THE ARMY AND NAVY THE NEW SQUADRONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2649, 21 December 1904, Page 34

THE ARMY AND NAVY THE NEW SQUADRONS.

GERMANY AND SEA POWER.

A DANGER TO THE EMPIRE.

DEFICIENCY IN QUICK-FIRERS.

LONDON, December 13.

A Blue Book explains the naval distribution cabled on the 28th, the Admiralty profiting by Japan's and Russia's experiences. Lord Selborne, emphasising the revolution since 1889, inasmuch as when vessels of the Devonshire class were completed in 1905 the navy would contain 26 armoured cruisers. In future the Channel fleet would consist of 12 battleships and a number of cruisers. The Atlantic fleet, with a base at Gibraltar, would consist of eight battleships and a number of cruisers. Affiliated with both the Channel and the South Atlantic fleets will be cruiser squadrons, each with six* armoured cruisers. The South Atlantic squadron will disappear. The Mediterranean squadron will consist of eight battleships and a number of cruisers. A third cruiser squadiron will be located in the Mediterranean. The warships outside Europe will consist of three groups. The eastern will comprise China, Australia, and the East Indies.

The battleship Britannia has been launched.

Mi- Forster, Secretary of War, speaking at Newcastle, quoted from General Sir lan Hamilton's recent letter as follows : — " This war (in the Far East) has burnt into my mind the condition of our own army, and the terrible nature of the danger to the existence of the Empire. T have learnt here that nothing but the very best will do."

It is officially announced that Admiral Sir Edward Seymour will succeed Sir Noel Salmon as Admiral of the Fleet in February next, and that Admiral Sir L. Beaumon succeeds Admiral Seymour as Com-mander-in-Chief at Plymouth. Prince Louis of Battenburg will command the second cruiser squadron.

December 15,

Mr Amold-Forster, Secretary of War, in the course of a letter to The Times dealing with General Sir lan Hamilton's letter from the Far East on "the condition of the British army, states that both in men and material the British army reaches the extremes of quality in good and bad, and that General Sir lan Hamilton had often led the very best in the army.

The Times has a long article on the Treasury's refusal to find money for new quick-firers except for India, because India pays for them. It asserts that the new War Office officials discussed the selection of guns for nine months before finally reverting to the decision arrived at by Major-general Marshall's Commission of Inquiry. It is hoped in India that 21 batteries will be ready m 1905. It would be possible, adds the nrticle, to do this

if the work were begun in earnest in April, and to re-arm the Motherland and the colonies by 1907. Meanwhile we are not secure.

BERLIN, December 13.

The North German Gazette says Britain's claim to universal supremacy at sea is indefensible and as obsolete as th° hegemony formerly claimed on land by one or other of the Continental powers.

The Berliner Neuste Nachrichten declares that Britain's emphatic claim to command all the seas is a factor which the German naval policy is bound to consider.