DEFENCE OF THE EMPIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18963, 10 March 1925, Page 9

DEFENCE OF THE EMPIRE.

ISUILIMNG NEW CRUISERS. LARGELY ■ INCREASED COST. BRITAIN'S NAVAL EXPENSES. Tiv Telegraph—Pre?s Association —Copyright. Hun. LONDON. Mar. 8. Modern cruisers are costing morn than Dreadnoughts cost, before the war. Iho Hawkens cost £1.636.600 arid the F robisher, which was completed in 1924. cost £12.071.000. The Effingham. which is now being constructed, will cost £2,174,000. or at the rate of £223 per ton, whereas pro-war cruisers cost £75

per ton. The Furious, 19,100 tons, laid down in 1916 ns a cruiser, is being transformed into an aircraft carrier. She is to undertake her trials next week. She cost £6,000,000

The naval correspondent of the. limes in a recent, article said: —By past declarations of policy the Government stands committed to a larger amount of warship construction than that undertaken by its predecessors. In January, 1.924, when Mr. Baldwin left office, a programme for that year had been decided upon, the main items in which were eight cruisers and two destroyers. Mr. Mac Donald s Cabinet reduced the cruisers to and retained the destroyers, from the financial point of view, however, and also from the point, of view of the amount of work for the shipyards and manufacturing establishments involved, the programme was reduced by one-half. The ships laid down under it should cost about £9,000,000 when completed, but if the submarines, gunboats, and other vessels which were struck out of the programme had been retained another £9,000.000 worth of work would have been contracted for. This amount will no doubt be authorised this year. A little more than one-half of this £9,000.000 would have gone in the building of the three cruisers, each of which would cost something over £1,500,000. Before the war it was possible to build a cruiser for £375,000, but with the increase in prices and the addition of more complicated equipment to the ships there lias been a great increase in her tonnage. The Washington Conference, when it fixed 10,000 tons and an armament of Sin. guns as the limit, for cruisers, no doubt thought this would be a maximum to be worked up to gradually, but such has not been the case. Japan at once redesigned the 7000-ton cruisers in her programme as 10,000-ton ships; America launched a new programme of eight such ships, financial provision for which has now been made; and France and Italy have also ships of this tonnage in hand. Hence no firstclass Power can now afford to he content with smaller ships. On the other hand, future, cruisers of what may be called the Washington standard type ought not to cost more than about £1,500,000 -provided their construction is carried through promptly. In cases where this sum has been exceeded, the ships have been delaved from year to year by lack of financial provision on the pica of economy. Actually, such a policy is most wasteful, 'flic cruiser Frobisher, which was begun in August, 1916, and commissioned in September last—eight years afterwards—will have cost by March 31 next £1,937,716, and as she is* still in Devonport. Dockvard for " repairs " the fleet is not even Vet gettinc a full return from her. The cruiser Effingham, laid down in April. 1917. will have cost bv March 31 a total of £2,074,526. and will not then be finished. Vet the Hawkins, a sister-ship, was built for £1.550.664. or half a million less, owing to prompt construction. Other ships dropped from last year's programme, were three submarines, a submarine depot ship, a depot ship, two gunboats, a special ship for the. Persian Gulf, an aircraft-carrier and a minelayer. In the absence of detailed particulars it would seem that the aircraft-carrier would he, the largest, and most expensive of these units. The Hermes, the only carrier in the Royal Navy, designed and built as such, cost just over, £2,000,000. The new vessel might not. cost as much, but £1.750,000 may be allowed for her. Then at least another £1,000,000 should be "put. down for the three submarines. Seven submarines in hand at the beginning of this financial year arc to cost, on an average, £307.000 each, but the nev.- " submarine-cruiser " XI, as she has been called, the largest under-water craft in the world, has entailed an outlay of £913.790. About £750,000 would probably be wanted for the minelayer, this being about the sum spent upon the Adventure, now completing afloat at Devonport,; and about £1,000,000 would be wanted for the five other auxiliary ships. The total financial commitment for these vessels would thus be about £9,000.000. and probably the whole of this sum would lie spent in the private yards and engineering shops.

FLEETS OF THE WORLD. LEADING NAVAL POWERS. OFFICIAL COMPARISON. LONDON. Feb. 28. An official comparison of the fleets of the four leading naval Powers, as on February 1, 1925, quotes tho. respective strengths as follow, the figures in parentheses being those of wareraft now being built or projected Britain. U.S.A. France, Japan. H'tleships . 18 (2) 18 0 (> B. cruisers . 't 0 0 4 Cruisers .. -SO (8) .11 (9) 10 (!)) 28 (11) Destroyers . 180 (2) nO9 (12) 54 (20) 101 (2.1) S'marines . C.3 (-1) 118 (15) 46 (59) 51 (23) M. sweepers 02 45 .'l9 .'1 The two battleships which Britain is building are the Nelson and the Rodney, each of 35,000 tons displacement, 702 ft. length, 106 ft. beam, and 30ft. draught. They are part of the 1922-23 programme, and were both laid down on December 28, 1922. The Washington Treaty limits tho calibre of tlie main armament to 36in. guns. Further details regarding those vessels have been withheld by the Admiralty. The county (lass of British cruisers, laid down late last year, includes five vessels, Berwick, Cornwall. Cumberland, Kent, and Suffolk. They are. 10.000 tons displacement, and will be built in conformity with the restrictions imposed by the Washington Treaty, but no further particulars have vet been made available for publication.