The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-05-03

THE EAGLE TYPE
 Referring to the criticism of the Eagle type of boat the contract for the building of which was awarded to Henry Ford, MT. Oliver said investiga- tion showed that these were fast and effective. that Mir. Ford had contracted to tuild them without profit. ane II there was any profit in the contract price he agreed to return to the gov ernn:ent that profit.
 He said the navy now has more de- stroyers and chasers than it needs, and that some of these will be put out of commission and others used for training purposes.
 He said that study abroad after the wal began convinced the navy officials and thee committee that a different type of battleship than that provided for in the naval bill was necessary to put the Anne erican navy on equality with those of England and Germany, both cf these countries having secretly built battle cruisers, designed to make bet ter sreed but having less armament. COST OF CRUISERS The cost of the battle cruisers is far groater than that of battleships, he said and by way of showing this diff ference he stated that the Tennessee. the largest battleshlp afloat, which was launched a day or two ago, has 32,- l 000-ton displacement, makes 21 knots an hour, and has 30,000 horse power, whereas the battle cruiser makes 35 knots and has 1S0 900 horse power. "The navy officials and the commit 1 tee finally decided on a combination of the two types which would make 20 knots, displace 54000 tons and cost about s7.000, 900 more than the battla- ship" he said. Their armament will consist of F 16-inch 50 calibre gurs, with an effective range of from 25 to 30 miles, each shell containing 21G0 pounds of metal. Six of these will Le built and when they and the otlier l ships called for in the present pro- | gramme are in commission America will have the most powerful ships of any nation in the world"
 j SECRET OF PREPARATION J He stated that the secret of the -rre- paredness of the navy when war was declared lay in the fact that full de- tails of all available ships that could be commandeered in emergency. to- | getler with the changes necessary to | be made in them had been gathered and dispatched to naval stations in 1 sealed envelopes to be opened only on teleeraphic instructions.
 He said the major performance of the l navy in the war was its conveying and protecting troop and supply ships call l ing attention to the fact that of the 1 more than 2,000.000 troops, over 95l,- l 000 of whom went over in American l ships and under American convoy not a ore was lost on the eastward trip. 1 The American navy furnished SPA per cent of all transport escorts. He said that number never could have been carried across had it not been for the admirable and arduous owrk of the men of the navy.
 OVERCOMING THE SUB" He told how the German submarine history that has not been told before. he said
 ssThe submarine remained submerged during the day, coming up at night to breathe and to communicate by wire less with other submarines and to get 1 information about troop and supply ships. he said. "The English intelli- gencc department discovered this and prepared to intercept these messages and thereby learn the location and the movements of every German SubMa-
 rine.r
 Il He said the British never adopted the convoy system until America got into
 the war and that it was the co-opera.
 ton between the allied navies ano
 armies that finally brought the war to
 an end.
 MT Oliver went with other members
 of the naval committee to Europe last 1 winter He told of interviews with
 LloyG George. Clemenceau and Sonnino , in which they paid high tribute to the American navy and the American sol'
 diers.
 HOW NAVY GREW
 There were 97 ships in the America
 navy when the war began and 33S wher
 it ended MT. Oliver said that ta' |