A WEAK NAVY
THE BRITISH FLEET CONCERN EXPRESSED BY EARL JELLICOE AUSTRALIA’S PROPOSALS (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec, 7 p.m.) London, September 27. Earl Jellicoe in the course of an interview said that while he was pleased at Australia’s defence proposals they meant no increase in Australia’s modest naval strength, but simply restored that strength to effectiveness. He was much concerned over the present weakness of the British Navy as a whole. Earl Jellicoe regretted the Australian proposal to make a destroyer flotilla of one leader and four destroyers, instead of eight, which was a properly constituted flotilla fully qualified to carry out training exercises in this branch of the service. Britain and Germany (the latter under compulsion) had reduced their navies; all the other naval Powers had increased theirs or at least maintained war-time strength.
“Since we have not enough cruisers and destroyers to convoy our merchantmen in war, what would be the position to-day? asked Earl Jellicoe. “A stoppage of our seaborne traffic would entail the Empire’s ruin.” He added that his report asked for by the Commonwealth in 1919 had been ruled out by the Washington decisions of 1921.
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Bibliographic details
Southland Times, Issue 22132, 28 September 1933, Page 7
Word Count
192A WEAK NAVY Southland Times, Issue 22132, 28 September 1933, Page 7
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