Middletown transcript. [volume] (Middletown, Del.) 1868-current, 1918-12-21
A LARGER. NAVY
URGED By BADGER:
Tells House Committee Of
General Boards Plan.
GROWTH TO Be STEADY
Fleet Needed For Merchant Mari.e-
Duty Of Making League OF
Nations Effective Will
Fall On Navy.

Washington.-Neith the end Of
hostilities nor proposal for League
of Nations has altered the policy of the
general board of the navy in regard
to making the American Navy second
to none in the world. Rear-Admiral
Charles J. Badger, chairman of the
executive committee of the board, told
the House Naval Affairs Committee
that the navy should be equal to that
of any other nation by 1925 and urged
that sufficient appropriations to make
this possible be made by Congress.
1.-The General Board believes that
under the present world conditions and
the conditions likely to obtain in the
future" Admiral Badger said, 1.-The
United States Navy should steadily
continue to increase. Ultimately it
should be equal to the most powerful
maintained by any other nation Of the
world Year by year development
should be made as consistent with the
facilities of the country, but the limit
above defined should be attained not
later than 1925.
"Navies must be the principal sup
port Of League of Nations, and the
United States, from its wealth, intiu-
ence and power, will be called upon to
contribute a large share of the inter
national police force to render such
league effective"
The duty of the navy in the future,
the Admiral said, will be not only to
guard the country against invasion,
but to protect as well the great mer-
chant marine now being built.
Sea power will always remain a
factor Of vast Importance in interna-
tional relations" Admiral Badger de-
clared. 1.-The great naval lesson OF
the war has been that the nation pos
sessing the most powerful navy was
able in few weeks to drive the Ger
man merchants flag from the seas
and to keep open her own trade routes.
and yet, when the war commenced,
Germany possessed the second best
navy in the world. 1t proved to be not
good enough. The blockade which she
was not able to break was the great
est contributing cause of her ultimate
collapse"
Competition of the three-year build.
ing program authorized in 1916 and
which was halted to build anti-sub-
marine craft was recommended by Ad.
miral Badger Work has not yet been
started on six battleships. six battle
cruisers, two scout cruisers, nine fleet
submarines, two destroyer tenders and
one fleet submarine tender, he said.
Lack Of ships of this type, he declared,
would have been fatal to the United
States if it had been fighting the war
alane
Admiral Badger said that before the
armistice was signed requiring Ger
many to surrender the greater part of
it's navy the General Board had rec
commended six-year building program
to include IL super-dreadnaughts and
Is battle cruisers, but added that i'm
mediate necessities would be met by
the three-year building program rec
commended by the Secretary of the
Navy. This program will add 16 bat
tie cruisers to the six already author
lied he said, and at the same rate Of
authorization would make a total OF
10 by 1925. Great Britain now has
Is of these vessels built or building
he said, and it is estimated she will |
have 10 or 20 by 1925.