IMPORTANCE OF DEFENCE

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 14, 17 January 1921, Page 7

IMPORTANCE OF DEFENCE

SIR PERCY SCOTT'S ARGUMENT.

(Received January 17, 11.50 a.m.)

LONDON, 16th January.

Admiral Sir Percy Scott, continuing the naval controversy in the press, says he believes that the advantage in the nest naval war will lie in meanis of defence rather than in means of attack. He sees no reason why a torpedo should not be-evolved which no battleship could withstand, and considers that every nation should have at important ports various means of defence. He concludes with a cryptic hint of a new weagon, which he describes as a " gun ti.it shoots out of both ends." [Admiral Sir Percy Scbtt, who has developed a quaint stylo of expression somewhat like that of the late Lord Fisher, may be referring,, in hinting at the double-ended gun,; to aerial defence. During the war experiments were made, apparently with no very important results, with a type of gun which had both ends open. An ordinary projectile was fired from one muzzle, and a charge of sand or water from the other The object was not to throw dust in the eyes o£ the ..civilians beliind the army or to stun the gunner, but to do away with recoil in the gun itself, so that iarge calibre weapons could be used on aircraft.]