SPEED OR ARMOUR?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21242, 24 January 1931, Page 11

SPEED OR ARMOUR?

. BRITAIN’S NEW CRUISERS. OPINION OF THE EXPERTS. (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, January 22. Expert opinion is inclined to discount Sir William Berry’s allegations concerning the cruisers of the Australia and Canberra type. “ You can’t have it both ways,” said an authority, “ You must sacrifice either speed or armour. This type is essentially a fast mobile cruls.r designed primarily to protect trade routes. Speed must be the deciding factor. I admit that there is a measure of truth in Sir Wililam Berry’s statement, but it must be remembered that the Great War time losses were heavily armoured cruisers.” NAVY LEAGUE STATEMENT. LONDON, January 22. The Navy League, in a statement signed by Lord Lloyd and Sir Cyril Cobb, declares that, with a view to the inadequacy of the Empire’s cruiser tonnage under the Naval Treaty,, the full tonnage sanctioucd should be provided punctually within the time limits; and that destroyers, of which the numbers being built and projected to replace obsolete vessds are gravely inadequate, should be considerably increased. A previous message stated: The naval correspondent of the Daily Express asks: “Are the British 10,000-ton cruisers, of which the Canberra and Australia are examples, which were built to the Washington Treaty limits, death traps?” He proceeds; “ To-day it is practically admitted officially that these ships are a grave mistake. Sir William Berry (late Director of Naval Construction), writing in Brassey’s Annual, states that as they are at present built a well-placed salvo of Sin shells would place the 10,000-ton cruisers out of action. Protection has been sacrificed to speed- If more treaty cruisers are built they must be slower. These disclosures explain why the Admiralty stopped building the 10,000-ton type aud started smaller types. Illustrating the immense waste involved in high speed, Brassey’s Annual instances a foreign cruiser, having a speed of 80 knots, with 61,000 h.p., which required 110,000 h.p. for 32.75 knots.” The Express adds: “ America is building 18 of the type, Prance seven, Italy seven, and Japan eight, at. a total cost of £100,000,000. An ironic commentary on the limitation treaty is that it rushed the peoples of the world helter-skelter into pouring out money which the naval experts now condemn.”