ROYAL NAVY

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 12077, 17 October 1933, Page 2

ROYAL NAVY

DOWN ON ITS UPPERS

ADMIRAL TYR-WHITT'S .condemnation. 4

An outspoken comment on Britain’s present naval position wa s made by Admiral Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt. Commander in Chief at the Nore, at the London Press Club’s “Navy Night” dinner. “We ‘•used to sing a chorus,” he said. “I cannot remember, the .words, but it ended up: “ By jingo if we do, We’ve got the ships, We’ve got the men, And we’ve got the money too.’ ‘‘l am afraid that now we have not- got any of those three vital hings. There is no doubt that as far as the Navy is concerned we are down on our uppers. We are short- of men, we are short of ships, and there is not a bob in the locker. “It is a big jump to come down from the Three-Power standard to what they call parity. “However, there is a bright spot everywhere. I can assure you u.e Navy as it is to-day is as highly efficient as it is possible for it to be. But I sincerely wish there was a lot more of it

CRUISERS W ANTED

“What we want are more cruisers. We have not enough to defend our trade routes. I wonder if you know that at the present moment onethird of our cruisers are obsolete and ought- to be scrapped. Another thing you, perhaps, did not know. The whole of the cruisers we -have got now are not as many as Admiral Jellicoe had when commanding the Grand Fleet- in the war, -and at- the same time there were 60 cruisers hunting the German cruisers in the southern seas.

“It is all very fine to say that ships can be built if war. comes. I do not think the next war will last four years. I do not think that there will be time to build ships. We shall be done in it we cannot protect our trade routes, (which are what we breathe through. “Sir. Walter Raleigh said. ‘lf you live in an island it is obvious you have got to be able to protect the water round that island and command it as well.’

“I hope I shall live long enough to see all our shipbuilding yards and dockyards once more teeming with, men and once more building ships right and left, so that we. shall have the strongest Navy in the world.” ROLE OF CAPITAL SHIPS The Second Sea Lord (Vice-Admir-al Pound) amplified Admiral Tyrwhitt’s contention. Capital ships, he declared, (were a necessity, and, in tw 0 or three years, there was going to he “the hell of a fight" about whether, we built them or not. “In case of war" he continued “twothirds of our cruisers would have to be on the trade routes. To defend, or exercise control over, a vital area wo should have left what capital ships there were, and one-third of our cruisers. And be it remembered that cruisers cannot go into the line and fight the capital ship. "If we had no capital ships—as some people advise—and the enemy withdrew his cruiser s from rue trade routes and joined with his main fleets to attack ours—there would be the end of tile British Empire.” , , IT , . ..