SHIPS AND SAFETY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 74, 28 March 1930, Page 3

SHIPS AND SAFETY

THE NAVAL PROBLEM

EMPIRE'S POSITION

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

LONDON, 30th January,

"Will the outcome of the Naval Conference now in progress sound the death-knell of the battleship, and, if so, what effect will this have on our country and Empire?" This is the question asked by Vice-Admiral J. E. T. Harper, C.8., M.V.0., in an article in the "Evening Standard." "If all nations would agree to abolish what we now know as the 'capital ship' —the battleship—the next largest unit," he write?,, "would automatically become the main lino of naval defence. It would, of course, be suicidal for any nation like our own, dependent for its very existence on the safe transport of goods from overseas, to abolish the battleship unless other nations did tho same. "Our country would in no wise suffer if a reduction in size was made compulsory by international agreement. We have,'in fact, been to the foro in advocating a reduction in tho size of warships. Every reasonable effort should be made to encourage economy in armaments compatible with security, and a reduction in tho size- of warships would not only be an economy in itself, but great saving could also be made in the provision of dry docks and the maintenance of our naval bases at home and abroad. . "True, the naval bases could not be abolished: they would still be of vital importance. It would be just as sensible to organise a fleet of motor coaches for long-distance travel and then refuse the money for repair and petrol stations en route as to maintain a navy for tho defence of our trade routes and refuse the money for the maintenance of bases at which our ships could bo repaired and refuelled in safety. "National naval needs vary in the same way as tho needs of municipalities. Our needs of Empire are no more comparable- with those of any Continental or self-supporting nation than is the strength of the police force necessary to keep order in London comparable with that necessary in Timbuctu. So long as goods arc transported by sea we arc dependent on the highways of the ocoan being kept safe for our ships, botli in peace and war. "We must have ships large enough to enable them to traverse tho seven seas, over which our far-flung Empire is spread; they must be able to go where required to go; to remain there as long as required to remain, and to do what is required of them to do. "These aro our needs, beyond which wo need not go, provided always tnat in the unfortunate event of war our ships are powerful enough to meet the armed forces of the enemy, and it is for this vital reason that we .cannot afford to gamble with our security by reducing the size of our ships unless other countries will also do so. It is for each nation to decide for itself what style of ships and what size guns aro necessary for its needs."