THE TWO NAVIES.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13427, 20 May 1909, Page 4

THE TWO NAVIES.

GERMAN SHIPBUILDING RESOURCES.

Bγ John Lbtlasd.

There appears to have teen a good deal of loose talking and writing on tho subject of British and German shipbuilding and the promise of tho future. No cause for panic or immediate alarm exists, but there is every reason for vigilance and zealous preparation, as I shall endeavour to show.

We are not without some grounds of certainty as to what Germany is doing. That the Dreadnoughts Nassau ana Westfalen will be completed in tne autumn of the present year has been announced. The former, through some mischance, sank in the basin at- Wilhelmshaven, and men to the number of 8,000 have been working night and da., on that ship and a sister vessel to make good the delay, and there can b? no doubt that both the Nassau and Westfalen trill bo ready at the appointed time. The Hheinland mid Posen, which were begun three months later—i.e., in the summer of 1907— will be ready at about the same time or a few weeks later. They are being built at the Vnlkan yard, Stettin. ,?nd th* Gormania (Krnpp) yard, Kiel, which are outpacing: the Government dockyards. Thus we have four Dreadnoughts.

TWENTY TO SEVENTEEN.

There arc throe others building at Wiliu'lmshaven; the Howald yard, Kiel (which has. sprung into now importance in association with Krupp.); and the Weser yard, Bremen; and these, begun in the summer of last year, will be completed before the end of 1910 or early in 1911. So njuch, then, is certain with regard to seven Gorman Dreadnoughts. Three others belong to the year 1909, and there has Leon feverish activity in accelerating preparations for them. Mr McKenna .says that orders were given last Octcber with tins object, but there seems some probability that they were issued some months earlier, and thero is no reason to doubt that the tlirce ships will be ready before the end of 1911. E\erything turns upon the rapidity of construction that will be imparted to the ships that belong to the year 1910, but as there is doubt on the matter we may conclude with probability, amounting to practicil certainty on our side, that they will be out of hand in 1912.

Thus we arrive at thirteen German Dreadnoughts, being presumably those referred to by Admiral yon Tirpitz. But these ships are independent of the German Indomitables, F, G, H, and I, which also belong to the Dreadnought category. F will be ready in the autumn of next year, or possibly earlier; G a few months later; and H and I, which belong to the- years 1909 and 1910, before the end of 1912. In this way we arrive at the seventeen Dreadnoughts indicated by Mr Asquith and Mr McKenna as to be completed in the lastnamed year. Mr Balfour's estimate of twenty-one ships is based on the hypothesis that four additional ships will hi laid down in 1911, and will be so accelerated that they also will be ready in 1912. The point to be kept in view is that if the German programme should be- accelerated in this way, we can expedite our own to keep pace with it It is obviously of vital importance ti keep the lead, for otherwise national and Imperial safety will be thrown into an even balance.

We have eight Dreadnoughts built and building, and four Indomitables, making twelve in all, and we are laying down four more, and providing means to begin another four, presumably on April 1, 1910 (to be completed in 1912), making twenty Dreadnoughts, to oppose to the seventeen of the Germans. Meanwhile, it will be possible, and may be necef'sary, to lay down other ships in 1910-11, completing them also in 1012. There is. therefore, good reason to trust the Government and the Admiralty to do what is right in the matter. There is the lea* reason to give way to panic and excitement, because we have also the Lord Nelson and Agamemnon, which can well lie m the line with Dreadnoughts, and an overwhelming superiority in pre-Dread-nought ships.

BENEFITS OF CONTINUITY.

The great advantage that the Germans possess is the continuity and certainty of tlw> naval policy tha.t results'from tho measured- expansion at the fleet, which began with the >avy Law of 1893, was doubled by that of 1000, and was expanded and accelerated by the amendments of 1906 and 1908. The'conseouence of this definite and ordered development of the German navy has been an enormous increase in the'shipbuilding resources of the country.

The Germania yard at Kiel has grown enormously; the How aid yard has begun to build the largest ships m association with it; the Vulkan yard at Stettin, which lias slips for the building of four large ships at the same time, is opening a new establishment on the Elbe, for which a large dry-dock is completing; Blohm and Voss at Hamburg are building the big cruiser-battleships; the Weser yard at Bremen-has largely increased its accommodation within the last two years, so that it can have on tho stocks four large ships at the same time; and Schichou has opened an establishment at Danzig for the largest work, in addition to his destroyer yard at Elbing.

All, these stand apart from the great State dockyards at Kiel and at Wilhelmshaven, which last is now being developed into tho second largest dockyard in the world. It is for the Foreign Office and the Admiralty to say with what object this prodigious expansion of German .shipbuilding resources is taking place. We find no parallel to it in this country., whore the pause in shipbuilding after the launch of the Dreadnought hed a depressing effect upon the private yards. In this connection some account of the great Krupp establishments, which, lyesides building warships, make all the guns, gun-mountings, and armour-plat-ing for the whole navy, will illustrate the condition of affairs with which we are confronted. "KRUPP'S." At the Germania yard the Krupp firm had two years ago seven slips adapted for the building of large ships of war, four of them boing covereo, so that work could go on at all seasons of the v vear unimpeded, and was ready to lay down two such ships yearly and to complete them -within from twenty-four to thirty months. The yard covers a great area, and has a sea frontage of 875 yards. In addition to the big .slix>s there is accommodation for building five or six destroyers at t.h« same time. In January, 1907, 3-jQO workmen we're employed, and although a veil of secrecy has since been thrown over the progress of the establishment, it is known that the staff has been very greatly increased. There are foundries and forges, shops for fitting, bending, making angle-irons, and coppersmiths' work, erecting shop, saw and carpentry works, and all the requirements of a great shipbuilding yard. The enormous works at 1-Jssen employed even in 1906 more than 35,000 men. Here heavy shaking of all kinds is made, including ship-propeller shafts, guns of all calibres —constructed on the !i.:i't-up principle—for naval., fortress, and military purposes, gun shields, turrets, disappearing carriages, gun mountings, accessories, ammunition of evory class. armo:ir-plati;!g, and constructive steel. But Essen does not stand alone. At that place and at Aleppen and Tangerhuttt are extensive proving grounds for gun and ar-mour-plate testing. The company owns

tliree coliierics, ono at Essen and two near Bochum. It has numerous iron ore mines in Germany and shares in others at Bilbao, in Spain. Two blast furnaces are on the Mm-dle Rhine as well as a foundry and engineering works In addition are the Fredncn-•Vlfrc-'l-Hutte at Bheinhauser-Fnemcr-sheira, the Annen Steel m Westphalia, and the Grusonwerk at Buckau, near Magdeburg. ~vi In 1907 tho various Krupp establishments employed 64,350 men. Since that time thero has bwn onormous uevelopment, but no information in relation thereto has been made public. There are rumours that other establishments in Germany, and outside Ger'trany, have been brought into the Krupp establishment, or are subsidised by it, for the purposes or the German navy. In January, 1907, the capital of the company, which was in tho hands of trustees for the benefit of the daughter of the late Friedorich Alfred Kjfupp, was £9,000,0C0. Last year it wStf , found* that the acceleration in the rate of construction in all the shipbuilding yards of Germany demanded increasodresources for the manufacture of guns, gun-mountings, and armourplate, and of many other requirements for ship construction, and additional capital to the amount of £2,5C0,000 was raised by bankers and others without publicity. Enough lias boen said to show how serious is tho effort being made by Germany to excel in tho race for naval supremacy. There is , no immediate dwnger, but we shall have to make up our minds to bear heavier burdens in the future.—"Daily Chronicle."