DISARMAMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 55, 7 March 1927, Page 19

DISARMAMENT

I3CEAPPED BATTLESHIPS

THE IRON DUKE GOES

BEITAIN'S WEAK RESERVE

"When the Christmas leave of : th? officers and men of the Navy came to an. end the Atlantic Fleet, under Admiral Sir Henry oftver, wa,s to leave_ home iwaters for Gibraltar. -Early in March it willfbe joined by the Mediterranean Fleet, under Admiral Sir Roger Keys, and the two forces will then'carry out joint.exercises., During the period of nearly three months in which the Atlantic Fleet will- be in southern praters, in accordance with a long-established routine—for no specialsignificance'attaches" to these temporary Baval dispositions—there will not ■- be a, eingle capital ship, new or old, in reserve in the home ports, excluding the battlecruiser Tiger, which is serving as sea-go-ing gunnery firing ship. Apart from the email vessels associated with.the local defences at the Nore, Portsmouth, Devonport, Portland, and the Firth of Forth, the Reserve Fleet will have practically ceased to exist, whereas on the eve of the war the vessels which were being maintained with reduced or reserve complements included thirty battleships, .fiftyfour cruisers, 106 destroyers, eighty-eight torpedo-boats, and other vessels, which, in combination, made up a total of upwards of 300 pennants. The Reserve Fleet at that date, though it-consisted of. the older ships, wasi'of much the same numerical etrength as the active Fleet distributed over the seas and oceans of the world.

The. position at the end of the year will be unexampled'in our naval history, states Archibald £Jur(l in the "Daily Telegraph." The squadrons at sea have been steadily pared down, and the reserve force will be little morejthan a shadow, made up of a few cruiset's, monitors, destroyers, submarines, and mine-sweeping vessels. The Navy has been skeletonised, to coin a new word. The scrap-heap has been fed on so generous a Bcale'since the.end of the war that the naval authorities, in order to fulfil the ■Imperial obligations resting, upon them, [jand to pjciyide the personnel with adequate training, have to keep in commisf*ion practically every efficient vessel; SACRIFJjfcE OF NEARLY £8,000,000. , _With the'opening of the New Year, the [Washington Naval Treaty became fully .^effective, of he last act was the scrapping jof the Britjgh battleships Thunderer, King jjGeorge VijjAja'x, and Centurion, leaving ymr battle weakel-iu relation to i»he strengtti of other Powers than they |have ever b%en in the past. We shall then only fourteen battleships and four tbattle-cruisers, whereas twelve years ago ■eixty-seven;" capital ships were in commisjeion.. That contrast supplies an index to Sthe scale Upon which the Navy has been ycut down.; The disappearance of these Sfour battleships will be the prelude to the jcommisßioning of the Rodney and Nelson, jbut these i'two vessels will not be ready "for active service until next summer. The circumstances in which this replacement programme is being carried out may i*e recalled in^ view, of',misconceptions fcwhich exist in-some foreign countries. ■ arid in the! Uniteil: States. When [the* Washington v Conference came to'the i discussion of the capital ship ratio, which . a : wholesale scrapping policy of .vessels building as well as built, ,the Japanese delegates. put in a claim that they should be permitted; to;comple.te the battleship MutsuV the''remarkable vessel of 34,800 tons, with .eight I6inv-and twenty £.sin guns, which was almost:fully buUt at the Yokosuka yard. The: admission of this claim completely upset -the calculations of. relative -naval strength which jwere being made. It; was finally, agreed the United States should'press'to Completion two of the battleships she then shad on the slips, and that "two new capiftal ships not exceeding 35,000 tons standard displacement each" should be laid" ■ Idown in British yards, where work had; "already been begun on four vessels, which to have been of an improved Hood design, and would consequently have exceeded the displacement of the Hood, which is 41,300 tons. The British delejjgates not only abandoned those four ves-j-sels, but agreed to scrap four older 'hattle,*hips. ■ .■■■■■ '. . ■"■V-*i 1;v:.v;-"-:;:.;'..:<v;'■■.•■■':■. Let it be noted that the King George V., the Thunderer, the Ajax, and the Cen-, turion are beiag either destroyed "or demilitarised—for the Centurion is to be used as a Fleet target ship—not because they are inefficient by reason of age or . other cause, but. in ■ sympathy with the attitude which;,this aild the Dominions adapted .iiom' the; 'first '.. at : , the: Washington Conference in support of the i limitation policy. These vessels were completed on the. eve. of ,the war, the Thuntderer in 1912,i^he; Ajax and. Centurion in I;the following;|°ye^r,':an(l -the: Iron Duke ;only just in tiiflfe to! hoist the flag of' Lord \ Jellicoe as Goinmander-in-Chief. V If it had i not been for 'fie, Washington Conference these four battleships,:?which cost the country £7,8^1,17^v would certainly not have been abandoned, though they migjit haves been relegated .-.to the Reserve Meet. They-'are practically sister ships of about 23,000 tons, the armament :of each includ- j ing ten 13.5 in guns, eight or twelve 4in, ' and two 3in. anti-aircraft They i are efficient battleships of pre-Jutland de- I sign, with: a speed of twenty-one knots. Their, condemnation represents ho small . sacrifice, on the part of this country on the disarmament altar. Several months ■will elapse, as has been stated, before the Nelson and Rodney will be ready to join the Fleet; nevertheless, the Admiralty, ,in the spirit which it has consistently exhibited towards the Washington Treaty, is placing three of them immediately on the sale list, while the Centurion, after being demilitarised, will, as I already said, be employed merely as a target ship. LORD JELUCOE'S FLAGSHIP.' The passing of the Iron D like will especially be regretted in the Navy, for she was the Fleet-Flagship in the North Sea during the: early and critical months .of the 1 war. It was on board this vessel, on the afternoon of 2nd August, 1914,, that Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, us he then was, reported to that fine sailor,. Admirar Sir . George CallaghanV'-the Commander-in-Chief of the Home; Fleets, who for eight' unbroken years had been employed at sea training his; squadrons at a high pitch of efficiency." Admiral;;Jellicoe carried with him a secijet. :ehyelope; which had been. handed to ihim on'tli'e railway platform sb he left Lgndon.; At 4 a.m. on 4th Auguse he l'eceiyed a telegram from the Admiralty ordering' /him .'to 'open. it. "This envelope," . as'-Tj,&; has since stated, "contained my appointment as 'Cbmmander-iii-.."'Chief of the Grand.Fleet,'" a new desig: nation upon which the naval authorities had decidedj in place of "the Home' fleets." Lord Jellicoe has recorded with i,what unwillingness he played his part on this occasion on board the Iron Duke; and iwith what magnanimity Sir George Calrlaghan, "a most gallant officer and gentleman," acted in circumstances which'applied a supreme test of his character and -patriotism. On the following day Admiral Callaghan struck his flag in the Iron . i-Duke, and Lord Jellicoe took over the •^command of the greatest naval force which ;liad ever been mobilised. From that time nntil 28th November, 1916, the Iron Duke flew the flag of the Commander-in-Chief of the iGrand Fleet. It took part in all the "sweeps" which were carried out in the North Sea in face of .the enemy in Intervening months, and was at the head of the Third Division on the afternoon of 30th May, 1916, when the Battle of Jut: land opened off the Skaggerak. The Navy has-already parted ■in sorrow with Lord Beatty's flagship, the Lion, and now Lord Jellicoe's Iron Duke-is to pass almost unnoticed into the oblivion of the shipbreaker's yard. The -Iron Duke 'of many xnemories is "for sale."