NO POLICE ON JAPANESE WARSHIPS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13491, 18 May 1907, Page 5 (Supplement)

NO POLICE ON JAPANESE WARSHIPS.

The Japanese gunnery experts who watched the recent prize-firing of the British China Squadron consider that the Admiralty have made a mistake .in treating the 6-inch gun as an obsolete weapon. They hold that battles will be won at sua as much by the moral effect of the bursting shells outside as by - the material results of shell five.' '

In a heavy, .sea, they say, « hydraulicworked guns will never be worked so quickly or laid so. accurately as hand-work-ed' guns. If the Dreadnoughts could always arrange to fight outside the- limit of 8000 yards ot her enemy, she would not feel the want of the 6-inch guns but the times must occur when'light' and sea conditions will make it necessary to close inside the zone of 6000 yards. It is understood that the Japanese Dreadnought will carry twelve 6-inch guns. . Japanese naval discipline is a marvellous thing 'to English eyes. There are no ship police, and there is practically no code of punishment. An officer remonstrates with a faulty man, reminds him of his ancestors, and appeals to his love of country. If the man is recalcitrant the; officer slaps his face once or twice, and ; that brings him to his senses. The relations between officers and men are paternal, like, the French, and owing to the absence of physical punishments,! and also of crime, the terms existing be-: tween the upper deck and. the lower deck are described as ideal. Since the war, however, there is a slightly greater tendency to drink on the part of the seamen. It is a mistake to think that the Japanese have copied the English navy in other than mechanical points, in construction, arrangement, dress, and material.'; They think for themselves on the higher subjects of discipline, strategy, and tactics. The arrangements for the Tshushima victory were worked out by a lieutenant on the. staff of the Tokyo, and Admiral Togo, to his eternal honour, accepted the plans of his junior, who has since been promoted to commander.