The Washington herald., 1916-08-13

OlLc mat AL lnOugnt OF
a Rival on the Seas Will
Be Removed.
ones All this. remember, in a great
ship that must be built and will be built,
in seventeen months,
The greatest of all these ships Is being
constructed, in great part, by women. /
went into the workshops adjoining the
| slips where she is building and found the
weaker sex perhaps in a ma ajority among
| the workers. The heavy work, of course.
| is all left to the men, but in great sheds
| entirely occupied by women and girls all
the delicate work of adjustment that
| does not require muscles so much as
| eye was being done. And well done, the
! shipbuilders say. No one could doubt
! that Britain has thrown herself heart
! and soul into this war, who stood in
| that clattering plant, great cranes
travelling overhead enormous hammers
descending. forges blazing. and watched
| these hundreds Of women doing the Jobs
of men who had been called away to
! fight from this most important of all
industries.
| Women Good Workers.
| "1f we can put the ladies to building
super-DTeadnoughts. they can do most
| anything, and We need never lack for
| men to fight the Boches." remarked
naval officer beside me. and l assented,
wondering whether the women whose
| sharp-eyed work I was watching will be
| willing to go back to the ribbon counter,
| the home with its brooms and dishpans
when the men come back
! Many cruisers of many kinds are
| building on the Clyde. Patrol boats of
exceeding speed, whose mission is to
make life unhealthy for the German sub
marines, are turned out in patches. And
! wherever there appears no room for
| big ship. slips have been erected upon
which half a dozen destroyers or sub
marines are being built l counted the
number Of each OF these types which !
saw during the trip down the river.
am not sorry that the censor does not
permit ne to print that number. for it
! would arouse incredUlity.
! l would not believe it myself II I had
not made the count. And the submarines
and destroyers which are thus being
turned out in patches, like standardized
| cheap motor cars, are very different from
| those which were known before the war
and appear in the naval lists. They are
very much bigger. and more powerful.
and. above ALL faster
Speed is the dominant note upon the
|
ever class. is faster than builders of two
years ago thought possible. To attempt
any further description OF the wonders
seen on that trip down the river would be
futile: ! was warned before coming here
| that l would be allowed to describe pre-
cisely nothing at all.
Two Questions Asked.
At luncheon on Clydebank. sitting a
few yards from slip where one of the
largest Atlantic liners was launched a
few years ago. now occupied by war
| ship bigger than the liner and superior
| to anything now afoat. | put two cues
! tions to my hosts. What does Britain
want with a navy of such size?'' and
Where does she get the men to man it?''
! The first question is not so foolish as
( 1t sounds Figures which had Just been
frankly discussed, and which l cannot
give, showed conclusively that the fever
] ish shtpbuilding of the present at least
with reference to ships newly laid down
can have no reference to danger from
Germany in the present war
At the beginning OF the war the pro-
portion OF effective battle strength be-
tween Britain and Germany was as two
to one. but that proportion is now in
creasing at a perfectly ridiculous rate
II the war lasts another eighteen months
1t may be more like four to one, giving
every possible doubt 1t is natural
therefore. to wonder why the strain is
, being kept up in these islands, for ships
are expensive
Several naval officers of high rank
answered my question. They sub
stantially agreed. and I will gather
| the different points made into one
statement What does Britain want
with navy of such size? It is per
/ tectly true that the margin of abso-
| lutte safety as against Germany has
PROBABLY been reached, and il not GER
! tainly will be reached long before the
ships now being laid down come out
But IT is the intention of the admir-
ATTY at the end of the war. to present
/ before the astounded German people
fleet of such size and power that all
thought of ever rivaling Briton upon
the seas will vanish from the mind
of Germany.
Navy Is Unhampered.
Then. and then only. will it be pos
sible to relax the building pressure
Meanwhile. the navy is unhampered
| oy parliament. since its building ac-
tiVities are wholly secret and II gets
all the money il asks for without hay-
ing to account for a shilling. so the
political drag on building programs
with which Americans and all demo-
cratic peoples, including the British
are SO familiar for the moment, does
not exist.
II is intended. however to produce
10 the world when peace comes not
only an overwhelmingly big navy, but
the most efficient, with the best guns
the fastest ships. a proof of the
superiority of British design and ma
val science over the German, which
| shail convince even the Germans
themselves that further rivalry is
hopeless.
MY second question, as to the possi-
olllty OF manning the vast numbers
OF SHIPS which are pouring out of the
SIPS. brought tribute to the mer-
cantlle marine. The number of men
no" In the navy, I was told is rather
more than twice the number serving
IN peace time, and most of the new
oitlcers are men who served on mer-
chant SHIPS. were members of the ma
val reserve, and learned enough in