The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1924-05-12
American Ships in Need Of
Many. Vital Additions to
Equipment,
BY CHARLES p. STEWART
NEA Service Writer

XVII ASHINGTON, May u. -
IWI Theoretically two up-to-the-
EZ minute fighting ships Of
the same class are about on a par
from the standpoint Of strength.
An American capital ship
should break practically even with
a capital ship under the British.
Japanese. French. Italian or any
other flag. America has eighteen
such, and Great Britain, when the
Nelson and Rodney are finished.
and the older and smaller George
V. Ajax, Centurian and Thunderer
have been scrapped to make room
for the new pair, will have
twenty.
But in practice IT doesn't fol
low that America. in the matter of
capital ships, has nine-tenths of
Britain's strength.
For one thing, number of
Americas ships require re-equip-
ment to adapt them to oil instead
OF coal. Fueling an oil-burner is
quicker work than coaling and
more oil than coal can be carried.
Besides, especially on the Pacific,
oil is easier to get
Our older ships also need re-
boilsriug and modern protection
against submarines ana airplanes.
Meaning of Elevation
Our guns, at their present eIeva-
ton, have about 20.000-yard
range. At the time Of the war.
when they were anxious to have
the news get out and scare the
Germans. British naval officers
told ours that, by increasing their
elevation, they'd increased their
range to 10000 yards. They deny
it now, because they don't want
us to increase ours; If they have
an advantage they prefer to keep
it.
Many people believe England has
protested diplomatically against
any increased elevation of Ameri-
can guns. This isn't true. Through
her propaganda, England has tried
to give the impression that she
has protested, hoping thus to
make Americans think their navy
would be breaking the armament
limitation treaty by increasing
their guns range. In fact. she
hasn't protested, having no
ground for doing so
How We Stand
Italy, France and Japan have
respectively eight, nine and ten
capital ships
OF high-speed light cruisers un-
der ten years old the five powers
have; America. 7, Great Britain,
80, Japan, 13; France. 5, and Italy.
8. They are building respectively
three, four, twelve, three and
none. None of them Is up to the
"5-53-1.75-1.75" basis, except
Japan.
OF modern destroyers America
has 274; Great Britain, 1886; Japan.
SO; France. 81. and Italy, 80. They
are building respectively none.
five, thirty-one. eighteen and seven
OF long-radius submarines above
1000 tons, America has three.
Great Britain, 10; Japan, q and
neither France nor Italy any at all
They are building respectively
three, none, twenty-three, nine
and none.
OF coast defense submarines
America has 4. Great Britain %,
Japan 81, France "a and Italy 10.
They are building respectively Is,
8, Is, IL and none.
Japan Meets Quota
In the matter Of long-radius sub.
marines all the powers are short
of the "5-5-3-175-175" basis ex-
cept Japan, and In the matter Of
the coast defense type all are short
of it except Japan and France
OF airplane carriers America has
one and is building two, Great
Britain has three and is building
three, Japan has none and is build
ing two, France has none and is
building one and Italy neither has
nor is she building any.
Americas shortcomings in the
matter Of capital ships has been
pointed out Her destroyers, too,
by reason of hurried wartime con-
structIon have not the tsrength
that the figures indicate Naval
officers are also very critical of the
coast defense subma-
rines
Japan as has been shown, is
keeping within her treaty imita-
tions in all classes of craft to
which the limit applies. but is
strictly UP to or above the "5-5-3--
175-1 rs" basis in respect to other
CLASSES.