Evening star., 1924-12-10

I DeclSion In future warfare Will be
determined by battle between the
| meets or the combatant nations, Sec
retary Wilbur said in his report to
Representative French on the status
or the treaty Navy, delivered today
He added that the aerial bomb has
not rendered the capital ship useless
He points out clearly that to main
! tain the treaty ratio the present fleet
must be kept up to it's top-notch
lighting efficiency and that plans
must be made gradually to replace
the treaty ships, so as to have others
ready to take their places as they be-
| come obsolete. There should be no
delay to prevent all of them from
being replaced at once, an almost i'm
| possible task from a monetary stand
| point, said the report.
we have not yet availed ourselves
| of the opportunity to modernize our
ships permitted under the treaty and
| thereby preserve the ratio contem-
plated" the Secretary says.
Delay Is Gamble.
Secretary Wilbur puts the fact
clearly forward in his report that
to delay modernization of the ships
Is to gamble upon the chances of war.
On the matter of modernization he
says:
TT should be noted that the life
| OF these ships under the treaty is
20 years; that Is to say, each power
at the end of 20 years may replace
the older ships with new. battleships.
If we could be assured that there is
no possibility OF war until the time
Tor replacement occurs, 1t would be
more economical to await that pc
| riod and build new ships, but the
very purpose of the fleet is to insure
against war. and If that assurance is
to be maintained, 1t must be done
by the upkeep and maintenance of
the fleet at its full strength all the
time. In this connection 1t should be
observed that the average life of the
six ships to be modernized is 10
years. This is equivalent to the USE
full life of three new battleships. but
! 1t would require about 100000 600 to
build three new battleships, and the
six battleships can be reconditioned
for less than the cost of a single new
ship.
Economy In Reconditioning.
"It follows that it is more economi-
cal to reconditton these ships having
the average life OF ten years than it
would be to replace them at once
with three new ships having a life
of 20 years, even if the treaty per-
mitted IT to be done. To postpone
the modernization Of these ships is to
gamble upon the chances of war dur
ing the next ten years and to increase
the possibility of such war by that
degree of unpreparednesS"
Secretary Wilbur then goes into a
discussion OF auXiliaries in support of
the feet, such as cruisers, destroyers,
etc, pointing out that in order to
maintain the equality between two
a IL IT, l. l..
ries of the battleships be equally
balanced.
Under the limitation OF armame MT
agreement" he says, scout cruisers
can have a weight of 10000 tons. and
use S-inch guns. By increasing the
initial velocity of the S-inch shell, the
striking power can be and has been
greatly increased. A great pTepon-
derance OF these light cruisers would
also enable the power having such
preponderance to detach from it's feet
some of its light cruisers for the pur-
pose of destroying the commerce OF
the enemy, whereas the power with
out that predominance could not
safely detach scout cruisers to meet
these commerce destroyers.
United States Lacks Cruisers.
"Other nations have such S-inch- gun
cruisers going into commission and
| others under construction, whereas
we have none even authorized"
Then. he says, despite a great pre-
ponderance of destroyers and sub
marines, I'VE must build more vessels
of those types which are able to ac-
company the fleet for the full radius
of their action. Recommendations for
the building of scout cruisers. of fleet
submarines, of destroyer leaders and
air craft carriers have therefore, been
made by the general board"
The Secretary then outlines quite
clearly what the United States must
do to maintain the 5-5-3 ratio, in the
following words:
THE treaty ratio applies only to
battleships and aircraft carriers. This
ratio was to be obtained by scrap
ping of ships already under construc-
tion and older ships already con-
structed; and could only be main
tanned by our making the improve
ments for the modernization of the
old ships that are authorized by the
treaty and have been made already
by the other signatory powers. To
maintain the ratio we are also re-
quired to construct aircraft carriers
equal to those of Great Britain.
with reference to the types of
ships not covered by the limitation