SPAIN'S NAVY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXI, Issue 12187, 7 June 1907, Page 4

SPAIN'S NAVY.

The news that Spain i« .ibout to strengthen her navy has led an Fajglwh writer on naval topics to point out the weakness of the Spanish licet. Spain's naval power was broken in- the war with America, and though the idea ot regeneration has been steadily growing, it has never advanced beyond the stage ot projects. To-day the fleet is an all but negligible quantity and a squadron of discarded British warships now riding momniuily at their anchors in, British harboun eoiikl annihilate the whole ot it at its leisure. The battleship* ai« three, the Pelayo, built in 1887, the Nttmancia, built in 1865, and the Vitoria. built in 18G5. The Pelayo once did 16 knots in a sprint. The Numancia uiiseed taking part in thr American war hecaius© siu j liad no engines on board, but it was officially statM last year that "the greater part of these are now on board." Such i« Spnnish naval activity. The Vitoria w » (.ue"i-looking schooner-rigged crolt, and is usen as i training ship. The ouisers are a go>d dial teller . Thne an* four of I>ie armoured chioS, one oi which had two 11-iuch guns, .uid a apocd ot twenty knotv t.he is Mio c-hotf-felnp of the fl^et. Ths Spaniards certainly took 'heir tinif about building her, for she was laid down in 1890 and completed in 19(H. The projected j cruisers are a heterogeneous group of seven ships, °i which the largest is only O')OO toiu, and there : fi a mosquito fleet of twenty-three vessels. There are 18,000 officers and men on the active list, but l<h* than one-half of theso are employed afloat, since there are not sufficient sea-going craft for them to embark in. The writer thinks that upon purely strategic ground*. Great Britain would be well justified in actively assisting Spain to re-eieate her fleet. 'On the score ot common interests — ot having all to gain by the preservation ol' mutual good relations, and no possible point of contention to suggest the disturbing of these— it would be to the advantage of thia country to witness the revival of Spanish sea power. Just as the growth o! the- Japanese Navy und.u- the aegis ot the alliance has justified this country in withdrawing her battle equadron from the Far East, so would the consolidation ot Spanish sea power leave us free to conceutiate our great array where it is most likely to b« needed in the tut me— in the Narrow Seas."