MORE MEN FOR THE FLEET

Taranaki Daily News, 8 July 1915, Page 3

MORE MEN FOR THE FLEET

TOTAL PERSONNEL 0(10,000. Kilty thousand more men are now i>lllhi>risf-<l tn lie added to the' personnel of the British Navy, which at present stands at a round quarter of u milli-n men. This includes officers and men in the active tleet service, in the licet " serve, Royal Naval Reserve, and Rou;! Naval Volunteers. The Navy Estimates for 1914-15 provided for a total personnel of 210,0;;.") men, which, with the use of a certain margin for expansion, pave an aggrcj.-.tc of 215.000 officers and men, including boys and cadets under training. The total" of active service ratings shown in the Estimates numbered 151.000, and the reserves 1)5,0(55. Mr. Archibald Hurd, writing on thin subject at tho beginning of the war, said that approximately 200,000 men, it could be assumed, were available lor service. "It is an axiom that in peace we have more ships than we can man, while in war wc shall have a good surplus of men after manning all the ships. When passing from a peace to a war footing, Royal Naval Reservists well trained men with from five to seven years service—and others become available, and the Fleet was fully mobilised, having no inconsiderable surplus to nial:e good the casualties of battle." This new 50,000 is not for the purpose if making good the wastage of war, which was a few days ago stated to have been 13,547 up till" the end of May. These losses are made good, presumably, whol ly by drawing upon the .Royal Fleet Reserves. The establishment has already been increased up to a, quarter of a million; and this large personnel was what enabled the Admiralty to form the famous Naval Division which served at Antwerp and is now serving on the Oallipoli Peninsula. The new increase in the personnel strength of the Navy is no doubt due to the fact that several new vessels are ready or about to become ready to go into'service, including some large ships of very great power. Each of these large vessels needs a complement of, roiighly, a thousand men. All the new vessels likely to lie added to the active list cannot absorb anything like 50,(100 men; but the. process of making men-of-warmen is not a rapid one; anil the. margin is required to allow of elasticity at once and of future growth of the service.

How far the completion of npxv ships has j;oiio it is quite impossible to sav. Groat Britain does not allow'naval officers to give away valuable information on sueh matters, in the way that a German lately told a great deal about the new German ships. Just as the Queen Elizabeth stepped into the public eye at the moment she fired her first shot in anger, so others will no doubt do. Upon matters of this kind the enemy 1 will make unpleasant discoveries if he ' gives himself a suitable opportunity. There' are certain squadrons, for instance, which at the outbreak of the war did not possess the uniformity of type which is the first principle in modern naval organisation; and these, may by now have, been rounded off completely. A case in point was the First Battle Cruiser Squadron, which at tha battle of the Dogger Bank in January included the New Zealand and the Invincible. These vessels, fine shipa as they are, were weaker in armament and slower in speed than their 13-Sin. gunned companions; and such elements in a squadron do not improve its efficiency. Such reorganisation, as far as it ailects the Xcw Zealand, would remove her from the first line of battle cruisers (presumably into the Second Battle Cruiser Squadron, where her gnus and speed would be matched), but it improves the efficiency, not only of the squadrons affected, but of the individual vessels.