REBUILDING THE ROYAL NAVY

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 99, 21 January 1936, Page 2

REBUILDING THE ROYAL NAVY

Long-term Programme

PROBABLE COST OF £150,000,000

Personnel an Urgent

Problem

(By Sin AncniuALU Hunn.) The report, which obtained wide currency during the heat of the general election in the United Kingdom, that the British Fleet is going to be rebuilt without regard to the limitation* of the Washington and London Naval Treaties, and that immediately orders will be placed for the construction of a large number of meii-of-war. has no foundation. The British Government intends, of course, to abide by its pledges in regai’4 to all types of men-of-war, from battleships down the scale to submarines, so long as its present engagements bind it, that Ls, until the end of 1936.

The naval programme for the financial year, 1936-37, will consequently /not be in any way sensational, but will, closely resemble that of the present financial year. No money will be provided for the building of battleships, and provision will be made only for three cruisers, a destroyer leader and a. complete flotilla of destroyers and a batch of submarines, besides some sloops and auxiliary craft. Consequently, the new Navy estimates to be presented to the House of Commons in March, though they may be somewhat higher than those of 1935-36, will not make it necessary to impose additional taxation if, as there is every reason to expect, British trade continues to expand, leading to an increase in the revenue flowing into the Treasury and a decrease of the sums payable to the unemployed, now reduced by upward of one million since the peak figure of 1031. The urgent problem of the Admiralty is not so much materiel as personnel, because It takes much longer to train additional officers and men 'han it does to build the ships in which they will serve. The personnel of the Royal Navy is not restricted by either of the naval treaties. An experienced navql officer, who has seen many years’ service in the manning department of the naval administration, put the matter in a nutshell when he remarked the other day: “It will take eight years to make good the reductions which were carried out in a period of 24 months when the naval gestures were made in the hope of bringing about a general reduction of the strength of the navies of the world; it is a simple matter to cut down, because it is only necessary to shut plf the supply of recruits to make good the vacancies caused by retirement and death, but it is quite a different matter to replace that loss, while at the same time providing for future retirements and deaths.” Sc the imminent problem is to strengthen the personnel of the Royal Navy, which is inadequate for the efficient manning even of the ships now in commission. A Long-term Programme. But, on the other hand, the Government has pigeon-holed a long-term programme, covering the provision of ships, officers and men which' will be carried out as soon as the future is clear. The time has come when, without infringing the naval treaties, preparations can be made for building, battleships. Under the WashingtonTreaty provision was specifically made for th&se vessels, the maximum size and armaments of which were definitely specified. Only four of the 15 capital ships—battleships and battle cruisers—now in the squadrons at sea incorporate the lessons of the Great War. In the years which have intervened since the Peace Treaty was signed the peril of bombing aeroplanes has become much more serious than it was. This and other developments have created new problems which the Admiralty has been studying closely for a long time. The defence of existing battleships against such attack has to be strengthened and the task of laying down new units to replace those which have become obsolescent beyond hope of modernisation has to be undertaken. The number, size and armament of rhe new British battleships will reflect the conclusions of the Naval Conference in London. The situation has changed radically since the last assembly. In the first place, the British people, as the recent general election proved, recognise that the Royal Navy as at present constituted is inadequate for the defence of the Empire; the majority of the ships are obsolete an( ? the provision of cruisers, destroyers and submarines too small in view of the extent of the territory and the length of the trade routes to be defendedLord Beatty’s Declarations. Admiral of the Fleet Earl Beatty recently summed up tfie general opmion xyhen, following up the strong deduration of his predecessor in the com-, maud oil the Grand Fleet (Earl Jellicoe), he stated that at least the hie oldest battleships and two of the three battle cruisers, all over 20 years old, arc overdue for replacement. 1 r allure to reach agreement at the forthcoming Naval Conference," he has suggested, “may, of course, necessitate an even more extensive programme battleship construction than this," Our cruisers are lamentaly ifisn ficient for the many calls upon them. Here again our cruiser construction is at present limited by naval treaties. But we badly need more of them. At least half as many again ns we now have would be hardly adequate for a 1 our needs and a full half of the existing vessels are due for . Some 110 new destroyers and flotilla leaders, too. should be built in place of older cruft, and the < vldcst llln,ai ; ine | 4 ought to be similarly dealt with. liual Iv the Fleet Air Arm should be increased by 50 per cent, or half a dozen more squadrons. In default of some new agreement st the forthcoming Naval Conference as to general limitation of new building, this is what reconditioning of the Navi will involve. A Patriotic Naval Loan.

The National Government, as speeches of Ministers have indicated, recognise the necessity of re-establish-ing British naval power as speedily as possible. Thifi duty must be undertaken in order that the League of Nationsvinny function in preserving the peace Of the groat naval Powers, the United States and Japan are no longer members of the League; Germany, rapid! v rebuilding her HU.V.V. has broken ‘iwav from it: Italy is only a nominin member, mid Mussolini has shown for a long time that he regards it with indifference, if not contempt. The only

two nations represented at Geneva which possess first-class navies are'the United Kingdom and France. The French navy, especially jn fiattleships, is weak, though a considerable number of cruisers as well as large flotillas of destroyers and submarines have been built in recent years. In the interests of collective security, the French people regard ’ sympathetically the British Government’s determination to make the British Fleet more efficient for any task which the preservation of the peace of Europe may cast upon it. It is estimated that the long-term programme which the British Government will take in hand in the near future will involve an expenditure of £150,000,000. Declarations by the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Neville Chamberlain) have supported the belief that the money will be raised by a loan, since money on the London market is cheap and millions of pounds are awaiting investment. This would not mark a new departure in financial policy. In the latter half of the nineteenth century Naval Defence Acts were financed in this way, the last one when a Liberal Government was in office and Earl Spencer was First Lord of the Admiralty. Tbp pepef is that a loan for such a purpose would be as popular as were the loans raised during the Great War. It would undoubtedly appeal to the patriotic instincts of the investing public, wbo look round at present in vain for safe and profitable ways of employing all their spare capital. The popularity of the loan would be increased by the knowledge that the carrying out of the naval'Programme wouid provide work in a score of industries which would be concerned in the building, equipping and furnishing of the new men-of-war. from the coat mines of Durham and Wales to the potteries of Staffordshire. The saying on the dole would go some way, in fact, toward meeting the charges which such a loan would impose, while simultaneously the increase in the personnel of the Royal Navy would take several additional thousand men off the oversupplied labour market.