SEA SUPREMACY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25940, 5 September 1945, Page 5

SEA SUPREMACY

NOW HELD BY AMERICA WORLD’S BIGGEST FLEET (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 4. “ The sea supremacy traditional to the British people has at last passed elsewhere.” says the naval correspondent of the Sunday Times. “ The numerical lead of the American over the British Fleet is now too big to be overtaken, and Britain can no longer compete with America on the sea.” Discussing the size of Britain’s postwar fleet, the correspondent says the problem is a “major naval issue.’ Hitherto there has always been a standard at hand on which to propose her naval strength—essential defensive requirements for trade protection. More important, however, was the size of the fleet maintained by Britain’s most likely enemies. “Whereas there were once formidable fleets possessed by America, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, and Russia, with Britain the most powerful, there is now only one fleet of any great importance left apart from Britain’s, and that is the fleet of our ally, America. The others have been either destroyed or outmoded.”