Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1935. EMPIRE NAVAL NEEDS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 299, 1 October 1935, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1935. EMPIRE NAVAL NEEDS.

Following the British Government’s official denial to the American Ambassador of the truth of the report that a big naval building programme is proposed, it is reported that before the end of next February contracts amounting to £10,000,000 will be placed. This is merely normal expenditure, the amount being negligible compared with what is planned in the United States. The fact that cruisers and destroyers form the principal units of the projected building is of interest in view of the criticism that has been voiced lately regarding Britain’s weakness in vessels suitable for the defence of the Empire trade routes. The safety of Britain herself depends largely upon the freedom of the seas. The unrestricted submarine warfare which opened at the beginning of 1917 showed that Britain’s danger was not of invasion but of a virtual siege by sea. The great battle fleet might be a protection against the first peril, but it was not against the second. It was no use keeping shores inviolate if behind the ramparts of the guarded coast the population starved. That was the prospect until an effective counterstroke to the submarine, preying on merchant shipping, was devised. For the safe conduct of merchant ships carrying essential foodstuffs, and of troopships hurrying reinforcements to the battlefields, the convoy system was applied. In a sense it was not new, for in the Napoleonic wars great convoys of ships under sail often journeyed together for mutual safety, and this was by no means the beginning of the system. In 1917 the problem lay in its application to vessels driven by steam, and an infinitely more complex timetable and against a vastly different form of attack. It was introduced amid bitter controversy and against the opposition of a considerable'body of expert opinion. The desperation of the need carried the day in its favour, its outstanding success silenced the critics. It was soon established that organisation and escort provided the means of keeping, ocean trade routes open against the menace of the submarine. The memory of that lesson has coloured British naval policy ever since. In all the conferences for the limitation of naval armaments, Britain has upheld her claim for light and mobile vessels, the obvious purpose of which would be to escort and protect merchant shipping. Reliance on oversea sources for food and raw material makes this department of her navy a matter oi life and death so long as any possibility of war at sea remains.