Useful Life For Moderns Cruisers

Northern Advocate, 16 March 1948, Page 2

Useful Life For Moderns Cruisers

WELLINGTON. Tue. (P.A.)—Navigating the entrance to Wellington Harbour by radar, the cruiser Australia, flying the flag of Rear-Admiral H. B. Farncomb, and the destroyer Bataan, of the visiting Australian squadron, edged their way this morning through thick fog and mist to berth at Aotea Quay. Admiral Farncomb, in a Press interview. predicted many years’ useful service ahead for the most efficient cruisers of conventional design, despite reports that various nations were investigating changes in design as a result of the development of the atom bomb.

Captain H. J. Buchanan, of H.M.A.S. Australia, also emphasised that a ship like the Australia was by no means an obsolete fighting unit. The value of combined naval exercises, not only between Australian and New Zealand ships, but also between units of the British Dominions and tne United States, was a point stressed by Admiral Farncomb. “Such combined exercises are of great benefit because they ensure that we keep a common doctrine going in the respective navies and make sure that we are working on common linos with the Royal Navy,” the Admiral, said. Some 400 men in the cruiser Australia are under 20 years of age, indicating that the Australian Navy today is a young man’s navy.

The Australian squadron visited Dunedin and Lyttelton before coming to Wellington, and prior to arriving in Auckland, the next port of call, it will be joined by H.M.N.Z.S. Bellona, with which it will later take part in combined exercises.