COMPOSITE WARSHIP.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 21 December 1925, Page 7

COMPOSITE WARSHIP.

PROPOSAL FOR BRITAIN. COHORT OF AiEROP'LAINES. LONDON, .pec. B.* Sir George T'huisiton,, managing director of the Forth Engineering and Shipbuilding 00.,‘ Ltd., and naval director ol \ Tokens. Ltd., in an ai tide in JJra.ssey’s Annual, prapose.s the construction o' a novel composite capital .ship to supersede batitloshipisi and 'airioralt-car-rieus 'by combining the features, of both. The proposed vessel would carry 30 scouting, bombing and torpedoing aircraft, six Kiin:. guns, and JO 4-7 W. in* yiual regions would tarry loin, and 12 in. armour, and with 28,000 toms displacement and a speed of 26i knots it wouldcarry almost as much artillery autl airerait as the battleship Nelson and the latest a i roraif t-ea trier, the Eagle, combined. The .ship would .also be faster than either, a.s well aw cheaper, because it would be 7000 tons smaller than the Nelson. The Kiin. gums would he mounted forward, leaving the rest of the dock lor aeroplanes to fly off and alight. The vessel would be without funnels, horizontal pipes carrying the smoke over the’ side. Its all-round utility would give it a superiority over the conventional battleships and aircraftcarrier* because its high speed would enable it to avoid the .slow 'battleships which the Washington Treaty authorised. although/ its big gnus would give it the power for fighting if necessary. ■lts cohort of aeroplanes, would be a defence against hostile aircraft and also permit of bombing or torpedoing an enemy vessel. It would abolish the vulnerability of aircraft-carriers which, would be an easy prey to cruisers. (Sir George says there is nothing in the Washington Treaty to interdict the building of such ships. Lie nte ma nt-Cbm man dec Kemvorbhy. Liberal M.P. for Ivingston-ori-Huil. says Sir George Thurston’s ship would he too, big. expensive and clumsy. It would be better to build smaller and faster aircraft-caniers but it was even more important, he said, to concentrate on the construction of super-seaplanes, capable of staying a. week' with flic fleet and carrying six 21 in. torpedoes. The cost of one composite ship would provide 300 super-seaplanes. Mr. O. Anion, Labour M.K. for Camberwell, said the con-ltrnction of coin-prn-ite ships would .scrap the Washington Treaty and plunge the world into a new race in armaments. The Pailv News remarks that the fact that Sir George Thurston's proposed ship, being 30,000 tons less displacement than the Nelson and the Eagle combined would defeat the limitation provisions of the Washington Treaty, thus showing the hopelessness of .attempting to limit ■armaments on a tonnage basis. “There cannot be'half-measures .about disarm.ament,” s-us the paper. “It inn.‘•it be pctice or wir, and if it is to be war, we can have no use for haggling and subtle distinctions.”