RIVAL NAVAL POLICIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20465, 17 January 1930, Page 13

RIVAL NAVAL POLICIES.

CONFERENCE PROSPECTS.

NO BAN ON SUBMARINES.

FRENCH DETERMINATION. BRITISH EMPIRE'S INTERESTS. BY ARCHIBALD HURD. It is certain that the Five Powers Naval Conference will refuse to agree to a ban on the building of submarines in .accordance with the proposals of the British "Government, to which the Administration of Washington gave its adhesion during Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald's visit to President Hoover. This suggestion was first put forward at the Washington Conference in 1921 by the Earl .of Balfour and was supported with technical arguments by Lord Lee of Fareham, who was then First Lord of the Admiralty. Nothing came of the proposal except a series of pious resolutions proposed by Senator Root, incidentally forbidding the use of submarines against merchant shipping. It was suggested that other naval Powers should be invited to give their support to them, but none of 'tlfem has done sof It was soon evident, indeed, that no importance was attached to these resolutions and nothing had been done to make them effective. On the other hand, in subsequent years the naval authorities in France, Italy, the United States and other countries have made no secret of their determination to go on constructing submarines and, though no battleship, apart from the Nelson and the Rodney, has been built in any shipyard and only a small number of cruisers have been laid aown since the Washington Conference, much attention has been devoted to the design of more efficient submarines, of which manjr have been sgnt to sea. Submarine Pleets. The result of this movement is revealed in the following statement of the number of modern and efficient submarines possessed by the leading naval Powers:— United States .. . * .. 127 France 89 Japan » . 77 British Empire ~ . • 70 Italy 66 Itie revival of the proposal that submarines should be banned has given fresh life to the former controversy and France has constituted herself the champion of the smaller navies, protesting tfyat the submarine is the weapon of the weaker and poorer naval Powers, and that they ought never to agree to any restriction on their liberty, since the submarine is the antidote to the battleship and the cruiser. It is even urged, in face of the action of the Germans during the Great War in sinking merchant vessels—-with a heavy loss of life—that the submarine is purely a defensive weapon. Under the leadership of France the strongest opposition will be offered to the proposal to prohibit the building of submarines; the Italians, if not the Japanese delegates, will range themselves beside the 1< rench l'e-

presentativos. Abolition of Battleships. There is ground for believing that the French delegation may carry the matter a stage further and propose, not that the battleship "holiday" shall be extended to 1936, as the British and American delegates suggest, but that the conference shall agree that the battleship shall-be once and for all interdicted on the political ground that it is offensive and not defensive in its role, and that it is costly. A vessel of 35.000 tons, as laid down by the Washington Treaty, represents an expenditure of £7,000,000 or £8,000,000 in Europe, and an even larger sum in the United States where all costs are high. ' This alignment of naval opinion in relation to the surface and submersible ships is likely to be the most significant feature of the conference. There is general agreement in favour of a limitation of the number and size of the former, but grow-

ing and bitter opposition to any steps being taken to restrict the freedom of the naval Powers to build as many as

they desire of the latter, which is the enemy, not merely of the battleship, but of all surface vessels. That the submarine

is the foe of battleships, cruisers and destroyers, as well as a menace to merchant ships, is conceded. So the delegates will be confronted with conditions which are calculated to cause disquiet to all nations which are dependent on the trade routes for their commerce, and in the case of the peoples of the British Isles, who could live for only about a fortnight if the inward flow of food ships was interrupted, disquiet is a mild word to employ. The Empire's Sacrifices.

