THE BRITISH NAVY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 14324, 29 September 1910, Page 3

THE BRITISH NAVY.

ADMIRAL BERBSFORD’S PROGRAMME. DANGER IN THREE YEARS. By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. LONDON, Sept. 28. In his open letter to Mr. .Asquith Urging that seven' more Dreadnoughts he put on the stocks, Lord Charles Beresford remarks that reckoning Dreadnoughts alone, the.position under the existing arrangements three years hence' will be that our superiority over Germany will be reduced to four. Me shall be exactly equal to Germany and Austria combined, and inferior by four to the Triple Alliance. He argues that within three years it will, be hardly possible to maintain supremacy in Home waters over one foreign Power, owing to the inexorable demand of the Mediterranean, due to the strength there of two members of Triple Alliance. If his proposals were adopted the position in 1913 and 1914 would be : , Dreadnoughts. Britain .................. -32 r Germany 21 Austria 4 Italy 4 - Triple Alliance 29 i With such a force and auxiliaries, Britain’s safety would bo reasonably secured. VIEWS OF THE DAILY NEWS. LONDON, Sept. 28; Tlic-Daily News, protesting at the farcical scaremongering, said that the Austrian Dreadnoughts were not. yet -voted: i The Italian naval programme was aimed against Austria. Germany, instead of 2i' Dreadnoughts, would have 17-in the spring.of 1913 and,2l in 1914. ■ Britain in the spring.• of. 1913 would have, including' colonial Dreadnoughts and' “Lord Nelsons,” 29.; If she built four this year she would have 33 in 1916, eight beyond Lord , Beresfqrd’s calculation.

' [There is; - the London Times points ■ out; a ; confueiom iu terras in talking . about, and; thinking in, Dreadnoughts. , We have, ho more, precise definition of a Dreadnought l than..that it is a war ; -ehipi of 4 the .first-class .designed and .. built at: some time; posterior to 1906, when tho original Dreadnought, ..was 'completed: ■ We cannot ; say that a Dreadnought is a particular, type of battle shipj becauEe by. common, consent the’ ships" of the. Invincible, type and their successors are .usually . reckoned as Dreadnoughts, and yet m the latest Dilke return they-are classed as armoured cruisers. It is/true that the distinctive feature of a Dreadnought at. first consisted :in her ; being equipped .with an armament .of what in American phraseology was ■ termed the “all-big- ■ 'gun single-calibre” type; that,is to say, ■i. she was-armed; for :the;,purposes. of a fleet action with; a larger, number of 12- , inch guns and no others,-her remaining armament-of 24'12-pounder guns being intended only for defence against torpedo attack. . This ■>; is a distinctive i feature of the later British Dreadi .noughts,, though in their case the antitorpedo armament is. of larger calibre. ; ■ But it .is mot the true differentia of : many of . tho more: recent so-called Dreadnoughts built- or building for i foreign navies.; The French Dan ton i class, for-instance, is to carry four 12inch and twelve 9.4-inch guns,<n thus approximating very closely; to our own Lord Nelson type, which is armed, with four 12-inch and, ten 9.2-inch guns, .together, in. each case with a powerful anti-torpedo armament. .The German Nassau, type carries twelve 12-inch and twelve 5.9-i:nch guns, together with, the additional anti-torpedo armament. In . fine, the‘‘all-big-gun: single-calibre” armament is not a true and distinctive feature of the so-called Dreadnoughts now built and building by the leading , .... naval Powers,of the world: A Dreadnought. is therefore, remarks The , Times, .simply ■ a larger ; and more powerful ship than the immediate pre- , decessors .of the original Dreadnought, and this in, an ever-increasing propor- . tion■ as' successive Dreadnoughts are produced. ~ The Bellerdphon type is a larger and more powerful ship than the original Dreadnought,, and the St. Vin- . . cent type is a larger and more powerful typo than the Bellerophon, and so on. Summing the matter up, The Times says: “Pre-Dreadnought ships which are otherwise fit to lie m a line may be expected to give a good account of themselves in action, although none of them may be iudividually.so powerful as. the original Dreadnought. The tiling is to have enough of them, both of ~ Dreadnoughts, andf of pre-Dreadndughfs, to take_ care that we are not surpassed in Dreadnoughts, even while our preDreadnought superiority -,is- incoritestable; and, above all,, to insist that, as ~ our pre-Dreadnought superiority gradu- . ally declines owing to the, disappearance of its units from the fighting-line, it must he replaced in full measure bv the . provision of ships of the nought and super-Dreadnought typo, .. Qr ..of any other type which in the normal course of evolution: will inevitably supersede and sunorannuate even: the latest of the Dreadnoughts now in existence, -If that-is done we are safe; but on no other terms.”]