SIXTEEN-INCH GUNS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 55, 2 September 1937, Page 17

SIXTEEN-INCH GUNS

BRITAIN CONSIDERS THEM ,

Alarm, voiced insistently in thtf House of Commons, largely by Win* ston Churchill, and Sir Roger Keyea during a debase on the London Naval Treaty Bill, that Britain had been committed*to 14-inch guns while the other nations were building 16-ihchv guns,, drew from the Government spokesman an implied admission that Britain herself was considering building ships to be armed with 16-irich gun (says the "New York Times* London correspondent). ■.. v r-

The spokesman was Mr. GeoffreyShakespeare, Parliamentary Secretary of the Admiralty, Who faced this storm of criticism after his chief, Mr. Alfred Duff Cooper, First Lord of the Admiralty, had left the House. He said the difference in size of guns was a matter of great complexity and 6n» for experts. He added: "But the matter is well in hand and preparation* are well advanced."

"If there is any departure frpm that limitations of the- 14-inch gun it isn'jj our fault," he went'on. "Whether w*'. have 14-inch or 16-inch guns is nob really germane to this ■ treaty; it is; outside the treaty. It is a questions': of naval policy which • will have to*; be considered. by .the JUrst Lord and:1 the Board of Admiralty." ; \

With this assurance the Common* gEfve the Bill a second reading' with-* out division arid thus took the chief step towards ratification of the treaty. After Mr. Duff Cooper had explained the circumstances of the Bill, Mr. A. V. Alexander, former First Lord of the Admiralty, said the Labour Party would not oppose it. "A naval race is on," he said, "and it is likely to continue for all the words written in that agreement unless this and certain other countries change foreign policies."

Mr. Churchill said that supposing the Japanese, German, and American desjgnero were able to solve the.prob< lem, which the Commons was "assured-i the Admiralty had found insoluble, of j mounting 16-irich guns in a 35,000-toh, hull, then Britain must get ready to I change. He appealed to the Admiralty \ to construct an experimental 16-inchs! gun mounting for 35,000-ton ships. "In this matter as in others it caal be seen how the naval agreements 1 have hampered arid crippled British 1 initiative," he said. .