RUSSIAN CLAIMS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 120, 17 November 1936, Page 18

RUSSIAN CLAIMS

TO NEW SEA POWER

POSITION EXAMINED

Following ..recent maneouvres the Russian Navy has enjoyed a blaze of publicity in sharp contrast to the obscurity with which it hitherto has been surrounded, writes Hector Bywater in the "San Francisco Chronicle."

Fleet manoeuvres were held simultaneously in the Baltic and iri the Far East. According to Moscow papers, the Baltic mimic war was on a scale of "unprecedented magnitude." Vessels taking part included two dreadnoughts, battleships, three cruisers, a dozen destroyers, and an unspecified number of submarines besides, many aircraft.

No big ships vere present at the Far Eastern manoeuvres, which took place near Vladivostok. ■ ,•' \ . = Forces there consist mainly ,of submarines and small motor torpedo boats, but at least COO air bombers arc reported to be at local aerodromes. At the conclusion of the Baltic exercises; Defence Commissar ■ Voroshilov broadcast a speech eulogising ' the Soviet Navy.'declaring it to be worthy in all respects of the Red Army. Whether his declaration that both the Baltic and Far East squadrons are now sufficiently strong to, defy, any aggressor was a mere rhetorical flourish ,or a statemen 1 of fact is not easy to decide. The actual strength of the Red naval forces at any given moment1 is'never known outside,. although the German In', diligence Service claims to have penetrated the screen /of official secrecy. THE UNDERSEA FORCE. Not long ago, the semi-official organ of the German Admiralty published a table of Russian battleships in the Balti' and Black Sea and in the Far East of which the most striking feature was the number of submarines. This-was given as 70 plus "a large number building." If those figures are even approximately correct, Russia is second only to France in undersea strength. That, however, is difficult to believe. At the same time, travellers on the tran Siberian railway report having se^n larf; numbers of submarine components and equipment being transported in special-freigii I cars towards Vladivostok, where, presumably, they a-- assembled. A recent bulletin from the Japanese War Office alleged that 60 undersea boats are already in commission at Vladivostok. What does seem'reasonably clear Us that the Soviet chiefs are making a big effort to build' up a formidable navy, but whether they command the .technical and industrial resources necessary to achieve this aim is problematical. It is known that a large programme of new construction was approved in 1934, including battleships and criusers, and that during the past two years heavy contracts for naval equipment have been placed in Germany arid France. TECHNICIANS IMPORTED. Furthermore, German, • French, and Italian technicians are understood to be working in Russian dockyards. At the present moment the British i Government is negotiating with Mosrcow for a bilateral agreement which would bring Russia within the scope of the 1936 London Naval Treaty. ■ Should this agreement go through, the Soviet Government will immediately have to disclose its naval programme in full detail. Even today, expansion of the Red Fleet is producing world-wide repercussions. Germany makes it one of the chief pretexts for her own heavy re-armament at sea. Japan professes to be nervous about the growing submarine and air forces at Vladivostok, which lies, so to speak, at her very doorstep. , : ■ :If the-Russian submarine flotilla in the Pacific is even half as strong as reports-indicate,-it1 should be capable ot rendering Japanese lines of communication with Manchuria and Korea distinctly unsafe. If Russia were the ally of a firstclass naval Power hostile to Japan, the activities .ot the Rod submarines and aircraft working from Vladivostok would prove a terrible embarrassment to Japanese strategy. As regards Europe, it is not only In the Baltic that Russian naval renaissance causes some anxiety. By the recently-concluded Dardanelles Treaty, Russia is free to transfer her naval forces to or from the Black Sea without limit or hindrance. Consequently, establishment of a powerful Russian squadron would disturb the naval equilibrium in the Mediterranean. EFFICIENCY DOUBTED. Such considerations, however, postulate to a degree the material and human efficiency in the Soviet Navy, which still remains to be demonstrated. , . While it is conceivable that the Soviet political system has regenerated the Russian nation and eliminated all moral shortcomings which condemned, the Tsarist navy to a class of inefficiency, tlie world has not yet received absolute proof to that effect. Foreign naval experts find it hard lo believe cither . that the newlyHedged' Soviet fleet is mechanically sound or that its personnel measures up to the standard of training common to all flrst-clnss navies. They are even more sceptical as to Russia's technical ability to produce battleships and cruisers of the exceedingly complicated types demanded by modern technical requirements.