The New York herald., 1921-11-26
U.S.NAVY MAY BECUT
175,O00 TONS MORE
Scrapping to Be Done in the
Next Four Years Under
Hughes Plan.
REPLACEMENT QUOTAS
Three Fine Cruisers Will Be
Completed in 1922 for
America.
MANY DEsTROYERS TO GOI
Drastic Reduction in Auxiliary
Tonnage Must Be Made
in 1925.
BY eraser scHoRNsrHEIMEn,

Special Despatch to TIE New YORK HERALD.
New York Herald Bureau
Washington, ID. g., Nov. rs.
1t seems that the whole story of the
proposed reduction Of Americas navy
has not been fully told. From the
figures now available it appears that
We will have to scrap many large
armored cruisers, destroyers and some
light cruisers at once under the
Hughes plan. A total Of about 175 900
tons of additional ships will have to
be scrapped within the next four
years.
The total tonnage allotment for
American auxiliary combatant craft
is 100000. and our total tonnage Of
cruisers, destroyers and fiotilla leaders,
the types included by that designa-
ton, is 551,224
This figure Is reached by adding to-
gether our destroyer tonnage. inclusive
Of four vessels. building, OF 1915 tons
each. which should be completed next
year, and inclusive of a number OF de-
stroyers which are fitted as fast mine
layers. but which were built as destroy
ers and will probably be classed as
such. though this point has not been
definitely settled at the conference,
which totals 36S,599 tons. We have
also eleven armored cruisers having
total displacement Of 139,450 tons and
twelve light cruisers having a total
displacement of 43,175 tons. The total,
a., 80 he fa
1,224 tons over our allowance.
No figures for replacements or for
computation of strength may be consid-
cred on q basis of date earlier than
next year, and next year we will COM
plete three fine new cruisers displacing
1900 tons each. Add their total dis
placements to the figures above and
our auxiliary combatant strength be-
comes 573,724 tons. A further ma
terial reduction is seen to be necessary.
Destroyer requirements.
Destroyer replacements may be be-
gun when destroyer Is eleven years
old, and so we will have to scrap the
destroyers Ammen. Burrows. Drayton,
Mayrent, Mccall, Monaghan. Patterson,
Paulding, Perkins. Roe, Sterret, Terry.
Trippe, Wake and Warrington, having
n total displacement of 11,130 tons.
The large armored cruisers are get
ting old They are of type now pos
itively obsolete. They are the battle
cruisers of the past but they are al
most entirely useless to-day because of
their lack of speed. These cruisers are
seventeen years old and so they are
due for replacement and under the
terms of our plans we must scrap the
following to get within our allotted
HUNTINGDON, Pittsburgh. Pueblo and
Rochester. They displace from $3.50
tons to 1900 tons each. The total dis
placements equal 72,490 tons.
We will be able to scrap all of our
light cruisers under the Hughes plan
with the exception of the three small
cruisers of the Chester class, displacing
$3.50 tons each. However, the six cruis-
ers OF the Des Moines class. displace-
ment $500 tons each, have speeds Of
but O little better than Is knots each and
their armaments can be reduced to four
five-inch guns each. 1t Is to be seen In
this that these vessels can very well
be considered in the gunboat class. on
which no regulating limits are placed.
1t Is very probable that the various
nations will agree to consider these ves-
sells in that class although no definite
| agreement has been reached in the mat
| ter However, the cruisers Albany and
New Orleans. of 3.440 tons each. and the
cruiser Olympia of 5.Se5. will have Z
be scrapped. These last cruisers have
total displacements of 12.725 tons.
Gunboat Classification.
If the cruisers of the Des Moinef
class are allowed under the gunboat
| classification 1t will remove an addi-
tional 1920 tons from our total 1t is
entirely probable that these cruisers will
be placed under different classified
ton as the conference Is one to reduce
naval expenditures, and the United
States will have to replace Immediately
these vessels IL they must be scrapped
as we need gunboats, and we need then
badly.
| The total figure for the ships to b,
scrapped or placed under a different
| classification Is 115.545 TONS This figure
subtracted from our present auxiliary
tonnage gives us 45S,179 tons, or very
close to our tonnage allotment The
/