The course which the disarmament movement is taking may well occasion alarm. In the first place, the displacement of battleships and cruisers is being restricted, which means that their power of resisting torpedo attack from submarines. as well as bomb attack by aeroplanes, is being limited, for such defensive power is a matter of weight. In the second place, the number of such surface vessels is being gradually reduced so that the possibility of defending merchant commerce is being restricted: it takes many surface' vessels to hunt down a single submarine, just as many hounds are engaged in hunting a single fox. The British naval authorities have time and again declared that the battleship is the backbone of the British Fleet and that successful operations for the protection of the trade routes rests, in the last analysis, on the strength of what may be styled th« heavy line of the British Fleet—battleships and cruisers—the necessary support of the mosquito craft acting against submarines. The movement for the limitation of armaments has lost any balance that it ever possessed. Nothing is being done to restrict the strength of the armies and air forces of the great military Powers, though invasion overseas remains a menace and air bombing is a growing peril, threatening alike women atjd children as well as men of the civilian population. It is said that the military and aerial problems will be considered after naval limitation has been carried to the furthest practicable limit. So navies are being cut down—the British author- . ities have scrapped already 2,100,000 tous —on the hypothesis that corresponding measures will be adopted' later in regard to armies and air forces, which no person who has followed the proceedings at Geneva can believe to be a possibility at present in view of the political conditions 011 the Continent of Europe, reacting on the size and character of the armies and air forces which are maintained. The only countries which have made any considerable sacrifices in the cause of the limitation of armaments' are those which compose the British Empire, widely distributed over the world's seas,- whose first line of defence consists of men-of-war, and, in particular, surface men-of-war. The menace of the submarine is increasing. Some of the best technicians of the world are devoting themselves to increase ing the offensive powers as well as the radius of action of these craft. While many submersible vessels of moderate disj placement are still being built, naval architects in France, Italy and the United States in particular, are studying all the

problems, associated v with the design of seagoing vessels with an extended ~ radios of action, "vessels which. owing to their, reserves of oil and other supplies r<*. main at sea for many days without under any necessity to reveal their whereabouts by putting into a port either fot! fuel, food or other necessities of life. The competition in the building of battleshipshas for the time given place'to rivalry in the construction of, submarines, in which so far France has obtained the lead with' the largest and most remarkable submersible cmft which has yet been builtin fact, a submersible cruiser, which even carries a seaplane, to be used for recon. naissance purposes. ' The Surcouf, which was; recently launched at Cherbourg, is far bigger and ' more powerful than any submarine built or contemplated by any other Admiralty, and it is credibly reported that, if she realises expectations on her trial, she will, in spite of her gu&t cost of about £2,000,000, be the forerunner of other similar craft. They will become, in fact, if not in nanis. the backbone of the French Fleet. Ideal Commerce Destroyer. Great secrecy has been observed as to the details of the design of the Surcouf, but some general particulars are known.. She will carry sufficient fuel for a cruisa of 12,000 miles, which means that she could go from Cherbourg to Capetown and back without putting into any port for oil fuel, food 'or otiier stores, or. could cross the Atlantic and cruise on the surface or submerged along the coast of Canada and the United States, at length returning to her base with a reserve of oil fuel still left in her tanks. This remarkable vessel displaces 4300 tons when submerged and 3250 tons when travelling on the surface. Her size suggests great defensive arid offensive powers, and in both respects she has no rival in any navy of the world. ' She is armed with four •5.5 in. gnns and is pierced with 14 tor-. pedo tubes, and will carry no fewer than 30 torpedoes. The Surcouf is the biggeit, most powerful and most stoutly built submersible vessel ever constructed, and though her submerged speed is only 12. knots on the surface she is able to travel at 17 kriols in an emergency, as, for instance, when chased by a destroyer, with a rate of steaming about twice as great/' The Surcouf is an ideal commerce destroyer because she could break any blockade in.a submerged condition, and, getting to sea, remain perdue for weeks, in the meantime attacking either surface men-of-war or merchant ships. The building of these great submarines. is the most disturbing feature of the naval situation. It is one that the forthcoming conference will be unable to ignore, because the existence of such vessels will necessarily throw on countries with ex--' posed "trade routes the burden of building and maintaining large numbers of aarface craft, unless the submarine is in future I.o' dominate the world's seas, a menace not only to battleships and but also to merchant ships. Their ability to bombard coast towns must also be borne in mind. This rivalry in constructing large seagoing submarines is a particularly disturbing development for the peoples of tha British Empire, dependent for their commercial existence on the trade routes.