PACIFIC STORM CENTRE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 101, 29 April 1913, Page 7

PACIFIC STORM CENTRE.

Trim BATTLESHIPE* COMMISSIONED.

P Word hfle Bgen unofficially received ia Melbourne of Admiralty action that will modify, although it can not dissolve, the fear expressed that the Royal Australian Navy wae to be left iiie sole efficient guardian of British interests in the Pacific. The Admiralty Has commjeeioaed the battleship Swiftsure for service on the East Iridic* station, and it is expected that her eister ship, the Triumph, will ehoftly be dispatched as flagship to the China nidation. Tb/eee veseels belong to the pre-Dread-nought era. They could not, jom a first line of battle in the North Sea. But they are good, weil-equipped fighting aliipe, and when it deckled to send them to the Pacific the Admiralty made a sacrifice of North Sea fighting eerength for Pacific fighting strength—a sacrifice opposed to Hβ policy of concentration, and unpopular with the bulk of British naval opinion. The arrival of the Swifteure and the Triumph (says bhe Melbourne cbrreEpdndent of the Sydney "Sun") will indicate a welcome determination of the British Government to fulfil the 1909 nav.il agreement, under wliieh Australia agreed to construct its Dreadnoughtheaded unit. Australia has kept the agreement, ac One world may see. New Zealand has done her part. The Admiralty have, until this new development, given no indication of intending to do their part. Great Britain explicitly agreed to create in the East Indies and the China waters two units, equal in strength to that of Australia. Each irnii ■warn ttt comprise one Dreadnought, three unarmoured criifeers, six destroyers and three submarines. The ecbeme wa'e later amended to provide for the cruisers beinf fitted with a substantial belt of ermotfr, and the submarine flotilla*; comprising two large instead of three email craft. The proposed dispatch of the Swifteure and the Triumph ie the first step taken by the Admiralty towards the fulfilment of their bargain, and its main significance lice in the indication of Admiralty intention to supply the full units proposed. The Swifteure and fche Triumph were ; origina-Ily constructed for the Chilian Government, arid w?re named Gonfetituciori. Urid Lihertad. They were launched at Elewick and Bai-row early in And boiigKt By ihe Imperial Government it the end of that year. TJieir displacement ie 11.800 tons,' tieir boree-ppwdr 14,000, and their speed 20 knots. They eifry fieavy Ki-npp 10 and 7 inch armour, and each hae four loin, fourteen 7.sfii, fourteen 3ih, and four 6-pr. gfufie. Kothing to compare with the -Australia, it jfe true, but useful adjuncts tij the Cemmonirealth moneter's eight tweJveincbem. The white man's naval strength is.still a negligible quantity. Great Brrtain'6 four crnisere, of aboiit 50,000 tonnage, Australia'e fleet of a-bmit 35;066 tonnage. Amerjea'e cix ciii-iaere of Germany's two of 23.000; aiid France's two of 15,000 are of little account comp'sbrej with Japan's treniehdoire of 29 arrtid'ur-ed ehi|»j including 20 battleships and battle-crnisers. und excluding seven Dreadnoughts building. And present projects—otiltos the Panama Canal ie to make a rapid *nd complete change in plans— : are of little account, compared with Japan's naval scheme of thirtythree new. fighting ships—tweiitv-eeven of them DfeadnougSte—t>y W2l. r.'; \