FOREIGN WARSHIPS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22579, 18 November 1936, Page 16

FOREIGN WARSHIPS

VISITS TO SINGAPORE DUTCH AND UNITED STATES [from our own correspondent] SI NCSA PORE, Oct. 29 Warships of four foreign Powers will have visited Singapore by the end of the year. .More than 20* Dutch fighting craft—warships, submarines, aircraft —will arrive from Java on November 13 on a goodwill visit and will remain for four days. They will be in port when 12 United States naval vessels, comprising the greater part of the Asiatic Fleet, arrive on November 1!) for a week's stay. A French sloop is at present at Singapore on its wav to Saigon, French Indo-China, and the German cruiser Einden will be hero from December 11 to December 19. The Dutch craft will comprise the cruisers Java and Sumatra, three destroyers, four submarines and 12 aircraft. The decision to send the naval vessels and aircraft to Singapore will give an impressive indication of the strength of Dutch defences in tho Netherlands Indies. Warships, submarines and flying-boats aro stationed at Sourabaya, most of them being accommodated in a splendid man-made dock within a stone's .throw of the commercial wharves. I had the good fortune to be in Sourabaya about two months ago for Fleet Day, an annual event on which all the naval craft are thrown open for inspection. As many of the populace as wished to were taken on a short cruise on the warships, and tho submarines also took part in the display. Fighting 'planes soared and wheeled overhead.

That night the larger warships were brilliantly outlined with electric lights and the climax was a searchlight display given in timo to band music. The United States vessels will comprise the cruiser Augusta and 10 35-knot destroyers, accompanied by the destro.ver-tender Black Hawk. The Augusta is the flagship of the United States Asiatic Fleet. She is one of the 10,000 tonncrs built under the Washington Treaty. She was launched in 1930 and completed the following year. She lias a speed of 32.5 knots and is 600 ft. long. Her equipment includes nine Sin. guns, four sin. anti-aircraft guns, two three-pounders, six 21m. torpedo tubes and two catapults with four seaplanes. Her compliment is about 600 officers and ratings. Tho destroyers aro vessels of about 320 ft., with a speed of 35 knots. They carry four tin. Rons and one Jin. The destroyer-tender Black Hawk and 11 other United States naval vessels visited Singapore in 1930 and the cruiser Augusta was here just a year '1