BATTLESHIPS STILL RULE

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 102, 30 April 1921, Page 5

BATTLESHIPS STILL RULE

"The status of the battleship as the dominant weapon of naval warfare has not been changed one whit by the development of- torpedoes, submarines, and aircraft," This statement was made recently by Arthur Hungerford Pollen, well-known English naval expert and critic, during an interview in New York (reports the New York Evening Post). - The problems pertaining to the establishment of a fleet of battleships by any nations are very complex, saia Mr. Pollen, but they generally resolve into two headings—has the battleship maintained its supremacy as an instrument of war, and if so, what principles and conditions should guide the building programme of a nation? There was no uncertainty in his answer to this first questjpn. "Do you mean that the battleship can be co built as to be impregnable against aircraft and torpedoes?" he was asked. SAFE FBOM TQRPEDGES. "No, and I see no particular need for them to be of invincible structure. During the whole war there waa never a battleship sunk by torpedoes or by aircraft. Take even the pre-war battleships of either Great Britain or the Unitedl States, and I dare say a torpedo hit would not^eink any one of them. Such a ship would probably make some water, and perhaps list over, Jjut she could continue the engagement and probably withdraw, " Topedoes at their best are precarious weapons, and during a fleet engagement there is no certitude that they will reach, their mark. There is only one dependable missile, and that is the shell of a naval gun. Can a battleship be so constructed as to be impregnable? No. But it» can be built to destroy, enemy ships; there is no vessel that can be built to stand .up under accurately directed gunfire, and that is the important thing."

• But', contrary to common opinion, Mr. Pollen said that the decisive qualities of a preponderant fleet dwindled in importance as the distance between two warring nations increased. This is due to the limited range of action of the flrst-lina ships. T.he needs of a fleet of battleships are so vast and complicated that each' thousand miles interposed between $vo belligerent countries lays great odds against the offensive fleet, and gives every advantage to tl;e defensive vfasels in home waters. For this reason, he said, the United States has less need for a large fleet of battleships than any other large Power. THINKS AMEEIOA SAFE. For example, hypothetical war between the United States and England or between the United States and Japan was chosen. Now, it wae said, if the United States were to have a navy thrice the size of Great Britain's and it were taking the offensive, then by the time it had traversed the 3000 miles of the Atlantio it would be at such a disadvantage that victory could hardly be expected. Likewise with Japan. Great Britain could not by any stretch of imagination, hfe said, think of decisively defeating the United States in a naval engagement, no matter how preponderant her navy might be. "Any future war that\ might take place," he said; "between two widelyseparated countries would be sure to be what every one expected the Great War in 1915 would be—a deadlock."

As to the principles that should guide a nation in naval building programmes, Mr. Pollen declined to make comment,, saying that this was a matter of individual opinion. Asked about submarines, ho said they were of no use in a fleet engagement and that their only field of valuable activity lay in the destruction of commercial shipping. "Admiral Aube, of the French Navy, realised the value of the torpedo in about 1885. He came to the same conclusions reached by Germany and the Allies in' 1915, and he *lso condoned 'ruthlessness. At that time the average merchant vessel travelled at the rate of about nine knots, and Admiral Aube said that the fast torpedo destroyers > with their invisible weapons, could so devastate the seas of enemy merchant shipping as to blockade completely the enemy country and thus bring it to defeat. TIGER'S PRINCIPLES USED. '"The tiger,' he said, .'pounces upon her prey and kilte it, without hate, but simply to live and feed heT young. The torpedo is like a, tiger, and in wartime I believe in,sinking merchant ships and drowning those imprisoned within simply because war is war and our own people must be saved from the humility of defeat and starvation.' That was Germany's attitude, and Germany, aided by the development of the submarine, was ablei to increase- tremendously the destruction of merchant shipping among her enemies by the torpedo. "This is the use to which submarines vill be put in wartime, if there are ever to be wars, and any -belligerent nation /shat cares to resort to ruthlessness will be able to establish a menacing blockade with th« help of submarines." But the prestige of power of the battleship his not declined one jot, in Mr. Pollen's opinion, in the light of naval experience of the Great War. In the ease 1 of the United States, however, due to her isolation by sea irom all other important and expahding Towers and due to her independence of imports for subsistence, it was said the tombined naviea of the world could not inv«d« k«r eliorss in the face of her ox it tug fleet,.