The Washington herald., 1916-01-03
By e. b. JOHNS.

England is given the first place, Ger
many the second, and the United States
the third in the table of comparative sea
strength published In the navy yearbook,
which has Just come from the press.
The other powers are named in the
following order; France, Japan. Russia.
Italy. and Austria Hungary. The powers
in the table of vessels, building OF
authorized. are arranged in the same
order.
Owing to censorship, the data in the
book only extends to the opening of the
European war. 1t Is known that all of the
beiligerents are running their shipyards
night and day. and not until the close
of the war will this country have any
accurate knowledge of the sea strength
Of the great powers. In some quarters
1t is believed that the larger nations are
more than making good their losses on
the sea and unless there is a great naval
battle. the calculations of this years
navy book may be entirely upset
According to the book, England has
twenty battleship Dreadnoughts. Ger
many thirteen, the United States eight,
France three. Japan two. Russia none,
Italy three and Austria Hungary three.
In the battieship class, England is rated
as having forty, Germany twenty, the
United States twenty-five, France eigh-
Teen, Japan tnlrteen, Russld seven, ltdis
eight. and Austria Hungary six. Eng
land has nine battle-cruisers. Germany
four, and Japan two. None of the other
powers have any of this type of ship
afoat In the authorized program. Russia
has four, Japan two. and England one
Of the battle-cruiser type.
The table for vessels building or
authorized raises the question as to
whether tho United States will not drop
to the fourth place in sea strength. with
the present naval program.
According to this table, France is build
ing nine Dresdnoughts, or the same num-
Der that has been authorized by Con-
gress As there have been eight or nine
months delay in laying the keels for
last years naval program, some authort-
ties, will argue that the United States
has already dropped to the fourth place.
Japan Ia ahead Of the United States In
the number of battle-cruisers, as 1t has
now two In commission and two that
are now supposed to be nearing CON-
pletion. The administrators program,
which has been sent to Congress, asks
for two battle-cruisers, and even IL Con-
gress authorizes them. the United States
will be four years behind Japan In the
construction of this type of ship. Be
fore the keeis of the administration's
program are laid, Japan Will have four
or division OF battle-cruisers afloat.
According to the claims of the year
book, the United States has more sub
marines than Germany. In the underses
craft, England leads with seventy-five
France is next with sixty-four, the
United States third, with thirty-six
Russia next, with thirty, and Germany
follows with twenty-seven. The raids o1
the German submarines In not only the
| Atlantic Ocean, but in the North and
, Mediterranean seas would appear to dis
credit of statistics of the yearbook.
According to the cables, the English ad-
miraity claims to have sunk something
like forty German submarines, and there
are daily reports of their operations ir
almost every quarter of the war zone
The navy book gives only eighteen Ger
man submarines in its list of vessels
building and authorized. Add these te
the number that Germany is supposed te
have had at the beginning of the Euro.
! pean war and the total will not be eaua
to the number of German undersea boats
that are supposed to have been sunk.
The only way to account for this dis
crepancy is the well-authenticated repor,
that Germany has been building sub
marine boats at an unprecedented rate
At the beginning of the war, there were
unconfirmed reports that Germany was
concealing the strength of her submarine
fotiila. Recent events appear to confirm
this She, as well as all of the othei
beiiigerents. may be keeping secret ths
Increases that are being made in the
number of battleships and other large
warships.
The navy yearbook for 1915 has beer
compiled by B. r. Tillman. jr., son Of
| Senator Tillman. and it is a splendid
piece of work. Mr. Tiilman has elimi-
mated all Of the routine nhxasaoi>-S -