Show I STRUGGLE IS III FOR NAVAL I I I SUPREMACY I 1 obscure HritlHh army officer serving In South Africa has done a very I A remarkable thing For years Kipling had been hit 1 t e rly apostrophizing his countrymen MiiHl yp wait for tho spattered nlirupni1 ore yo learn how n gun III laid For tho low red gleam tii the mnithwiird whrro your rallied cons tow aa bum < Light yn nlmll have OH that lesson but hunt time to learn Hut arid aloof Incurious unthinking unthink-ing untlmnhlng tho empire over which tho sun never sots went on Its way waiting homo easy wonder i hoping homo saving sign And now an army olllccr who hail turned playwright I play-wright for the moment has accomplished 1 accom-plished nt one stroke nil that Kipling had failed to do with all of his many proddlngs In his extraordinary play j I An Englishmans Home tho fanciful j fanci-ful portrayal of a sudden foreign invasion In-vasion and Its dire results has excited I Great Britain almost as much as tho I actuality might have done In the I vernacular the play hit the British I I I public where It lives Its farreaching which Great Britain Is arming In such feverish haste It would be dlillcull to sny what combination of two powers Is at present regarded by Downing Street being the most piobahle But It Is lecognlzed that the kaleidoscope of International relations can alter more rapidly than Meets can be built puitlcularly those cleats of Dread noughts whose rapid upbuilding In Germany has brought so much disturbance disturb-ance to the sober British mind These are tho allblggun Hhlps which one hears so much of nowadays vessels of such tremendous offensive nut do fennlve power of such high speed and l wide stream radius that It Is now admitted ad-mitted 111I flint upon their preponderance will rest tho naval supremacy of tho future Origin of the Biggun Ship Althnug tho Idea of the allblggun ship originated on this side of the Atlantic At-lantic and had Its Inception In target practice In tho American navy that distinguished Italian Cunlbcrtl of tho Royal Italian corps of naval engineers has by reason of the capaciousness of pigeon holes in Washington been 1909 GRJAT 13PH > 1IH 7665 005 i i I VTflTED STATES 685426 ANC 628 882 G GSPTfAHY 524573 TrAPAN 37189 effect is shown in cable dispatches which describe tho turbulent scene in parliament when tho naval bill came up for debate and tho overwhelming voto of 322 to 83 in favor of the rapid upbuilding of a moro powerful navy Navies are essentially business instruments in-struments and no amount of argument argu-ment can disguise the fact that they are built for use and not for ornament Thero Is no need here to attempt tot to-t define which is tho governing principle V princi-ple whether those who have tho greatest great-est strength are tho ones who aro most likely to use It or whether tho mere poseRslon of armed strength Implies Im-plies an intention of employing it But the fact remains that for many years Great Britains postulate had been that whatever tho cost she would have a navy superior to that of any two powers Her attitude has been that as tho greater includes tho less therefore by preparing to fight a combination com-bination of the two greatest naval powers that preparation would make her secure against any other combination combina-tion that could possibly be conceived But now said Mr Balfour in his impassioned speech before the house for the very first time In modern ills tory we are face to face with a naval situation so new and so dangerous that it is difficult for us to realize Its Import Im-port The Nation Responsible The nation that has created for Great Britain the situation so new and dangerous can bo easily enough Identified With good reason or without with-out Britain has long distrusted Germany Ger-many and long before the production of the piny which so startled tho British Brit-ish populace and so much electrified its parliament there was in the heart of most every Briton n conviction that If Great Britain over went to war Germany would seize the opportunity Ito I-to overthrow British maritime supremacy supre-macy Great Britains frankly disclosed dis-closed pertubatlon Is now duo to tho vast strides that Germany has been making with her navy and instead of the settled British idea of maintaining maintain-ing a twopower standard there are now some excited doubts as to her ability to maintain ascendancy over p this single one It is estimated that 13 German J j Dreadnoughts and Invlnclbles might be completed by 1911 as against 12 t Dreadnoughts and four Invlnclbles which Great Britain would have by November bf 1911 If Germany accelerates ac-celerates her construction work she q f would havo 17 of those ships by April of 1912 Great Britain It was pointed out iu parliament could not afford to r take risks and if silo was to maintain s main-tain her superiority tho admiralty must be In n position to obtain the delivery I de-livery of four additional Dreadnoughts by March of 1912 thus giving Great Britain 20 such veussels against Germanys Ger-manys possible 