"DEATH-TRAPS.”

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 158, 4 June 1935, Page 12

"DEATH-TRAPS.”

WOR N-0 UT WAR SHI PS. COMPARISON WITH FOREIGN SHIPS. Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, known to bis fellow-Eiiglishmen as the modern Nelson, recently gave another warning to the British nation. “The first step towards the revival of our seapower,’’ lie suid to the Navy League m London’, “is to free file Navy from the toils that bind it.” He strongly urged that the Government shouiu, without delay, launch a defence loan to cover the cost of replacing obsolete ships which, were they to be engaged in battle against new vessels or a similar type owned by certain ioreign Powers, would prove to be deathtraps. In moving a resolution welcoming the statement of the Prime Minister (Mr Ramsay MacDonald) relating' to defence, and calling upon the Government immediately to take all the necessary steps to put the nation’s armaments on a looting to safeguard the country against potential dangers, Sir Roger Keyes said that events had moved apace and would, he thought, continue to do so until GerniUny considered she was ready once again to fight lor what she wanted, or until she got what she wanted b}’ the threat of war.

Referring to tho various treaties which so vitally affect the capacity, of the Navy to fulfil its proper duties, Sir Roger Keyes admitted that, when it came to the London Treaty, he could hardly use temperate language, .if only because it had swept away all the safeguards lor which England had stood out at the Washington Conference. France and Italy, who had declined to be bound by the treaty, had, he said, been tree to build what ships they wished. Now, too, the Versailles Treaty was apparently dead. Not only was Germany building submarines, but she also contemplated the construction of two 20,000-ton battle-cruisers, in addition to her highly efficient pocket battleships. The battle-cruisers, he firmly believed, would be of sufficient speed to escape from any British battle-cruiser, and to overhaul and destroy most of Britain’s cruisers. MISCHIEVOUS AIR PROPAGANDA.

“These powerful ships are certain,” ho went on, “to possess •an immense range of action and to carry reconnaissance aircraft. When one remembers the havoc that was created by tho Emden and other German light cruisers acting singly against our trade during the early months of tho war, and by disguised merchantmen which escaped our blockade and ran amuck on tho high seas at intervals throughout the war, one can well imagine what might bo achieved by these modern German ships against our trade. No convoy would be safe against them, unless protected by battleships. In addition to the threat of such formidable marauders, we aro faced with a renewal of the German submarine menace.” Sir Roger Keyes said, that the Government White Paper on defence, declaring that “if peace should be broken the Navy is, as always, the first line of defence for the maintenance of our essential sea communications” should clear the air of “the mischievous air propaganda which lias added so greatly to tho difficulties of those who have been responsible tor providing an adequate naval defence during the last 17 years.” The Admiralty, which was solely responsible for the security of sea communications, had always considered that the system of dual control which was forced upon it would greatly hamper the development of the fleet air . arm. That it had done so could not be seriously contested, and it should no longer be tolerated. “The Government,” he concluded, “has not provided sufficient money to replace our over-age, and obsolete vessels, even to the extent allowed by tho London Treaty, and if its declarations in the defence White Paper are to be implemented, it is faced with a vast expenditure for augmenting the Royal Air Force, and the replacement of obsolete and worn-out ships, which would be death-traps if they had to meet vessels which other nations have been building while we have been marking time. This cannot possibly be done out' of revenue, and 1 hope that the Government will have the courage and wisdom to lauucli a defence loan, as was done in 1889.” I