THE NAVY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 17 February 1915, Page 5

THE NAVY

STATEMENT BY FIRST LORD BRITAIN'S SMALL LOSSES IMMENSE NEW. CONSTRUCTION 1 PROGRAMME. NOW MATURING. LONDON, Feb. 16. In his statement jn the House of Commons. Mr. Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, emphasised the efficiency of the Navy. At the outbreak of the -war it was fully mobilised, and the Teserves of ammunition and torpedoes were far above the regular quantities, -while there was ample oil fuel. An iminense programme of new construction was now maturing to reinforce the fleet. The prearranged system of accelerating new construction was yielding surprising results. The oil consumption was greatly above the estimate, but not a single oilship had been lost, and the price was low.t than when he last addressed the House. The Naval Training School was fall to the brim, and: thus they were able to man the ships coming on in such great numbers. / Replving to a suggestion that the Admiralty should court-martial the captain of every ship lost, Mr. Churchill pointed out that the novel conditions of warfare presented to naval officers problems of incomparable hazard and difficulty, and a court-martial would frequently be inappropriate. - Mr Churchill continued that the Admiralty deprecated anything tending to make officers afloat or at the Admiraltv play for safety. The Admiralty had chartered about a fifth of the mercantile marine. We were supplying from across the. sea an army almost as large as Napoleon's Grand Army, and vastly more complex. , r He was unable to hold out hopes ot an immediate reduction of the tonnage the Admiralty required. There were 4465 British arrivals and 3600 sailings in the last three months, and only nineteen vessels had been sunk by above-water craft. Between 1793 and 1814 we lost 10,871 merchantmen, and even after Trafalgar ws lost 500 ships yearly. It was really irarvellous how few losses there had been. Steam and the telegraph had enormously increased the efficiency of our superior power.

INORESSINGDaMINATIONOF BRITISH SEA POWER ■COULD ALONE DECIDE THE ISSUE. STRAIN OF CONVOY DIMINISHED. (Rec. Feb'. 17. 8.30 a.m.) LONDON, Feb. 16. Mr Churchill autTetl that th« great strain of distant convoy work in the early months of the war had now dimm ished. The operations, included the great convoy of 60 Australasian ships, 40 Canadian, and a regular flow of In-dian-convoys of 40 to 50 vessels. Now we* were to be the object of a kind of warfare never practised by civilised States. Submarines were to sink merchantmen at sight without search or parlev. But it must not be supposed that because the attack was extraordinary a good defence cannot r.e made. He warned the public that losses might be incurred, but there would be no vital injury if traders acted in the spirit of the gallant captain of the Laertes. All losses could be covered V»y Government insurance. Oermany cannot be allowed to adopt a svstem of open piracy and murder while herself protected by* tho bulwarks- of international instruments which she utterly repudiated and defied, and w<-, much to our detriment, respected. The House chuckled when Mr Churchill recalled that the laws of ancient Rome did not provide for the crime of parricide, but that the judges were equal to the emergency. ,Some members were pu/.z ed, and Mr Asquith turned to Mr Hobhou.se and explained that a parricide was sewn up in a sack with a dog, a viper, and a cock, and pitched into the Tiber. Mr Churchill concluded : "British sea power increasingly dominates the general situation, and 'in default of other favourable causes would alone decide the issue of the war."