WHERE NAVIES ARE BORN.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 10, 11 January 1918, Page 2

WHERE NAVIES ARE BORN.

DEFEATING THE SUBMARINE

WONDERS OF THE WORKSHOP.

Travelling down to the Clyde, in the company of a naval guide kindly furnished by the Admiralty, I have had a unique opportunity of seeing the press of work behind the fleet, and behind all those other thousands of smaller vessels that patrol the seas, defend ports, search out su.marines, and transport armies and supplies (says the " Sydney Sun " special correspondent). The difficulty is that so many are the secrets here that one cannot record facts, but only impressions. No slip is empty, no slip is occupied longer than necessary. Keels are being prepared and plates forged for ships far ahead in the scheme of construction. The Clyde took up the submarine's challenge as soon as uttered, and here on its countless slips is proof of its fighting capacity.

I can only hint at what we are building. Naval ships, of course, of every kind, some different from anything afloat, others improvements on the last of their type. Looking at them, you would say that the flying submarine will come some day, and the Clyde will be the first into the ocean with it. And a mass of merchantmen—standardised and other types, all faster than pre-war types, and better fitted for war conditions. One sees here some fast beauties that would look well in Australian ports with a stomach full of Australian wheat and meat. We shall see some of them, after the war.

BUSY WORKERS. Difficulties are merely those of physical capacity. A limit is* reached in men's and women's endurance, and in suppty of material. Within that limit, shipbuilding has been organised at a rate which, if the war goes on long enough, will some day outdo any efforts that the submarine can make. It is true that this great ocean-goer on this slip here, tucKed away between seven other new ships on seven other siips, may be sunk on it 3 first voj'age, with its holds full and its engine bearings still showing their initial coating of oil. The Clyae is truly a place of tragedy—the work of six months disappears in six minutes. But on the law of averages the Clyde Yeats the submarine.

From a launch on the river the workers fashioning and riveting the hard steel are mere dehumanised instruments of the nation. But inside the yards they are in full truth human—stocky., strong-thinking, proud, skilled, male mechanics, and pretty though smudgy unskilled women workers in overall trousers and blousee, all with the sweat and grease of labour on them, but all eager and satisfied.

THE QUESTION OF SUPPLIES. ! So far there is no shortage of materials. Much in future depends on our success in maintaining ore traffic and metal supplies, for most of these come a long way by sea through submarine zones. We have reserves, and sound 'systems, and should get through. Aβ for labour, there is never enough of it. More workers would ineah a larger output. The Clyde could use all the skilled workers it can get, and many thousands of unskilled also. There is no shortage of women volunteers here; for the women like work, they like to earn their thirty shillings or two pounds weekly, and they like to help in war. The question of male labour is the" ceaA;less question of conflict between army needs and> internal needs.

Most of the men are working ten or eleven hours a day, with occasional holidays and with Sundays off, except for riveters. Are the hours too long? All concerned regard them from the point of view of efficiency, and ask rather, would we get a greater output by shorter hours? Certainly the labourers look jaded, as though the task were indeed heavy. But the steel most be fashioned and the rivets driven home.

NO INDUSTRIAL UNREST. Of the industrial unrest which has become a nightmare to many in London, I could see no sign here. Men and women are earning more than enough for life and comfort, though increased costs are eating up their increased wages. They have willingly abandoned many of their cherished privileges. For many months they have been content to be tied by law to their set tasks* unable to go elsewhere even to better-paid positions. They do not talk or think revolution, but read the war news, and hope for victory, and for the safety and triumph of their families and friends in the battlefields. These •workers will go more than half-way to meet their industrial masters to win the war. Stories of high earnings are mostly fabulous. Most are on piecework. Riveters earn from £5 to £10 weekly, but many skilled .workers, with the war bonus of 10/ or 15/, do not exceed £3 a week.

I found little appreciation amongdt employers of Australia's efforts to provide labour. Considering the smalliiees of anything Australia can do, and the cost and difficulties of transport, it seems that the present system of sending labour here has largely failed. If it is to be continued, there should he insistence upon the definite provision of work 'for all the. men so that they may become ibusy in useful jobs as soon ac they arrive.

SUBMERSIBLE AXTI-SUBMARIttES. A word may' be said about the fight with explosives against the Huns at sea. The fight with dockyards, as expressed hero in the building of many ships to replace those sunk, has ite excitements, its failures, and ite successes. The fight with explosives is even more tense and arduous.

I do not think that anyone in authority amongst the Allies will claim that we are sinking more submarines than Germany is, building. The figures ■would probably show that for the time being the German dockyards are turning out more submarines than we can sink, and that the U-boat fleet gradually increases. Yet the submarine is already losing its power. The wprst days of the sinking of merchantmen seem to have passed.

Why? Because we hurry and torment the Huns, keening them under water defeating their Torpedoes, chasing always on their tracks, making their existence a perfect misery. British submariners wdiild take more sporting risks than the Germans do, and iwould probably hold up the world's traffic. But the German commander ie a cautious, nervous chap, anJ he hates what young British submariners, fresh from the vigorous school of the Grand Fleet, would call a "sporting chance." j

In this tormenting of submarines we use many strange ships. Strangest of all are our own submarines, now forming nearly as imposing a fleet of submeraibles as the great U-boat fleet of Germany.