WHAT LORD STRABOLGI TOLD PEERS

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 65, 18 March 1936, Page 16

WHAT LORD STRABOLGI TOLD PEERS

Our Attitude to War Threats

’JTHE following remarks were made by Lord Strabolgi in the House of Lords debate with regard to the naval strength of both Italy and Great Britain. It should be noted, however, that no reference is made to the submarine menace beyond the statement of equal strength. Lord Strabolgi said:.“l propose to lay before Your' Lordships the force available that is to be frightened or alarmed by fear of an Italian attack, the thousands of our sailors who are going to be destroyed in action, if we do our duty and stand by the Covenant of the Leaguo.

“The British Fleet, which is not all in the Mediterranean now but which can all go there with the exception of a few ships on foreign stations, consists of ID super-dreadnouglis armed with 15-inch or 16-incli guns, against which the Italians have four old and small battleships of pre-war design armed with 12-inch guns, two of wmch have been on the reserve for years, and I doubt if their engines will turn round.

“Wo have 51 cruisers, the Italians have 24. We have six aircraft carriers (three in reserve also, but six aircraft carriers in commission) and they arc magnificent aircraft carriers, too, with very efficient fighting aeroplanes, against the Italians’ one. We have IGJ destroyers against 94 Italian destroyers; and in submarines we are aboul equal. , “1 admit that all those vessels are not in the Mediterranean, but the great majority could be sent there. As regards the Battle Fleet, there is no question at all of the Italians attempting to engage such a force. It would be suicide if they did. That is no exaggeration at all, and everyone who knows the facts will bear me out. “Now it is said that air attack is the danger. We will suppose the Fleet is either at Alexandria or at Haifa. I admit that Haifa is in mandated territory, but if we are attacked we have to defend this mandated territory, and therefore we have a right to use Haifa, which has a splendid harbour, one of the finest in the Mediterranean, and well protected. “Supposing the Fleet is at Alexandria, who is going to attack it and from where? Will Italy send her one miserable aircraft carrier to do it? If so, she will be sunk. It may be said that bombers will fly from tile nearest Italian territory.

“The nearest point from -which the Italians could fly is Libya. The nearest point (not the nearest aerodrome) is 300 miles. The range of the CaprcM bombers is GOO miles, that is a 300-mile radius, and they could just do it, but they could not be accompanied by the fighters. It would mean that the bombers would have to go unescorted, and the bombers would be attacked by the fighting aeroplanes attached to the British Fleet.

“ Each battleship and cruiser carries fighting aeroplanes. The aircraft carriers have squadrons of fighting aeroplanes. The Italian bombers would be

attacked along the last 50 miles of tin route by fighting British aeroplanes. The nearest point in Italy to Alexandria is Messina, 830 miles. That, is out of the question. From the Island of Rhodes to Haifa is 500 miles ,and from Lybia to Haifa is GOO miles. “The more one examines it, the more grotesque is this idea that the British Fleet could be driven out of the Mediterranean by Italian aircraft. 1 have heard these stories of the hundred desperadoes who are prepared to commit suicide and to sink the super-dread-

noughts. “We have some pretty desperate flyers in the naval air-arm, and if they thought it was a question of our Fleet being driven out of the Mediterranean I think they would give a good account of themselves in the air. The total strength of the Italian Air Force, including school machines, is 1801, according to the latest published figures. The number of our first-line machines alone, not counting instructional and reserve machines, is approaching 1330.

“We arc told that there are r.o suitable bases in the western Mediterranean; that we cannot uso Toulon because it is too shallow or too narrow to admit our largest ships. All 1 can say is that the Freuclr are now building and well advanced two superdreadnoughts of 20,500 tons and they have just laid down a super-dread-nought of 35,000 tons. “If it is really the fact that we believed this story, whoever told it to us —namely, that Toulon is unsuitable us a base for the British Fleet (1 have been to Toulon and have seen British and French warships entering and leaving it), our Foreign Minister and his advisers should have taken some marine officers with them, because they would not have believed the story and would have been kept right on the technical facts.

“I am not a war-monger, and 1 want peace as much as anyone, but I believe we are not going to ensure peace in this world either by breaking our bond or by running away by the first threat that comes.” -