FLEET EXERCISES

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 146, 17 December 1924, Page 5

FLEET EXERCISES

THE AMERICAN CRUISE

MORE OFFICIAL STATEMENTS

ADVANTAGES OUTLINED,

(UNITED PRESS iSSOCIATION.—COPXIUGBT.)

(AUSTRALIAX-.S'EW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) WASHINGTON, 15th Dec.

Complete details and reasons for the fleet manoeuvres in the Pacific and the Australian and New Zealand visit are contained in .recent testimony by Mr. Wilbur, Secretary of the Navy, and Admiral Eberle, Chief of Naval Operations, before (he House of Representatives' Appropriations Committee, which granted the necessary appropviTheso details are now published.

ution.

Mr. Wilbur said the advantages of the manoeuvres off Honolulu and the visit to Australia and New Zealand "are to the navy purely tactical. There is the training of the men in the actual management of the ships. There is the advantage to the personnel in a foreign cruise in matters such as recruiting, and there is the added advantage of contact with Australians and New Zealanders. They are eager 'to have us come. But from the naval standpoint, while the desirableness of cementing friendships with foreign nations is to be considered, our primary purpose is fleet training. My conclusions have been reached after discussing the situation with the officers, but the problem of extending the trip to Australia and New Zealand has been considered in council, and is the result of the combined judgment of the officers of the fleet "

IMPORTANCE OF LONG TOURS

Admiral Eberle said: "The Australian cruise is tho culmination of a fouryear programme that was laid out for the operations of the fleet in order to give long cruises for training and manoeuvres and to see if the fleet could be self-supporting away from home bases, that is, by its own supply ships. In order to ascertain that we had to make a rather extensive cruise. It is also very beneficial to the morale of the men to take a cruise away from home ports. Four years ago we made a cruise to the west coast of South America; then in February, 1923, we had joint manoeuvres off Panama, and later in the West Indies."

"The plan for this year," said AdEberle, "as to have combined operations ofi the coast of California. Tho j problem is to discover how to proceed against the Hawaiian Islands with an army defending them. That is very important, because the army, there lias VSon fL 0*61?55- 8 with the fleet since 1920. Ihen they~are to test particularly anchorages for the fleet, which are very limited. Then on the outward trip the fleet will touch at Pago Pago Afterwards all the battleships will go !to Sydney,, and all the destroyers, with I tenders and four light cruisers, to Mel--I bourne. Then all the destroyers, tenders, and four light cruisers will go to Wellington, and the battleships will go from Sydney to Auckland, where all tho vessels will assemble for the return j trip. • All during the cruise they will I test material and steaming radius, and determine whether the ships can be selfsupporting, and whether they can be maintained in all kinds of weather." . Asked by members of the committee how the programme compared with Britain's, Admiral JJberle said: "Britain has combined manoeuvres either in ths Atlantic, the Pacific, or the Mediterranean. She has not held such extensive manoeuvres recently, but this year she has sent a Special Squadron round the world." Admiral Eberlo said the length of the proposed trip was 13,000 miles.,_ compared with 12,000 miles covered in the Panama trip last year.