THE AMERICAN NAVY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23859, 13 July 1939, Page 10

THE AMERICAN NAVY

Two months ago the Senate of the United States passed a Naval Appropriation Bill involving a total expenditure of £154,000,000, and providing for the construction of twenty-three new vessels, including two battleships of 45,000 tons each. The debate on the Bill turned chiefly on the question of these battleships, and in the course of it Senator Borah raised a doubt as to whether Japan was in effect building vessels of such dimensions. The reply of Senator Byrnes, who was in charge of the measure, was to the effect that according to the best information available to the United States Government Japan was building three vessels between 42,000 and 46,000 tons. In name at least, a New York message intimates, the two great new American warship, already exist, and it is suggested that the Navy Department will probably, ask for two more, which would provide the United States with the world’s most powerful battleship division. Whether there is actually rivalry or not between the United States and Japan for the possession of the largest warships there is no doubt about the dimensions of American rearmament, which includes, of course, the navy. In March last the President’s programme for a greater expenditure than the United States had ever sanctioned except in the Great Wi.r was approved by Congress with overwhelming majorities in both Houses. It was recently reported that the United States Chief of Naval Operations, interviewed following fleet exercises, stated that the naval air-arm of the United States was superior to that of any other naval service in the world, and that the ships under construction were, for her purposes, the equal of and in some respects superior to those being built by other Powers. Not less in respect of the world’s navies than in respect of the armies and air forces of the nations limitation now applies apparently only so far as it is dictated by their resources. The interest of the British Empire in the reinforcement of the United States navy is much more than academic. Somewhat unexpectedly in April last, one day after President Roosevelt’s message to Herr Hitler, the main United States fleet, comprising some 140 ships, was ordered to i’eturn from the Atlantic to its normal bases in the Pacific. In naval circles in the United States this move was considered to have a definite strategical significance, amounting, in effect, to a tacit assurance that if the British navy were heavily occupied in the North Sea and the Mediterranean the American navy would keep a very vigilant watch in the Pacific, thus freeing Great Britain from one of three potential enemies. The mere transfer of the fleet was instrumental, it has been claimed, in preventing Japan from cementing her

alliance with the Axis Powers. American naval authorities recognise the difficulties of operation in Far Eastern waters, but their fleet is equipped for long range work. It is already based at Pearl Harbour, almost in mid-Pacific, and the proposal for the development of harbour facilities at Guam was introduced with a view to the extension of its area of predominance in that ocean. The Naval Department at Washington and the British Admiralty have conferred over the possibilities of naval co-operation in the Far East, and an American writer in one of the current reviews suggests that there is little doubt that part of the United States fleet would move into Singapore in the event of a Far Eastern threat, and might even go there if Japan made any overt demonstration against the Dutch or British possessions in Malaya. Whether Japan is desirous of expanding to the southward at the expense of Great Britain, the United States, and Holland is pointed to as an all-important question so far as the Pacific and the Far East are concerned. A stronger United States navy and a stronger British navy must be a joint source of reassurance to the dominions in the Pacific from whatever angle they consider their prospects for security. Very impressive was a recent given by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty of the manner in which the British navy has been and is being built up.