Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-07-16

i Listed among the ships building and
authorized for the United States Navy
are the following:
4 First line battleships. II; first line
battle cruisers, 6 first line light cruis-
ers, 10; first line destroyers, IS; first
\ line submarines, 81; first line fleet
submarines, 4
Roughly the tonnage of the 424
American naval vessels listed as in
Il commission is 1.1S3,000; of the ships
\ building, exclusive Of the submarines.
I the tonnage is given as S04.009.
\ Japans present navy is given as
l follows
/ First line battleships. 6; second
4 line battleships, 4; first line battle
cruisers. a; second line cruisers, 5;
first line light cruisers, 6 second line
light cruisers, l; first line destroyers.
81: second line destroyers, IL; second
line submarines, IL.
The figures given for the ships pro
jected and building for the Japanese
Navy are;
First line battleships. building; 4
authorized or projected: first line bat
tie cruisers, S, none vet laid down; first
line light cruisers. 3, probably all
building; first line destrOyers, Is
building and 80 projected; first line
submarines, 40, all building: aircraft
carrier. l, now building; second line
submarines, 9 authorized.
The tonnage of the rs Japanese
vessels listed as in commission in its
navy is 4S6, ,252; of the uncompleted
building program, made up of 119
ships the tonnage is given as 694.s7O.
This figure does not include the 3
second line submarines, the tonnage
Of which vessels is unknown.
Comparison of the three nayies by
big gun power is not complete be
cause the number of 16-inch guns in
the British Navy is not known. The
known figures show, though, that
when the present building programs
are completed, Great Britain will have
mounted on 81 ships a total of A guns
of I2-inch bore; IA guns of 1912 inch
bore. and 100 guns OF 15-inch bore. in
addition TO an unknown number OF
1G-inch guns.
The United States Will have mount
ed on 39 ships a total of "a guns Of
I2-inch bore; no 1874 inch guns, 1I2
guns of 14-inch bore: no 15-inch guns,
and 1872 guns of 16-inch bore
The Japanese Navy will have,
mounted on Il vessels. guns of
12-inch bore; no 131a-inch guns. so
guns of 14-inch bore; no 15-inch
guns. and 72 guns of 16-inch bore.
The totals show that the American
Navy viii have 1928 big guns; the
British Navy, exclusive of the un-
known number of the largest size
rifles. 2ss, and the Japanese Navy 100
big guns.
Change of Battle Conditions.
The war demonstrated that COM
parsons of navies on paper cannot be
taken as absolute criterions of sea-
power. The German surface craft,
after the one big battle of Jutland,
were bottled up at Heligoland for the
remainder Of the war, while enemy
submarines were busy all the time
sinking American and Allied ships.
II there should be another great war.
1t is certainly possible that develop
ment Of naval aircraft may be such
that submarines may be spotted easily
from the air and destroyed by some
kind of depth bomb. The result Of a
development of this kind would be to
render submarine craft almost useless
for any purpose.
Many government experts even now
are maintaining stoutly that the
most powerful and swiftest FIRST line
lighting ships will be, destroyed with
ease, should another great sea war be
fought, by seaplanes, lowering high
out of reach. dropping huge bombs
Of terrible destructive power with
sufficient precision to annihilate the
greatest array of surface and sub
surface craft any nation of the world
could put on the face of the waters.