LIGHT NAVAL CRAFT

Taranaki Daily News, 13 December 1932, Page 7

LIGHT NAVAL CRAFT

BRITAIN MAY BUILD. Important changes in the British navy are planned as. a result of informal conversations at Ottawa, in which. Canada, Australia and New Zealand promised to help the mother country more generously than heretofore in the common cause of Empire naval organisation. A substantial increase in the naval establishments of all three Dominions is probable in the near future, says the . San Francisco Chronicle.

. Among the modifications planned .in British naval policy are a merger of the home and Mediterranean fleets into one single fleet, re-organisation of the Mediterranean fleet into a light mobile force, and construction of smaller ships of all types. Advocates of a drastic re-organisation of the navy contend that the floating forces both at home and abroad are still organised on the plan adopted soon after the war, when the balance of power at sea was believed to have been stabilised. Since then, they say, every foreign navy of importance has grown in power—in some cases by 50 to 100 per cent. In European waters alone over 150 submarines have been built or laid down in this period together with more than 120 torpedo craft of exceptional size and power, and 41 cruisers of high speed combined with formidable armament. Among the latest naval armaments abroad, which England is precluded from building by her treaty commitments, are the so-called “pocket battle ships.” These are actually miniature battle cruisers, heavily armed cruisers, and super-destroyers that are twice as large and twice as powerful as the best torpedo craft in the British navy. Since treaty rules and financial stringency prevent the British navy from competing with these in kind, it is urged that more strength should be given to the fleet by concentration on smaller and lighter striking vessels. If the two battle fleets are merged into one force, it will consist of cruisers, destroyers, and submarines, with several aircraft carriers of the new medium type, and it is believed that if the British continue to build ships of medium tonnage other powers will sooner or later follow suit. This is the navy’s justification for assuming the risk of turning out smaller and more lightly-armed vessels than those in rival navies. The most revolutionary change now discussed is the closing of the famous naval college at Dartmouth, and allowing naval officers to enter into service directly from the public and possibly from the secondary schools of England at a minimum age of 17, ' \