Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 1924. KEEPING FAITH: THE NAVAL SCRAPPING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16424, 7 May 1924, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 1924. KEEPING FAITH: THE NAVAL SCRAPPING.

There: is muich .satisfaction to the mam who can honestly say, “I have kept faith.” The satisfaction ma(y be deeper if the keeping of faith involves a measure of sacrifice. This is the case of the British nation at the present time in connection with, the great , proiblem of nia'vaJ disarmament. Viscount Jellicoe in a? speech at im mavail function alt Wellington .a few days ago declared that ships had been destroyed and plans scrapped which would Ire really needed in future. This wais mow felt as much in the United States as in England, but it. wais a great feather in our cap that we had beaten our American, cousins in the scrapping. Few people realise the extent to which, naval, disarmament has hern carried out. When wo read in the Home papers that such a notable vessel as H.M.S. Lion .is about to Ibe delivered mp to a sh.lpbrea.king firm, the historic importance of .the event, signifying noil only the passing of a. famous ship but the completion of what Mr. H. C. By«water, a.n Englidli writ or on na.val topics, hats described as the greatest act of voluntary disarmament the world has ever seen, is realised When the war ended ini November, 1918, Mr. By water states, Great. Britain was all-powerful on the sens. So va,-t was her fleet that it dwarfed 1 the combined navies of the other Powers. Of dreadnought battleships nlnd battle-cruisers a,lane it- had forty-one. while tire collective strength of the United (States, Japan, France and Italy in this type did not exceed thirtyeight nnits. In aircraft-carriers and light, cruisers our preponderance was still greater. We had more than 4CO destroyers. 150 submarines, and countless auxiliaries, both (armed and non-combatant. In, addition to this enormous mass of modem material there was uf secondline. reserve of forty old armored ships available for war operations of a subsidairy nature. In the shipyards lay scores Of iiew vessels, from battle-cruisers to submarines) in valrying stages , of construction. which would in due course have replaced the less modern ships of the main flTet. Mahan himself never

pictured such an overpowering concentrait ion of naval force as that which was assembled under the White Ensign in November, 1918. But no sooner had the last shot been fired that the .work of dismantling this great war machine began with ruthless energy. The first step was to cancel all now construction save that which wais 1 well advanced towards completion. 'Of the 1005 warships and auxiliaries then building 611 were abandoned forthwith. Next, all the pre-dread-nought: battleships and cruisers, and several of the older dreadnoughts, were paid off for disposal. For three years every dockyard was crowded with derelict craft, nor did the utmost efforts of the sthipbreaking firms avail to- relieve the congestion. By the summer of , 1921, however, a good half of the material which composed the Grand Fleet had disappeared, ‘though rn;thy more ships nAvnited their turn, for demolition. Then eamoithe WashixugtonTlonference and the signing of the Lomitation Treaty under which Great Britain, pledged herself tto effect- ai further large reduction in her fleet. A similar sacrifice was required of the United States and Japan ; but oscc morei Britain look the lead and in I line space of twelve months had discarded all save one of the ships which the treaty condemned. The exception was the Iran, which was removed from the disposal list early in 1923, when it became evident that the other signatory Power's, for reasons sound in their eyes, preferred to wait the full ratification of the treaty before abolishing the best of their .surplus ships. As soon as the treulty had.' been ratified by France, both the United States and Japan showed a commendable promptitude in fulfilling their obligations, and it so happens that the Lion must inow go to the shipbreakers. Twenty-four British capital ships were named for scrapping in the treaty. Two were pre-dreadnoughts, four battlecruisers, on which work had only just begun, and the remaining eighteen were completed dreadnoughts. Nine of the latter vessels haid Itleeu paid off before ainv Washington Conference was held, and would in any case soon have disappeared from the navy. But the really fine gesture lay in sending to the scrapheap svi-dh .powerful ships as the Erin, the three Orions, and the Princess Royal—all of the super-dreadnought typo —without waiting for the fonnal ratification of the treaty. Britain’s naval policy since the war has certainly, as a German critic admits, shown a genuine trend towards disarmament. Not the,least remarkable feature of this gigantic clearance of fighting tonnage, Mr. Bywwt'er states, is the celerity with which it has been accomplished. While a considerable miumber of the ships were solid to firms in Holland and Germany, the hulk of ‘the work has beat do he at home. Some idea of tihe labor it involved is conveyed by the following figures: Since the war we have scrapped 45 battleships and cruisers of 600,000 tons, 82 cruisers of 520,000 tons, 380 destroyers and torpedo boats, 101 submarines, and 240 other vessels of aval', representing a total of ait least 1,650,000 toffs. This is in completed ships alone. Buit a; good deal of work had also to be done in connection with the dismantling of unfinished vessels, of which 270,000 lons were scrapped. The Admiraillty’s estimate of 2,000,000 tons as the total British combatant shipping which has been disposed of since the end of 1918 is, if anything, too conservative. The British naition’s position in relation to armaments is peculiar for tho reason that it. lives in an island, the pivot of a wonld-wida Empire, and maintains now what is one off the smallest armies of Europe and an admittedly very weak Air Force. 8a no one can question the sincerity of its desire to lead the way in the causa .of international peace. It would, however, as Mr. By water states, he unjust to omit all mention of the contributions which the United States .and Japan have made to the cause of international disarmament. The former is now breaking up on the stocks eleven of the' most powerful capital ships, ever designed, the completion of which would have given the American naivy at decided lend litn post-Jutland types; and four earlier dreadnoughts have also been destroyed, besides a large amount of old battleship tonnage. Japan hals renounced twenty-two capital ships, _ including twelve of post-Jutland design, though it is true that eight- of these had not been laid down. While the Washington covenant may have failed to arrest naval competition as completely t as its authors hoped it would, it certainly has reduced the world’s battle fleets by 50 per cent.., and, at the same time, refit/ricted their potential development at the very moment when far-reaching schemes to that end were taking place.