PURPOSE OF A FLEET.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 15112, 22 December 1921, Page 6

PURPOSE OF A FLEET.

THOUGHTFUL SUGGESTIONS. To decide what is the purpose of a fleet, we must determine what is the purpose of a nation as a selfgoverning unit. With this beginning, Colonel J. F. C. Fuller writes in the "Nineteenth Century" on "The Purpose and Nature of a Fleet." The main purpose of a nation, he holds, is prosperous survival, and for this we require competition leading to commercial prosperity, selfsacrifice leading to ethical superiority, co-operation leading to political stability, and militarism leading to national security. Commercial prosperity implies the accumulation of national capital as well as the general welfare of the people. - This cajijtal is obtained, by barter within and without the frontiers" of a nation, and to ensure the necessary .land and sea communications there muse be armies and navies. History shows that war normally' centres round trade, and that whatever the immediate and detonating cause has been, its inner and explosive force is generally one closely connected with' commercial competition. To protect her trade and to enforce her commercial policy from 1900 onwards, Germany entered into , open naval competition with England. This could lead only to the result of war. In wars originating through trade competition, the object is not to kill, wound, or plunder the enemy but to persuade him by moral and physical force that acceptance of a policy will prove more profitable than refusal.

Fleets exist for four primary purposes—l. To protect the transportation of armies, as in the Crimean, Russo-Japanese, and 1914-18 wars. 2. To compel an enemy to disperse his main army by landing or threatening to land troops, as in the Peninsular War and the Gallipoli, Salonika, and Archangel landings. 3. To protect the transport of supplies, as in the Dutch, Napoleonic, and Great wars. -4. To impede or completely prevent supplies of all nature being shipped to the enemy's country, -as was attempted in the Dutch, American Civil, and Great wars. These four primary purposes are condensed into the military and economic purpose, Which together are expressed in the term "command of the sea."

The objective of a fleet is to clear the sea of all hostile ships, either by sinking or by blockading them. With the existence of the submarine nothing like a complete guarantee of freedom of the sea is possible. Naval brains should now be considering not the question of battleship versus submarine or vice versa, but rather what constitutes the intrinsic value of these two types of vessels in the maintenance of command of the sea against all prospective enemies. The submarine's power. of evasion introduces a new problem into naval warfare.

Colonel Fuller divides the nations of the world into four categories—uncivilised countries (as Turkey, Arabia, Persia), lesser Powers (Norway, Sweden, etc.), war-tired greater Powers (Russia, Germany, France and Italy), untired greater . Powers (United State and Japan). It would appear advisable for the lesser Powers to base their fleets on the submarine. The tired greater Powers do not desire war. France's wisest course would probably be to depend on the submarine as an economic weapon, and to trust to her entente with Great Britain to maintain the surface freedom of the seas. "With Japan we are in alliance, and should most certainly remain so; with the U.S.A. we have recently fought shoulder to shoulder, and any idea of friction between us, though always possible, must, to all rationally minded people on both sides of the Atlantic;- be abhorrent. Japan is not economically self-supporting, and, being an island Empire, must possess a fleet with a military purpose. She must be able to influence not only the commercial objective of her competitors in war, but also their policy in peace. She must, therefore, possess a weapon whereby she can threaten this .policy, and attack it if occasion arise." The advent of mechanical warfare on land will eventually modify profoundly not only the tactical organisation of an army, but the military purpose of a fleet, and, consequently will modify our views as ragards existing types of ships. Theu is no reason why tanks should not be made efficiently floatable and selfpropellent in water, or why ships, with equal speed to cruisers cannot be built to transport them, under protection, at from 25 te 30 knots an hour. A formidable army of this nature could be rapidly embarked in a few vessels, perhaps transported thousands of miles, and rapidly. disembarked." If necessary, it may be possible to carry tanks beneath the surface.

Other suggestions of what may happen in the future on land, sea, or air are given in the long article, which is of much interest. Colonel Fuller was G-. 5.0.1. of the Tank Corps from December, 1916, to August, 1918: