Colonial Dreadnoughts.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 17, 27 April 1910, Page 8

Colonial Dreadnoughts.

EEADY TN SI MMER OF 1912, <A\ < MR. M KEN N A. THE N i \V PROGRAMME. LONDON, Mar. h 18. The t a-i !h •• »<1 noughts which are to be bu 11 by t\.- \'i-’ i alian and New /halan-l Governments will be completed by the summer of 1912. and leave the- * waters in the autumn of that year. Refcrvn <• v. .is made to th * Colonial Dreadnoughts by Mr. M-Kenni, First Lord of the Admiralty, i-i his speech in tin* House this week, on the motion to g » into Comma;-.• of Supply on the Navy Estimates. He said:— “Let me remind the Hou-e that in th? 1.-tiinatcs no mention i.a naturally ma-d-j of the two -hips which arc being built by tl \ nd New Zealand Gov. eminent*. The-e two -hips will be very shortly un.b r c-m-trii-tion, and they w ll be lompb’ttd ibo it the s immer of 1912. I should like to take this opportunity of repeating o ne again the gratification whi.li the Government feel at this cooperation of our two great D millions with a National Navy. (Choors.) Wo feel not only the great advantage of this addition to our wnrhl’s naval strength, but we •Iso recognise the evidence, if evidence

werp necessary, of the unity of our Imperial sentiment. (Hear, hear.) The scheme of the Australian Navy and the details of the ships which we shall have in New Zealand waters have already been stated to the House, and I do not propose to go further into the matter now; but I only remind the House that in the summer of 1912 these two ships will be in European waters, and they will not leave European waters until tli ■ late autumn, certainly the autumn of 1912. • OCR ABSOLUTE SCI’EIUORU Y.” “Ac the time they do leave, the live in ships of this year’s programme wilt be approaching completion. The actual state of our Navy in home waters as regards ships of the Dreadnought type, battleships and cruisers, will then amount; to this:- We shall have in March, 1912, 20 of these ships, we shall have in the course of the summer of 1912, the Australian and New Zealand ships added te our 20, and by the time that they leave our waters we shall have the five new ships on the present programme approaching completion, so that we may rest satisfied that throughout the year 1912 anil down to March 31, 1913, our absolute superiority in this latest type of ship is secure. (Hear, hear.) " I hope the House will notice this fact. We shall have under construction at one and the same time eight ships which have been laid down or ordered in the course of the present financial year. We shall have further the two Australian and New Zealand ships, and we shall have at the end of this next year five ships of the new programme also under construction. Thus, 15 of these vessels will be in course of building at the same moment in British yards, ami 1 hope that fact will reassure those -who are under the impression that Great Britain is falling behindhand in its power of construction. (Hear, hear.) “ Behind this fleet, of course, we shall have an incomparable fleet of ships of earlier types. Ido not think it necessary to go through the list of our large battleships and cruisers; but I can say this, that these earlier ships of ours are equal if nut superior, to the fighting power of any foreign ships built in the same period, that th- y are much more nwr.'US than the corresponding ships in any foreign Navy, ind tli! , n > matter what life you ?hoose to git to the battleships, no matter what the number of years may be after which yon are going to declare th bai leshi] s and cruisers obsolete, at ;iiiv date that you like to eaoose, yog will find that the British Navy maintains in the strict sense of th-- term the two-Power standard laid down by the Prime Minister. 1 hope that- that, is an assurance which will be accepted by the House as sufficiently safeguarding our pr.-.iit and future security. (Cheers.) NEW ZEALAND DESTROYERS. As regards destroyers, it is proposed to lay down 20 in the course of the coming financial year for service in home stations. 1 regret that in the statement 1 issued to the House I did not refer to the three other destroyers we are building, but which are for service in New Zealand waters. We pay for them, but under our arrangement with the New Zealand Government we propose to sen-i the three destroyers to the Pacific, and they n ill not be replaced by corresponding boats coming from the China Station. " Therefore we cannot regard these three destroyers as any addition to our strength, as we can in the case of the three boats whi h the Australian Government are building. The period allowed for the construction of our destroyers is eighteen months, and the order will bo given next June. “ By the end of It'll the whole of these d-'-troyers will be completed. - ’