FAMOUS ADMIRAL'S PREDICTION.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13489, 8 June 1914, Page 5

FAMOUS ADMIRAL'S PREDICTION.

BATTLESHIPS DOOMED BY

SUBMARINES

London, June 5

. Adr iral Sir Percy Scott predicts an end i > naval warfare between Dreadnoughts, which are doomed because 01 the submarines and their torpedoes. "Submarines cannot fight submarines, he adds. He condemns the wasting of the nation's money-in .useless battle-

ships. . Sir Percy Scott declares that as motor cars have driven horses from the street so submarines have doomed the Dreadnoughts. With seaplanes for scouting a battleship fleet was no longer able to put to sea. or even to remain safely in harbour, as submarines were able to break booms. The Admiralty should spend money on submarines, seaplanes, and a few firstclass cruisers. The future navy will be a navy of youth, the only requirements being boldness and daring. Sir Percy Scott's declaration has aroused attention. He contends that if submersibles close egress from the North Sea and the Mediterranean it is difficult to see how our commerce can be much interfered with. Thirty or forty submarines in the Straits.of Gibraltar would make the passage of a fleet hazardous. Any Power sending ships to lunt and destroy submarines would be courting disaster. Great Britain, with'her many harbours and so much shipping, would be at a great disadvantage^ if an enemy had plenty of submarines.