EXPERT OPINION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 86, 11 April 1912, Page 7

EXPERT OPINION.

CRUISERS AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. " UNSUITABLE STATIONS." REAL WORK FOR VESSELS OF GREAT SPEED. By Telegraph.— Press Association,— Copyright. (Received April 11, 8.5 a.m. LONDON, 10th April. Tho Morning Poet's naval corre-spon* donfc states: — "It will bo interesting to tsee whether the battle cruisers Australia and New Zealand will sail for Australasia, at the end of tho year. The best opinion has long been that the onlyjustification for eucli ships is tho ability to ueb them as a fa-st wing of a battle fleet. During the Navy debate Mr, Churchill (First Lord of the Admiralty) referred to the necessity for a certain proportion of veesele of tho greatest speed and the highest power being used to turn an enemy's line, or bring a hostile fleet to action, or compel a. retreating fleet to abandon. & portion, of its force, in preference to partaking in a general engagement. Mr. Churchill's description of tho duties of battle cruisers makes it obvious that the service which a battle cruiser might render was misunderstood when . the Admiralty sanctioned the Australia and New Zea* land joining fleet units with only throe second-class cruisers. Even if the words which the Admiralty put into Mr. Churchill's mouth did not represent the whole case, there is no immediate proepect of a battlei fleet being required in the Far East ; hence it appears that the Australia and New Zealand will bo unsuitable for the stations to which the former Board of Admiralty proposed that they should be sent." [The Australia id to be th© flagship of the Commonwealth Scjuudrom, and the New Zealand the flagship of the Eastern Fleet (Chinese- Squadron.) The new cruisers for the Commonwealth, delivery of which is expected this year, will be the Melbourne (5600 tons), Sydney (5600 tons), and Brisbane.]