Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-19
JAPAN'S NEW SHIPS.
Industry in Her Own Yards-Launch Of
the Great Craft Kashima.

From the New York Tribune.
Japan, having beaten Russia, means to
retain the advantage she has won. OF that
there can be no doubt. She is setting about
the task with the same deliberate scien-,
tific calculation that she employed for the
nine years before the present war il which
she was preparing for the conflict which
she knew was inevitable when Russia de-
spoiled her of the lawful fruits of the
Chinese war. Sea Iower has been the Sc
cret of her success, or one Of thc chief Sc
cretS of 1t, and sea power she means to
maintain. AS we have hitherto observed,
while Russia Is talking of new ships Japan
is building them. All that she is doing IN
her own capacious and Superbly equipped
shipyards we do not know, though we know
she is doing some pretty large things there.
What she is doing elsewhere, in England,
for example, is better known, and what is
known of ii inspires faith in Japan's abil
ity to hold her own.
Note, for example, the battleship Ka-
shima. which was launched few days ago
by Armstrong, Whitworth & Co. at Els
wick. That StupendouS fortress with a
displacement of 16, 400 tons, is to carry no
less an armament than four 12-inch guns,
four 1O-inch guns, twelve 6-inch guns and
twenty-one smaller pieces. The big guns,
of 467 calber length, will throw, with
cordite charges, prOjectiles of $50 pounds,
which at distance of two and a half
miles will easily pierce any armor carried
by any ship afloat The vessel will carry
20, 900 tons of coal, which will give it a wide
radius of action and will have speed of
at least eighteen and a half knots. We
not sure that there is a more formidable
vessel afioat or building in any navy of the
world In the British navy the Africa Is
to have four 12-inch guns but the second
airy batteries are much lighter, and she is
a smaller vessel than the Kashima. The
Arson carries four 13-inch guns, but no
others larger than 6-inch. The Britannia,
he iDin Nnyx Znal nd nd har
are like the Africa There is not one listed
in the last "Brassey" that equals the ka
shima in size and in weight of armament.
No other European navy can equal It, In
our own navy we come, perhaps, nearest to
II with such vessels as the Connecticut, the
Kansas, the Louisiana, etc, each with four
Pinch and eight S-inch guns or the Ore
gon, with four 13-inch and eight s-inch
guns, though the Oregon is only two-thIrds
the size of the Kashma, and the others
named are smaller than the japanese giant.
1t is really appalling enginery that the
Land of the Rising Sun is preparing for the
defense of its narrow seas. How many
Kashimas Japan will build we only
conjecture 1t may depend a little upon the
size of the indemnity which she compelS
Russia to pay her as the price OF peace.
We have seen in the last year what the
Chinese indemnity enabled her to do. 1t
enabled her to whip at sea what was sup
posed to be the third naval power of Eu-
rope. We shall not be surprised If within
ten years after the present war she. is able
TO hold her own against any Europeon
power. save only that one which is her :qiy.
1t is obvious that her insular position and
her far removal from any formidable enemy
are great advantages. 1t has also been
made obvious in these last fourteen months
that her men know how to use the most
tremendous engines of naval warfare
well as any foe they are likely ever to meet.
With fleet of KashimaS and Kasags ia
pan will be in little danger of Vice:oy
Alexieff's revenge.