The Two Navies.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13916, 29 May 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Two Navies.

L CfißilAN SHIPBUILDING t RESOURCES. (By ! John Leyland.) There appears to have been a good deal of loose talking and writing on the subject of British and German shipbuilding and the promise of the future. -2Vp cause for panic or immediate' alarm exists, but there is every reason for vigilance aud zealous preparation, as 1 shall endeavour to show. We are hot without some grounds of certaintyias to what Germany is doing. That 1 the Dreadnoughts Nassau and West-falbn will be completed in the autumn of Uic present year has been announced. ■ The former, through some mischance, sank in the basin atWilhelmshaven, and men to the number of 8000 -have been working night and day on {hat ship and a sister vessel to make good the delay, and there can:be .no-doubt that both the Nassau and WestfaUn will be ready at the appointed time. The Rheinland and Poseu, which-were begun three months later—i.e., iii the summer of 1907 — will be ready! at about the same time or a few weelts later. ' They are being built at the Yulkan yard. Stettin, and the Germania ' (Krupp) yard, Kiel, which are outpacing the Government dockyards. Thus we have four noughts.TWENT f TO SEVENTEEN. There are three others building at Wilhelmshaven,; the Howald yard, Kiel (which lias sprung into new importance in association with Krupp); and the Weser yard, Bremen; and these," begun in the summer of last year, will be ; <jompleted before the end of 1910 or eaf-ly ' ]l 1911. So much, then, is-eertani with regard 'to seven German Dreadnoughts. Three others belong to the jear 1909,. and there has been feverish .activity in , accelerating .preparations for them. Mr McKenna says that orders were given last October with this! object,' but there seems some prabability that they were issued some months earlier, and there is no reason to doubt that the three, ships will be ready before the end-of 19]]. Rverything :turns upon the rapidity of construction that will be imparted to the ships that belong to the year 1910, but as there is. doubt on the matter we may conclude with probability, amounting 'to practical certainty on our side, that thev will be out of hand in 1912. i■• '

Thus we -arrive at thirteen German Dreadnoughts, being presumably those referred to by Admirpal von Tirpitz. But these ships are independent of the. German Indomitables, F, G, H, and I, which also belong to the Dreadnought category. F. will be ready in The autumn" of next year, or possibly earlier; G a few months later; and H and I. which belong to the years 1909 and 1910, before the end of 1912. In this way we arrive at the seventeen Dreadnoughts indicated by Mr Asquitli and Mr McKenna as to be comnleted in the last-named year. Mr Balfour's estimate of twenty-one ships is based on the hypothesis that four additional ships -will be laid down in 1911, and will be so aecelernated that they also will be ready in 1912. The point to be kept in view is that if the German programme should be accelerated in this way, we can expedite our own to keep pace with it. I«fc is obviously of vital importance to keen the lead, for otherwise national and Imperial safety will be thrown into an even balance. We have eight Dreadnoughts built and building, • and four Indomitables.

making twelve in all, and.we are laying clown tour more, and providing means to'begin another four, presumably on April 1, 1910 (to be completed in j.912), making twenty Dreadnoughts, to. oppose to the seventeen of the Germans. Meanwhile it will be possible, and may , be , necessary, to lay down other ships in li'lo-11, completing them also in 1912. There is, therefore, good reason to trust the Government and Admiralty to do what is "right in the matter. There is the less, reason to give-way to panic and 'excitement, because we have also the Lord Nelson and Agamemnon, which can well- lie'.in the line, ivith Dreadnoughts, and', an overwhelming superiority in pre-Dreadnouo;ht ships. BENEFITS OF CONTINUITY.

