German Naval Claims

Northern Advocate, 3 January 1939, Page 4

German Naval Claims

G ERMANY’S desire to strengthen her submarine fleet, by invoking the permissive clauses in her naval treaty with Great Britain, provides the first disturbing note of 1939. It is true that she is not .attempting tp exceed the total tonnage allowed her under the treaty (35 per cent of Britain’s tonnage), but she preposes to build up an arm of her navy which was most destructive during the Great War, when submarines, during the early part of 191 T, almost brought Britain to her knees. It was only the adoption of the. convoy system which defeated the German submarine campaign against British and Allied shipping.

There is something faintly ironical in the fact that, to discuss Germany’s latest plans, a delegation from the British Admiralty has visited Berlin, where, according to the official statement, “■The conversations were held in a most friendly atmosphere.” Twenty years ago Germany had surrendered the whole of her great fleet, and the submarines with which she had wrought such pitiless destruction, sinking British ships without warning, and causing the death of thousands of non-combatants, were berthed in impotent rows at Harwich. These vessels did not share the fate of the/ High Seas Fleet, when it wfis scuttled at Scapa Flow, but were broken up or taken over by the, Allies. One set of Diesel engines built for a German submarine came to New Zealand, and is now in use at Penrose, near Auckland, as a stand-by plant for the electricity system of that city.

After the War, one thing on which the Allies were firm, was that German naval might was to be ended for all time, and, under the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was at first prevented from owning any submarines at all. Since those days, Germany has thrown off many of the handicaps imposed on her by post-war treaties, and if she lias a submarine fleet equal to Britain, shp will again possess a powerful naval weapon. German submarines in the War were highly efficient, and they were skilfully and bravely (if callously) handled. There is no reason to assume that ,in the event of another war, they would not again be used in the same way, although it would not take her opponents nearly three years to find out how to combat them, as it took Britain and her Allies during the War,