ARMAMENTS AND MEN.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 53, 13 February 1911, Page 7

ARMAMENTS AND MEN.

THE THUNDERER LAUNCHED. BIGGEST WARSHIP TURNED OUT OF A LONDON YARD. London, Feb. 3. Britain’s nineteenth Dreadnought was launched at Blackwall on Wednesday. The Thunderer, as she was christened by Mrs. Davidson, wife of the Archbishop of Canterbury, is the biggest warship ever turned out of a London dockyard. A tremendous crowd was present, and it is many years since the capital witnessed such a launching. The new battleship had been given the sobriquet of “the election Dreadnought” by the Government’s political opponents, who declared that the order for the ship had been placed just prior to the election in January of last year, with the object of providing work and thus winning votes in the East End of London. The Thunderer is of 22.500 tons, and will average a speed of 21 knots. She is 580 ft in length, with a beam of 86ft. Her armament will consist of 10 13.5 in guns, mounted on the centre-line system, and she will be capable of delivering a total broadside equal to 27,0001 b.

COMPULSORY SERVICE. THE EXEMPTION LIST. Exemptions from military service in the Dominion, as recommended by Major-General God ley, and adopted by the Government, are as follow: — Persons who qualify by examination as officers or instructors to the junior cadets while they so act. Members of the Permanent Staff and Permanent Force. Those who have been convicted of any disgraceful crime or found by any Court of Justice to be of notoriously bad character (by decision by any Dominion Court of Justice and any military court-martial). The Governor may by proclamaion:— (1) Exempt from training in time of peace all or any persons residing within an area specified in the proclamation. (2) Vary or extend such area. (3) Or withdraw any exemption. The object is to meet the cases of far-outlying settlers who. on account of. distance, could not. without great expense and loss of time in travelling to and fro, carry out the obligation under training. Should such persons, however, move their residences into an unexenipted area, they will within thirty days report to area officers. (4) The burden of proving exemption from such liability shall rest on the persons claiming exemption.