New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-01-26
Battleships Planned for on
Assumption He Would
Get OilheldS.
SHIPBUILDING PLANS
SUDDENLY CHANGED
Peer Driven Out Of South America
by Efforts of Men He
Had BeSted.

BY cable 20 The Tribune.
London. Jan. 25.-Lord Murray %
Elibank. who has refused all requests
for interviews since he returned 10 Eng
land. in a speech last Wednesday at a
dinner given at the Holborn Restau e.
rant by Lord Cowdray TO the heads Of
departments Of :. Pearson & Son
told his intimate friends and business
associates a gathered there the inside
story Of his South American trip.
Lord Murray acknowledged he had
come back beaten man and said tnat
his chagrin and disappointment were
so deep he could not go into al
the details. but he told enough TO make
il plain that Lord Murray who left
England as ex-chief whip Of the LIB
cral party deeply involved in the Mar
conf scandals and the most dscredited
politician in England for fifty years, at
one time expected 40 return holding in
his hands not only great oil concessions
from South and Central America, but
r Colombian concession for an Atlantic
Pacific canal. which could be held as
club over the United states to force
the granting Of free passage TO British
ships in the Panama Canal, as wcll as
all other demands which England nigh,
make with regard to the canal or COM
mercial or other privileges in South and
Central America. and thus he able IN
triumph TO proclaim himself the great
est imperialist statesman since SIR
Henry Morgan. The curtain would, of
course. in these circumstances be
drawn on the Marconi scandals, there
would be no investigation and Lord
Murray would slide into his seat in the
House of Peers crowned with glory.
Cupidity His Undoing.
What Lord Murray neglected to tell
Of was his own cupidity in endeavor-
ing to seize without payment the re-
suits Of two years work and the eX-
penditure Of large sums by anothef
British subject seeking oil rights ~
Colombia. This made the other Ems
Iishman and the lstter's American
partner turn on Lord Murray and drive
him out of South America without any
concessions either for oil or for canal,
and Lord Murray, through seeking to
overreach a fellow subject, lost Pear
sons money and his own glory anf
forced Great Britain into a retrograde
naval policy at time when other ma
tions are forging ahead and con
stantly building larger, faster and
more powerful battleships with bigger
guns.
England is now compelled 10 return
10 the smaller type Of ship and to the
smaller calibre of guns. for the an
rounccd British policy of construction
Of warships depended wholly on OBJ
tanning the adequate oil supply which
Lord Murray was to find in South and
Central America.
The battleships voted last year Of the
| Queen Elizabeth class are OF 2GJb
tons and o. knots. with 15-inch guns
using exclusively oil fuel, and Winston
Churchill. in announcing his pro-
gramme at that time, declared tnat
in future all the ships of the British
navy would use oil fuel. The Ad-
miraltv planned to build i've battle
ships. according to ;his years pro-
eramme. Of 10000 tons each. but Lord
Nurray's campaign having failed the
announcement was made last week
o,,ietlv almost casually. that the hve
battleships Of this years programme
would be Of 25,OOO tons and u knots
with 13.5-inch guns, coal being the
nrincipal fuel and oil only an aux