GERMANY'S NEW NAVY

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 129, 2 June 1928, Page 20

GERMANY'S NEW NAVY

'AN OFFICIAL '' EXPLANATION.'' Captain.Gadow, an official of the German Navy Department, recently published in the "Berliner Tageblatt" a rejoinder to criticisms of tho Naval Budget, but, as the "Tageblatt" remarks in an editorial note, his apologia is both incomplete and unconvincing. His most important disclosure is that no fewer than four new battleships are , projected, states tho Berlin correspondent of .the "Daily,' Telegraph." It had hitherto been understood" that only one such vessel was in contemplation. They are to be propelled by Diesel engines, and the Navy Department is spending large' sums of money on experimental work with the object of de- , veloping an internal-combustion engine which will answer tho special requirements in view. It is explained that Diesel motors of tho typo installed, in merchant ships are useless for naval purposes, as they are too heavy in pro-' portion to their power output and occupy too much headroom. Exception is taken to the word "battleship" as descriptive of the four . vessels projected.^ They are officially designated "Panzerchiffo" (armourclads). The armament will be- heavy, the' armour .protection of medium strength, and the speed sufficiently high to enable them to escape from a superior antagonist. They appear, in fact, . to be designed as armour-plated, motor monitors, carrying at least six guns of the heaviest calibre. They will therefore constitute an entirely new typo of ■vrarship, useful enough, for coast-defence operations, but of no great value for service on tho high seas. The German Navy Department wilt havo some difficulty in justifying (he expenditure of about £10,000,000 on ships of such . limited fighting valuo. : It is, further revealed in the official . article that the German Navy now possesses 1170 guns of various calibres, the. maintenance, repair, and improve-ment-of which cost well over £1,000,----000. A substantial sum is also set aside; for tho provision of naval mines. " Captain Gadow's article makes it perfectly clear that Germany is developing her naval armaments on an intensive scale, even though she may be scrupulously observing the letter of the Versailles Treaty.