Mikhail Frunze is said to have been condemned, although it may be undergoing rebuilding. Another, the Pariiskala Kornmuna, cruised from the Baltic to the Black Sea six years ago, and the admitted reason for its not returning is that it is too unseaworthy to face the return voyage.

One of the five comparatively modern cruisers, the 6000-ton Proflntern, also steamed from the Baltic to the Black Sea at the same time, but had to halt at Brest and again at Naples for repairs. The conclusion generally drawn is that Soviet shipyards are still incapable of doing efficient construction or repair work on large warships.