Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 1931. THE GERMAN NAVY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 51, Issue 129, 13 March 1931, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 1931. THE GERMAN NAVY.

The 1931 Naval Budget adopted by a committee of the Reichstag includes the first instalment of the cost of Germany’s second “pocket” battleship, according to a cabled message published yesterday. This vessel is one of four planned some three years ago. Of ten thousand tons, the first vessel was reported to be the' most remarkable warship afloat. No other has such a large cruising radius at a high speed. She can carry enough oil fuel to cover ten thousand miles at a speed of twenty knots, her maximum being twenty-six knots. The armament is very formidable and includes six 11-inch guns, firing projectiles of 670 lbs., with a range of 30,000yds. Her great cruising radius, in the absence of German overseas bases, constitues an important strategical advantage, because she will be fast enough to escape any capital ship except a battlecruiser, and will be strong enough to overpower any type of warship below the Dreadnought standard. Ihe estimated cost of the ship is £4,000,000. Some time, ago the Daily l elegraph’s” naval correspondent disclosed the fact that Germany, in addition to having a “pocket battleship, possesses the last word in cruisers. These vessels, of which four are either afloat or under construction, are of only six thousand tons, but cost far more than Britain’s ten thousand ton vessels. It is plain that German ingenuity is being exercised to the full, making the most formidable vessels possible inside the limits imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. Under the Treaty Germany is limited to six battleships of ten thousand tons, six light cruisers, tvkelve destroyers and twelve torpedo boats, and unless a vessel has been lost* units of the various classes can be replaced oply at stated terms of years— - twenty years in the case of battleships and cruisers, and fifteen in the case of other vessels, there is, however, another great handicap under which German naval policy labours. Ships are no use without men. The entire naval personnel of Germany to man the fleet, coast defences, signal stations, administration and . other land services is limited to 15,000 of all ranks; No extra reserve, time-expired or volunteer, is permitted. It follows, therefore, that with all the efficiency that can- be packed into the units of the post-war fleet, full observance of the Treaty of Versailles means that the navy cannot be more than a shadow of its prewar self.