The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-12-22
Navy General Board Agrees With Hero of Manila Bay and With the Views of Secretary Daniels on Pre- paredHess.

V. A
 paredness.
 l Washington, Dec. 22-The Ameri- /. can navy should be s'equal to the most powerful maintained by any other na-
 ton of the world" not later than 1925
 1R the opinion of the Navy General
 Board headed by Admiral Dewey.
 The annual report of the board
 made public last night, discloses that i this naval policy was formulated by
 the body sin July last in answer to l the following proposition propounded i by Secretary Daniels when the Ad- fn1n1stration reached it's decision to
 enter upon a campaign of national | preparedness: 1 What the Navy must be in the fu- 1 ture in order to stand upon an equal 1 lty with the most efficient and most | practically serviceable.'
 r. The boards conclusions follow;
 The Navy of the United States should ultimately be equal to the most l powerful maintained by any other na.-
 tion of the world. It should be grad ually increased to this point by such a rate of development year by year, l as may be permitted by the facilities l of the country, but the limit above i defined should be attained not later than 1925.''
 1 At the same time the board pre- sented building program for 1917 In f compliance with the Secretary's re- quest for "a program form mulated in the most definite terms, planned for 8 consistent and progressive develop ment of this great defensive arm, of the nation"
 Details of the boards reply are not revealed, as subsequently in October ! of this year. the Secretary asked the board to prepare "a building pro. gram for the Navy that will continue over a period of five years with an expenditure of about $100,000,0O0
 each year for five years on new con plan for the construction of sixteen capital ships within five years is founded ons the boards answer.
 At the same time the board again developed it's idea of the place the American navy should hold in the world in the following language:
 '"The General Board believes that. the course of the present war in Flu rope affords convincing reasons for
 modifying the opinion which it has expressed for the past 1 years as to the proper size of the Navy. A navy in firm control of the seas from the
 outbreak of war is the prime essen tial to the defense of a country sit- uated as is the United States border ing upon two great oceans. A navy strong enough on1y-tos defend our coast from actual invasion will not suffice. Defense from invasion is not the only function of the Navy. It must protect our sea borne comm cree and drive that of the enemy from the sea- The best way to accomplish all these objects is to find and defeat the hostile fleet or any of it's detach-
 nents at distance from our coast sufficiently great to prevent inter ruption of our normal course of ma tional life. The current war has shown that a navy of the size recom- mended by this board in previous years can no longer be considered as adequate to the defensive needs of the United States. Our present navy | is not sufficient to give due weight to the diplomatic remonstrances of the United States in peace nor to enforce it's policies in war"
 The report lays stress upon the boards proposal that seven of thet sixteen new ships, four superdr cad I naughts and three battle cruisers, bel Authorized in 1916. Secretary Dan iels has recommended @ to Congress, however, that only two dreadnaughts and two battle cruisers be authoFiz- | ed at this time Under the boards 1 five years including $7,000.0o0 for the aviation service and $11s00o,O00 for reserve ammunition and material would be 99,876, 900, the last appro- priations for which would be made in 1922; the Secretary's reeommenda- i tions call for aS total expenditure of $502,482,214, the last appropriationsE shown being for 1921, and increases being made over the boards estimates for submarines and reserve ammuni- tion. The board 7 program contem- plates the building of thirteen fleet auxi1iaries while the secretary recom- mends only six.
 The board highly comments the proposal to establish continuing building policy for the navy, saying it will stabilize the warship build ing industry in the country and tend to reduce the contract prices for new ships.
 The board reviews the course of the European war so far it involved na- val actions, to reach this conclu- sion:
 t'As to types of ships, the battle ship is still the principal reliance of navies, as it has been in the past
 Because of the great naval superior ity of @the entente allies, the report says, their control of the seas has never been seriously challenged and they have securely held the objec-.F tive of all naval effort Naval war fare has been confined, by reason of this superiority, it states, to ia dou- ble series of minor incidents In the first group it places German commerce raiders which have fin | ally been destroyed or driven from the seas by systematic pursuit. and in the second, the activities of Ger | man submarines, first against allied ] warships, where the "high score ob- ] tained'' is asserted to have been due ! to surprise attack, not to inherent conbatant superiority" and second, i against commercial vessels of the aI- | lies. Of this campaign the report1 says:
 After six months of war the sub- marine form of attack drew renewed | attention by it's direction against hos tile commerce. American public at tention was redoubled toward this side of the war owing to the humanitarian i interests involved, and to the dip1o-