BRITAIN'S NAVY

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 136, 5 December 1935, Page 13

BRITAIN'S NAVY

WHY IT IS INADEQUATE

The anxiety of prominent Socialists to gloss over our naval deficiencies is natural enough, writes Hector Bywater in the "Daily Telegraph." It is very largely due to the action of the last Socialist Government in 1930 that the Navy is no longer adequate for the performance of its duties. In that year they negotiated the London Treaty—the worst blow that British sea power has ever received. They pledged this country not to complete more than 91,000 tons of new cruisers during the ensuing six years. No similar pledge was exacted £rom any other Power. They further agreed that during the same period Great Britain should restrict her destroyer tonnage to a pureJy arbitrary figure, regardless of the fact that no limit whatever was placed on the submarine tonnage of France or Italy. Mr. A. V. Alexander took a prominent part in drafting that Treaty. This may explain his eagerness in his speeches to make light of Mr. Baldwin's warning as to the Insufficiency of our naval strength today. Mr. Alexander declares that all our 15 capital ships were well protected from aircraft bombs because of their steel deck protection against plunging fire from naval guns. . For a former First Lord he is very ill-informed. Only the Nelson, Kodney, and Hood have specially thick armour on their decks. The deck armour of the remaining twelve ships is comparatively light. It is impossible to make these old vessels reasonably secure against air attack. Mr. Alexander makes great play with the new Mark B multiple pompoms. While these are formidable against torpedo-planes and low-lying bombers, they are quite useless against aeroplanes bombing from high altitudes. Their number in the Fleet is strictly limited. Other disturbing facts which Mr. Alexander ignores ai-e: ■ Only 23 of our light cruisers now in commission are of ppst-war design. By the summer of 1938 the Navy will have 35 modern cruisers to guard 80,000 miles of sea routes and provide cruiser squadrons for the battle fleet, j Two years hence we shall have 81 post-war destroyers, including nine not yet begun. At the same date, France i will have 110 submarines, Italy 77, and I Japan 70. ~ j Since 1930, when the Socialist Gov- | eminent hamstrung the Navy by signing the London Treaty, the four other great naval Powers have virtually | doubled their respective strengths in cruisers, destroyers, and submarines, I besides expanding their air forces on I a gigantic scale. Some striking figures illustrating the need to strengthen the Navy were given in speeches of two Ministers. Viscount Hailsham, the Lord Chancellor, speaking at Darwen, said:— "Before the war we had 69 capital ships, today we have 15. We had 103 cruisers, now we have 50. We had 322 torpedo boats and destroyers, today we have 118. We had 74 submarines, today we have 48. These figures indicate how faithfully we have fulfilled our intention of trying to secure disarmament." Mr. Hore-Belisha, Minister of Transport, speaking at Devonport, pointed out that only three of our capital ships were of post-war design. The remainder dated from the days before aircraft attack had to be taken into account. He added:— In the year before the war we spent £80,000,000 on the defence forces. This was 40 per cent, of our total national expenditure. For the current year the total expenditure on the Navy, Army and Air Force was £124,000,000, or only 15 per cent, of our total expenditure.