17 Thus while It IB plain enough that Germany is tho one power against 0 credited with the first design 1 In tho current volumo of Janes Fighting Ships of tho World this distinguished commentator notes a remarkable evolution evo-lution in German battleship design although up to the present time there had been a distinct difference between them or either the French or British system of construction Continuing ho says that among theso three great navies the British certainly predominates but while It is hardly likely that tho other two will modify their Ideas In warship construction con-struction tho general trend of constructive con-structive ideas may now bo modified ns a war between Great Britain and her two allies is altogether improbable improb-able This elimination leaves only Germany Ger-many Franco and the United States as the only powers with sufficient naval strength to confront Great Britain Brit-ain without being utterly swept from tho seas from the very start This country and Franco may be left out of the count ns It Is not against cither of these that Great Britains shipbuilding < shipbuild-ing energies are now directed But in the untoward event of hostilities hostil-ities between Germany and Great Britain Brit-ain It may well bo assumed that tho theater of conflict would not bo such as Is portrayed In tho drama of An Englishmans Home but In the North sea and possibly also In tho Baltic Supposing merely for tho sako of illustration il-lustration that tho Meets of the United States were tho ones to assail or be assailed the theater of war would doubtless be the high seas in the second case or thnt of Germany It would In all likelihood be fought out in the North sen In the first event the land armies of the two powers would have little to do If we exclude possible warfare In their colonies while In tho second the far greater powers of tho land armies of Germany could In no wise compensate for the greater power of tho British Meet on tho sea Naval Necessities An eminent naval authority recently pointed out ns an obvious truth the fact that battleships of great displacement displace-ment and capable of keeping tho seas for a considerable length of time would bo Indispensable to Great Britain Brit-ain In any war that she undertook to wage with any nation widely separated sep-arated from her by sea Equally indispensable In-dispensable would bo fast and very powerful armored cruisers Thus tho Dreadnought and tho Invincible types seem exactly designed to meet such needs and for long runs across tho ocean But in the case of Germany would they be of the same service Tho difficulties that would encompass tho theater of conflict In that event would indeed bo serious for such vessels ves-sels the shallow coastal waters of the North sea tho difficult Straits of Denmark Den-mark and many other drawbacks which hardly require enumerating show at once that In a war with this f nation flip condition would bo to Idly ilHTcroul Among olluir I jioKHllillltloH that may urine then IH tin one that must nut Ifo Morlookod tluit IH that time world might see two fctivtltlonu of Iort Arthur Ar-thur out wllliln iiiul time other be joinl the Dnnltdi shrimps And such blockades might protract tho war for months mill montliH without any clef Inlto lumiltH to either Hide except for the I effort on their coimncicc Leaving iiHldc nil l the fancies of the Napoleonic days the Imaginary sur prlHe ItindlngH and nil those other ro innntlc IdiiiH that no Interest emu In onof omiK days mil which are now HO much disturbing Britain let us consider tho matter In its most nnt urnl und simple aspect Tho most probable situation would bu that the hunt iirnilex would be vigilant and ready that tho German ships of war would bo In their ample and wellpro protected harbors of refuge of com para lively little depth and that tho Brit lab ships would bo keeping watch outside out-side HO that no hostile cruiser could get away unnioleHted to play havoc with the commerce of Urltaln and disturb dis-turb her food supply There IK no reason whatever why such a state of things should not go on for month after month and especially so If the Toga of the day Instead of being outside Is III this case within and hall the Intention of keeping his few ships Intact at nil costs Outcome of the Blockade Tile blockader will then find I hlm elfIn elf-In this dilemma either he maintains a really strict blockade and then there Is serious risk that his hips go the way of tho Hntsuso 1etropnvlosk and others or ho keeps them well out of danger and then the blockade is but a fictitious one nail In such a case British commerce has everything to lose Of com si1 It IH understood that tho Germnn oceanborne rominorro Is completely fatranded for the time being be-ing but the effort of such suspension on the large extent of German territory terri-tory will be nothing In comparison with the results of such suspension In the case of Urltaln which would bring with It absolute peril to that country while in tho case of Germany there would be no such danger What