Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1915-07-17
NAVAL BUILDING PROGRAM HAS
NOT Been ANNOUNCED At YET
ALTHOUGH MANY ARE WORKING
lBy Assoclated Press

1 WASHINGTON, ID. C.-The naval
program to be presented to Congress,
| in the light of the lessons OF the
European war, has not been definitely
framed notwithstanding the fact that
Secretary CT Navy Daniels and his adj
visors have had the subject under CON
s:deration continuously for months. :
The building plans for the coming
year will not be completed until the
last moment, when, probably, Presi-
dent Wilson will say the final word
as to the number and type of ships the
navy department will request. Mean
while Secretary Daniels hopes for
more information from the war zone
upon which the United States can
Euild with profit and safety.
So far little information mas been
received to aid the naval constructors.
All the belligerents are maintaining
the strictest secrecy as to their plans
or the lessons they have drawn for
themselves from the few sea battles.
American naval attaches at London,
Paris and Berlin have had little OPP
portunity to furnish enlightening re-
ports and there have been no foreign
observers aboard any Of the war fleets
at sea.
1t is said that the American attache
at Berlin has had opportunity to see
considerable of the work going on in
German yards, but if 50 he has been
under the strictest injunctions not to
reveal what he has observed, even in
official reports. during the continu-
ance Of the war.
The greatest question that has come
cut of the war Is considered by many
American naval officers to be the flu
ture of the dreadnought So far as is
known not a single capital ship has
been engaged and the value of those
enormously expensive fighting ma
chimes is still as problematical as 1t
was when England launched the first
all-big-gun ship. the Dreadnought.
England's newest super-dreadnought,
the Queen Elizabeth, has bombarded
the forts at the Dardanelles; but so
far as navy department advices go,
she is the only ship of her class to
have fred q shot so far.
The reason for that, navy officers
say. is the full realization of predic-
lions made for submarines when the
first undersea boat was constructed.
Against those small and comparatively
inexpensive weapons, no adequate
means of defense has been found and
the first line ships of the fighting ma
vies are behind mine fields or screens
OF torpedo boats and destroyers leav-
ing the active work Of the war to the
cider pre-dreadnought battleships, the
battle cruisers and lighter and less ex-
pensive craft
When the first maneuvers of the
American navy in which submarines
participated took place, some officers
declared the day of the battleship had
passed. In theory every big ship
which approached shore during those
operations was destroyed. Events OF
the European war, so far as they are
known, apparently bear out that as.
sumption of the superiority OF sub
marines and that is proving vexing
problem in deciding what shall be the
future American policy of naval con-
structicn.
Navy engineers now are deeply en-
gagged with experiments looking to the
discovery of some practical defense
against submarine attack. Should
they find a solution of the problem,
the big ship program will be vindi-
Gated. While nothing has been re-
vealed of their experiments. it is as
sumed that questions of greater sub