FIGHTING SHIPS

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 195, 13 May 1924, Page 7

FIGHTING SHIPS

COMPARISON OF STRENGTH OF POWERS AMERICAN VESSELS IN POOR CONDITION SHORTAGE OF BASES AND OIL RESERVES Washington, May 11. The admission that a fair comparison of the present lighting strength in ships of Great Britain, the United States, and Japan, would appear as five-four-three, with the United States in the second place, wan made bv Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, Assistant-Secre-tary to the Navy, in a report to the Naval Affairs Committee. Mr. Roosevelt qualified this view by asserting that it was difficult to state the exact strength of the United States owing to the varving ratios in different tvpes Also, lie did not take into consideration that strategic naval bases no r the relative strength of the various merchant marines. Ha conceded that the fleet was in w condition because *'Congress failed to provide funds to keep it in shape, the Atlantic Fleet being practically out of commission Recent manoeuvres bad to be broken off because the flagship Wvoming, and the Arkansas. Utah, and Florida needed repairs. They aro tied up now because their boilers aro ’’n had shape, but there is no money to do the.work. We have no operating bases in the Pacific at all adequate, and. tho Atlantic bases, though they are better, are also not nearly adequate. As regards petroleum reserves. we have s deficiencv of 68 per cent, in the reserves required in. the Pacific, and the Atlantic reserve deficiencies are •ven, greater.”—Aus.-N-Z. Cable Assn.