The great advantage that-the Germans ]>ossess in the continuity and certainty of the naval policy.that re-, suits from the measurped expansion of the fleet, which began ..with the Navy Law of 1898, was doubled •by that of 1900, and was expanded and accelerated by the amendments of 1906 and 1.908. The subsequence .of this definite and ordered development of the German navy has b«en an enormous increase in the shipbuilding resources of the country. '■-.'';,■■

The Germania yard at Kiel has grown' enormously; the Howald yard has begun to build the largest ships in'association with it: the Vulkan yard at Stettin, which 1 has slips for the building *ot four large ships at the same- time, is opening a new establishment on the Elbe, for which a ■ large dry-dock is completing; Blohm and V'oss at Hamburg are building the big cruiser-battleships; the Woser yard at Bremen lias largely increased its accommodation within the last two years, so that it- can have on the stocks four large ships at the same time; and Schichan lias opened an establishment at Danzig for the largest work, in addition to his destroyer yard at Elbuig. All these stand apart from the great State dockyard at Kiel and at \Yilhelmshaven, which last is now being developed into the second largest dockyard in the world. It is for the Foreign Office and the Admira.ty to. say with what object this prodigious expansion of German shipbuilding resources is taking place. We find no parallel to it in this country where i-he pause of shipbuilding alter the launch of the Dreadnought had a depressing effect upon the private yards. In this connection some account of the >M-eat Krupp establishments which, besides building warships, make all the. <n,iiß. gun-mountmgs, and aimouipatin* for the. whole navy, - will i - lustraFe the condition of afta.rs with whicli we are confronted. "KEITP'S." t . -\t the Germania yard the Krupp firm had two years ago seven slips d pted for the building of large ships, f war, four of them being covered, so that the work could go on at all seasons of the year unimpeded and was v to lay down two such ships ye; - v and to complete them w.thm from t\vcntv-fonr to thirty .months: I lie v ,d covers a groat area, and has a sea "'V 1 It a« vnrds liv addition to oi S'*J »aiu. ■»«» tu b£ ships there is accommodation & over.tlie progress ol tho «ta£ lishment, it is known *»»* th « f"" J ' 1* been verv greatly increased, lheie aie Edrfes and forges, shops tor fitting, bending, making angle irons, and eopersmiths' work, erecting shop, saw and gentry works, and .1 Itu> inurements of a great shipbuilding >aid. The enormous works at Essen employed even in 1906 more than 3o,0( 0 eii. Here heavy shafting o all kinds is made, including ship-propeller shafts, <>»'iis of all calibres—constructed on the built-up principle-rfor naval, fortress, and military purposes, gun shields, turrets. disappearing carriages gun mountings, accessories ammunition ol everv class, armour-plating, and constructive steel. But Essen does not stand alone. At that place and at Meppen, and Tangerhutte are extensive proving grounds for gun and ar-mour-plate testing. The company owns three collieries, one at Essen and two near Jiochun. It has -numerous iron ore mines in Germany and shares in others at Bilbao, in Spain. Two blast furnaces are on the Middle Rhine as well as a foundry and engineering works. In addition are the 1« riednch-Alfred-Hutte, at Bheinhauser-l* nemerslieim, the Anncn Steel Works m-West phalia, and the Gi'usonwerk at Buekau, near Magdeburg. In 1(107 the various Krupp establishments employed 64,350 men. Since that time there has been enormous development but no information m relation thereto has been made public. There are rumours that other establishments in Germany, and outside Germany, have been brought into the Krupp establishment, or are subsidised bv it, for the purposes of the German navv. In January, 190-, the capital of tlie company, which was m the hands of trustees for the benefit ol the daughter of the late Friedench Alfred Krupp was £9,000,000. Last year it was found that the acceleration m the rate of construction in all the. shipbuilding vards of Germany demanded increased resources for the manufacture of guns,- gun-mountings, and armourplate, and of many other requirements lor ship construction, and additional capital to the amount of £2,-500,000 was raised by bankers and others with- I out publicity. *

Enough has been said to show how serious is tUe ettort being made by (jiermany to excel m the race tor naval supremacy. There is no immediate danger, but we shall have to make up our minds to bear .heavier burdens in the future.—''.Daily Chronicle."