The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-04-22
MOTOR BATTLESHIPS NEXT

LONDON, April lin the opinion
of naval officers qualified to Judge
one effect Of the coal strike he's been
to bring the motor battleship within
the range Of practical politics in a
way which nothing else could have
done. For this some of the strike
leaders are partially responsible. I'm.
I'll the strike actually occurred there
was a general feeling in the navy that
the. purchase of one or two Welsh
collieries by the admiralty would rem
der the fleet independent of industrial
hpheavals such as the present.
The speeches of one or two labor
leaders who have openly boosted that
one of the first effects of the strike
would be naturalization of coal
mines, in order to keep the navy 60
ing, have produced result other than
That anticipated by them. Nothing
now will ever make the navy trust a
Welsh colliery. There is no more
conservative institution in the world
than the navy, and motor battleships
have in the past been looked upon
with general disfavor, on much the
same principle that steam was OBJ
jected to many years ago. The Brit.
ish navy does not love innovations,
and objection to change has hitherto
stood in the way of progressive ideas,
Just as it stood against the watertube
boiler and the turbine.
Ships Independent of Coal
Today all this is changed From
the speeches of leaders it is amply
clear that their idea of admiralty col.
lieries is merely a means for forcing
the pace at the expense of the state,
and incidentally also at the expense
Of the fleet. A realization of this has
made more disciples for motor war
ships in two days than two years ar
gument could possibly have done.
Every believer in efficiency is now
convinced that the safe course lies in
a navy of the future with ships indie
pendent of coal altogether In other
words, the Welsh collieries have made
themselves a dying industry and
CINE enthusiasts. Up till now the pol.
icy of going slow with motor war
ships has been strictly observed by
the British admiralty For some years
Russia has had motor gunboats. Hol.
land has put in hand numerous small
coast defense battleships which are
motor driven, and Italy is building
five more destroyers
There have been projects galore
but they have not yet been translated
into anything further than one or two
experimental motor destroyers. At
least one motor cruiser may now be
expected as a feature of the next ma
val estimates, and not impossibly a
plnge will be made with motor
Dreadnought, The British navy is the
last force in the world to allow it's eff
flciency to be curtailed by any civil
commotion whatever.
Being Immediately. Considered.
Plans for motor battleships exist In
the ordinary way it is improbable
that these would have come along for
at least another three years, and pos
sibly five. Today it is rumored that
they are being Immediately consid-
cred. Recent events have totally de-
stroyed the argument which has hith
erto been most fatal against both oil.
stocked steamers and motor warships.
This argument was that Britain pro-
duced Welsh coal in her own islands,
and were therefore certain of an am
Pile supply, whereas no kind of oil was
produced, and therefore it had to i'm
port it. Today this argument is per-
fectly invalid, since what he's hap
pened now may even more conceiv-
ably happen at some future date,
when even greater issues are in
volved
1t may be said that the navy is now
unanimously of opinion that coal as
fuel must be dispensed with. A more
or less exhausted Welsh. colliery may
be purchased by the admiralty with a
view to insuring a regular supply Of
coal to existing warships, so long as
they last, but it may be taken as set
tied beyond all cavil or retraction
that the strike has killed king coal
as a motive power of future British
warships. If the strike be prolonged
there is every reason to believe that
the merchant service will follow suit.
DRYDoCK GATE COMING.
The gate for Pearl Harbor drydock,
which left San Francisco on Satur-
day in tow of the tug Hercules, is the
largest structure of the kind ever
I built on the Pacific Coast, and the
cost of delivering it at Pearl Harbor
! will he ahOut S1E mn II 10 aYnected