NAVAL CONSTRUCTION.
SMALLER / SHIPS URGED.
ARTICLE BY REAR-ADMIRAL.
LONDON, Dec. 12
Rear-Admiral G. B. Dewar, who was concerned in the Royal Oak court-martial and who recently joined the Labour Party, writing in the Daily Herald, urges the abolition of the battleship, battlecruiser and the giant aircraft-carrier.
He describes the aircraft-carrier as a costly monstrosity which no country would havo thought of building had England not set the example, The real work of trade protection in war time was always carried out by small cruisers and destroyer flotillas. The continual growth in size was not due to functional necessity but to unreasoning rivalry. There was no reason why the limit should be 10,000 tons. This was suggested merely because the maritime Powers possessed a number of such vessels.
The downward scale could only be limited by a sufficiency of sea-going qualities, fuel, endurance, _speed and gun powet 1 , all of which were obtainable in a vessel of under 5000 tons. The abolition of battleships would entail a huge contingent economy—for example, the demand for a base at Singapore was based solely on the maintenance of battleships.
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20438, 14 December 1929, Page 13
Word Count
185NAVAL CONSTRUCTION. New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20438, 14 December 1929, Page 13
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