pov bible use would be thoso big guns of the Dreadnoughts and the Invlnclbles Certainly they would be useless for tho purpose for which they were originally orig-inally designed a fight In tho open In tho Atlantic for example In full clay 1911 I i l CcAr 8PlTAlN 7 77176 jg CS l i i r T rtv d DMTED 37l715J 80188 n 1 n pj U7 J f ez P 4JI1 693599 111 e FpANGC 770468 7le9 Aweouwr J F i y = j ii = > V = t is e J PAN 449O3 light with a final strenuous effort of tho Tsushima type If the history of the armored ship era teaches anything it teaches thnt every change IH always preceded by I a nii o sal conviction that something akin to Duality has boon reached I Italy has so frequently anticipated events that her program Is always of special Interest And it was quite avery a-very few years ago that Col Cunl bertls Ideal British Battleship excited ex-cited something very like derision from those who characterized the Idea I of a battleship armed with nothing but 12inch guns as altogether too fanciful an Idea I for a serious work Yet now every battleship Is a Cool berti more or less Mystery of New Battleships To date the mystery of tho new German battleships has been well maintained but none apparently are quite so powerful as was once supposed sup-posed Tho three guns hi a turret Idea Is entirely given up ns unsatisfactory which educes the number of guns to 12 or possibly only 10 The two ilrat of the Nassau class are of 17710 tons tho two next about 19000 tons but with the same armor and armament The ships to be built under the 100 program are probably sisters to these last Of tho now armored cruisers thin cruiser F Is now understood to carry but 8 or possibly 9 11Inch She Is of practically the same dimensions us tho British Invlnclbles It Is still only possible to give conjectured designs de-signs of her Tho Blucher Is now reported to have 10 82Inch guns which her displacement dis-placement being under 15000 tons Is far more probable than the heavier armaments ar-maments hitherto assigned to her Ue twecn the 12Inch 15 caliber of the Invlnclbles and tho German 11Inch 60callbors there Is no very great difference dif-ference In weight not moro than six tons per gun at the outside Seven 11Inch German guns would weigh as much ns six 12 Inch 45cnllbcr British ones or rather more than that Tho small German cruisers tend to become faster annually They limo now reached Scout speeds and being be-ing considerably better armed must bo regarded as distinctly superior to tho ordinary scout Gorman destroyers destroy-ers aro following tho usual tendency to increased size and armament but they do not present any nov > fca tuieH Of tho submarines on whlcb Germany Ger-many Is embarking comparatively little IB I known From the excellence of the Russian boats built nt Krupps Germnnla yard the assumption Is that the German boatel will be nt least equally efficient The main defect np pcnrit to ho too smalt n rndlnx Two In Third Place Japan and Germany now both occupy oc-cupy the third place among tho naval powers On paper Japan perhaps occupies oc-cupies almost tho better position on account of all tho exRussian battleships battle-ships that she owns Outside and apart from these ships however tho Japanese fleet Is now very considerable considera-ble In the most powerful types of units Tho Sutsuimit of the now Dreadnought typo was completed during dur-ing 1908 ns were most of the armored cruisers of equal date Considerable progress ha been made on Japans other big Dreadnought tho Akl and I two ships the first of n now series aro well advanced Four other oth-er nro projected but none of them appears to be yet In hand The num I per of big armored cruisers to ho built Is rather Indefinite It Is I doubt fin whether moro than one Is actually III hand One of the most Interesting developments develop-ments of tho recent past Is tho advent ad-vent of Dreadnoughts among the northern north-ern European coast defense navies Of these navies that of Sweden Is probably equal to the Russian in ships as thoy now stand Under tho now programs flweden Norway and Holland Hol-land all project or are beginning to build Dreadnoughts of power quite equal to the best battleships set afloat by any nation a few years ago Supposing Sup-posing Sweden to build these as Industriously In-dustriously ns she has built her coast defense battleships In tho past It will not bo long before this country becomes be-comes an extremely Important factor III tho Baltic especially In the event of Norway cooperating ns might well bo tho case In matters Involving general gen-eral Scandinavian interests In tho South American navies mono of tho ambitious ptogrnms of last year have yet borne fruit except the Brazilian These carry 12 12Inch and so are considerably superior to tho Dreadnoughts in gunfire mil the protection pro-tection given is distinctly less Iu varying degree with each of the smaller navies the standards of value which apply to the great navies are hardly applicable tho value of any warship being governed by Its probable prob-able antagonists |