Evening star., 1933-09-10
BY HECTOR c. BYWATER.

BY HECTOR {. BYWATER.
LONDON Sept ember 9 (NANA).- -
Proposals which represent tie only al
Tentative to Britain's collapse as
great naval power are expected from
the admiralty in the near future. pos
sibly before the neXt naval estimates
are due
Naval authorities agree that unless
the country is prepared to acquiesce in
the eclipse of its sea pOWer-With all
the consequences that would involve
a new naval defense act, on a large
Sc3le. must be adopted
Little hope now remains that naval
armamentS can be graduated by treaties.
The sole effect of these to date has
been to emaScUlate the British navy
and rejuvenats all the other fleets.
1t is felt. indeed, that the latest
American and japanese programs have
administered the death-blow to naval
Limitation by agreement.
May Urge 25 Cruisers
The admiralty's proposals may be ex-
pected to provide for the following, the
navy'S most urgent requirements today:
Twenty-Five new cruisers equal in
tonnage and armament to the best for
eign craft af1oat
An annual quota of Is to 18 destroy
ers to make up the huge deficit in this
indispensable type OF vessel.
. A large submarine building program
TO Include both ocean-going and coastal
boats
A great increase in the strength of
the fleet air arm.
An addition of at least 10000 to the
personnel; and
Largely increased appropriations for
fleet fuel. practice ammunition, and
naval exercises.
For the past 10 years We have pur-
sued hand-to-mouth policy in naval
building. Ships have been scrapped
wholesale and far in excess of treaty
requirements. while the meager pro-
grams introduced since 1922 have been
quite inadequate to make good the
waStage
ManpOwer Dissipated.
ManpoWer, too, has been steadily
dissipated-l0,0 officers and men
were ''axed' in the four years ending
last March-with the result that our
naval personnel is now $4,000 less than
the American total and barely equal to
the Japanese.
And all this time every other impor-
tant naval state has been actively in
creaSlng its sea forces. The fleets of
the United States. Japan, France and
Italy have been practically rebuilt since
the war. Britain alone is dependent in
large measure on obsolete ships that
might prove deathtrapS in battle.
Our relative strength at sea, already
lower than it has been for $50 years,
has suffered still further as the result
OF recent developments abroad.
In June, President Roosevelt ap-
proved a new U. S. A. building program
of 80 fighting ships to cost EAT 100000.
This vast project, it is understood,
came as a complete surprise to the
British cabinet, which had assumed the
United States was still eager for naval
disarmament.
To Be Built in Three Years.
All the new American ships are to be
built within three years. and dockyardS
and. arSenals throughout the country
will soon be working at high pressure.
AS a reply to this American gesture,
Japan has prepared a building scheme
of even greater dimensions, to cover five
years and to cost nearly f60,000,000.
At the same time France and Italy
are steadily launching new cruisers and
submarines of the most powerful types.
France alone has, built and building,
so cruisers and over 80 submarines, her
superdestroyers-disp 5000 tons
at full load-being officially classed as
cruisers under the London treaty.
To counterbalance this immense ag-
rregation of new foreign tonnage, which
has completely, destroyed the postwar
status quo at sea, Great Britain must
do what she did As years ago when her
supremacy was menaced by Franco
Russian building activities. The gov
ernment drew up, and Parliament voted
a naval defense act. which created an
entire new fleet and completely restored
the situation.
End of Second Rate Ships.
If present plans are approved. there
will be an end to the building OF sec
ond-rate ships. such as our latest
cruisers and destroyerS. are IN COM
parison with foreign vessels.
Instead we shall revert to the Old,
traditional principle, that no British
man-o war must be built that is not
capable of holding its own against the
strongest foreign contemporary types;
This principle will be applicable to all
classes except submarines.
Various tentative plans exist for the
battleships of the 1887 program. The
smallest is of $4,000 tons with 11-inch
guns. while the largest would displace
$4,000 tons and mount Pinch or l3.5-
inch guns. If, however, other nations
persist in building 35000-ton ships,
these British plans will most probably
be revised on an upward scale.
If foreign powers continue to build
supercruisers. we shall follow their lead.
But in place of "tin-clad" speed ma
chimes, our new cruisers will have stout
armor and big guns in well-protected
turrets.
When it is decided to increase the