SHORTAGE IN NAVY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 221, 11 June 1908, Page 7

SHORTAGE IN NAVY.

■ —❖- —— ■ . NUCLEUS CREWS. NOT ENOUGH MEN FOR MANOEUVRES. RELIEFS DIVERTED. IV TELECQArn—PREBfI ASSOCIATION —COPYHICHI. London, Juno 9. Tho " Standard" complains that, owing to tho serious shortage of men for bringing tho nucleus crews of - warships to their full strength, the Admiralty authorities have decided . that tho crujsor Gibraltar shall go through tho forthcoming manoeuvres with tho relief crow from tho Doris, tfeforo relieving the Challenger, now on the Australian station. ~ THE SYSTEM ARRAIGNED/ . ..A great controversy has raged-round tho merits and demerits of the system of nucleus crews. The strength of a nucleus crew; ac-. cording .to-Mr. Herbert Russell, is supposed to average two-fifths of a full complement, the result-being that "a battleship in reserve .would permanently havo on board some 250 officers, petty offieors, bluejackets, artificers, stokers, and marines. Theso men knew the ship,, and her little foibles—for a ship is oven more'capricious than a human being in her Kinims. The idea was that. when a warvessel was completed-to. full-'complement those two-fifths of the total,'thoroughly.familiarised with the working ,of her, would serve, as a leaven to the throe-fifth-' proportion of strangers,'and so avert that dislocation of routino inseparable from a completely new commissioning." • Nuole'us crews,. Mr. Ritssell 'admits, are a great advance on the former care-and-mainten-ance parties scrapped togothor: from barracks and dockyards, and raised the old Reserve Fleet to a. condition of continuous commission; but when the nucleus crew principle is-extended in order to cover an activefleet, too much is asked of it. ". "From continuity :of commission, on. very limited lines, in the Re- , serve, we passed to the wholesale reduction of war-worthiness . of 1 a' very . substantial section of our Active fleet ; . Tho section of the Active fleet reducod' to nucleus companies becomes forthwith a Reserve fleet.' The' distinction is a. Very important one.. . .- . It is ridiculous to pretend that a nucleusmanned . sgiiadron . can be got into fighting trim-' .within ' twenty-four hours: . A- stealthy process of deterioration .insensibly,-sets in from the moment when the vast floating box ot tricks, which forms the modern ! fighting machine, is deprived .of the full numbers whose days; and nights are coaselessly taken up in maintaining her at the concert pitch of preparation." ■ '. ' . 1_ ■ Another writer ! says:—"lt was a condition that the Reserve Fleet should be ready for war. -It has never been ready. It has never mobilised under several weeks' notice. The -'surprise mobilisations' were carefully prepared for. , llesorvo Fleet had no night training. Not a ship in it was fit to fight until tho full oYewof officers and men had done one to three months' training. • The brain and, muscle theory did' not work. The officers and,-men necess.ar.y- for complete fire control—or gunnery' practice—wero not j included in the nucleus , crews. As 'an expert writer has recently explained, tlio returns of .gunnery advertised in the newspapers, and ; proclaimed in both Houses. of Parliament, boro no relation to,,war conditions, and- as comparative estimates of even a particular kind of excellence-were demonstrably worthless. '

"Evory ship in. tho Resorve Fleet (now called the Home Fleet), being in partial commission, an'd therefore suffering wear and tear,'is.aq-. cumulating repairs bvery day. '■ No provision has been made,, or is being made,, for executing those repairs. This is a ' matter of common ; sense. , A vast equipment - of- mar ohinery .in use will- constantly' develop small defects. In time these' defects will render her unseaworthy. Many of the Homo Fleet ships aro now actually in, that condition. In the course of a-, year or '-two they will all bo in that condition. The country.will then bo required . either" to . spend millions; in repairs, or .to scrap the ships and snend . moro millions in now vessels, unless it rests ''content' with a fleet -that ran neither, steam., nor, fight. , "Under: the - old ;-system' -the.. ships in ...the'Roservo were not .usetl, but maintained.. Therefore they did not/require "repairing. Therefore! they- were, fit to'igo ;to sen;":.;; •,