THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1939.
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The
Hongkong Telegraph.
Wyndham St., Hongkong 'Phone 26615 April 28, 1939
One Man's Word
BY TO-MORROW morning the world will know whether world peace is again to be threatened by the refusal of the German Fuehrer to give the guarantees of non-aggression, against 31 nations requested by President Roosevelt.
President Roosevelt had pre- sented, the two Totalitarian dictators with a simple issue, requiring a simple answer. Herr Hitler is at liberty to call the American President a "danger- ous enemy of civilisation", to de- nounce British Imperialism and to storm against the iniquities of democracy. The whole world will concede him the right to an opinion regarding Bolshevism -he may publicly announce that he sees in British Conscription another threat to German security.
The world does not want to hear these tirades, but it will accept them.
What the world wants to hear is a direct "yes" or "no" to President Roosevelt's question: "Are you willing to give assur- ances that your armed forces will not be used in future to at- tack Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Norway,
Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg Po- land, Rumania, Hungary, Yugo- Slavia, Soviet Russia, Bulgaría, | Greece, Turkey, Iraq, the
Arabias, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Iran, Eire, Holland, Belgium, Great Britain, France or Por- tugal ?"
Q
CÁN HE GET OVER THIS ONE?
IF BRITAIN WERE ATTACKED.
2
£147,779,000 worth of
of security
this
HIS year's naval esti- mates amount to £147,770,000. An increase of about £22,500,000 over 1938, and about three times the naval estimates of seven or eight years ago.
It is an expensive business to build up the flect after it has been allowed to decline below the danger point. At the end of the war we possessed 49 capital ships. 110 cruisers, and more than 600 destroyers,
sloops and patrol boats: these last three classes being most needed for protecting our shipping against the sub marine,
Our naval security neemed so com plete after the surrender of the Ger man fleet in 1918 that la the follow- ing years we broke up 30 capital ships, about 80 cruisers, and more than 500 destroyers, sloops and patrol boats.
It was one of the greatest pleces of masa destruction in our naval history.
THE general European rearmament has shown us that our action was over-hasty, and though in the inst few years TO have been making strenuous efforts to refill the gaping ranks of our men-of-war, we can so far produce no more than 15 capital ships, 68 cruisers, 200 destroyers, sloops and patrol boats, in addition to nir. craft carriers, submarines, gunboats and auxiliaries.
There are, however, tine capital ships, 25 cruisers, 38 destroyers, 23 loops. six carriers, 20 submarings building or projected; some of which will be delivered this year, some not until 1042 or 1943;
We need a powerful deet for two very good reasons. One la to keep an invader away from these shores, and the other is to ensure the steady Bu
upset every calculation of states- manship. There could be no lessen- being made in nearly all the coun- ing of defensive preparations now tries of Europe. If peace is desired the signal for peace must be 'given from the only country that has dis-
That is a simple straight-turbed It forward question, requiring a straightforward answer..
What is happening in Berlin to- day is being watched not alone by The answer can come from one
the peoples of Europe, but by the man, and one man only. I can,
democracies of America and of the if he so desires, speak the word,
British Dominions and Colonies, that will relieve the tension of the
who see in a negativo answer to situation and case an approach to President Roosevelt's appeal a that enduring peace in Europe for growing challenge to all systems of which he hus so often expressed government that have not bowed his personal longing. Just as cer- the knee to the Nazi ideal. To iainly he can swing the balance to-that, if it were seriously intended, wards a war of which no man can
the world would offer limit the
ront scope. To
exampled resistance. That truth and temporise, to give an indirect an- should be clear, in the mind of ever, would be to intensify the Herr Hitler who he speaks in the| straint which Europe is now sub- Reichstag to-night and has the op fect it fucrease the danger that portunity, of dispelling all appre· asmo unanticipated incident might hensions.
MO
Un-
year
ply of imported food and raw materials upon which the country has become Increasingly dependent during the last hundred-years.
sca,
Invasion to a very distant peril, so long as we retain the cummond of the Large numbers of soldiers were retained in this country in the last war to guard against a German rald. estimated at a possible strength of 70,000 men.
Such a raid was about an unlikely az anything could be. Consider what It would have meant. The transports required for the carriage of such force would have numbered about 100 to 120.
TO effect a simultaneous landing and "to simplify naval protection, the whole of thle mass or shipping would have had to sail in one huge convoy, protected by the High Sens Picct.
The concealment of such a vast ex pedition would have been exceedingly dimeuit, and if the Grand Ficct had come across It on its way, It would have suffered a disaster without parallel in the history of the world.
For either 70,000 German soldiers would have been drowned in the North Bea or they would have ignominiously followed the Grand Fleet into harbour Ds captives
And if invasion was a remote danger In the last war. It is even moro 50 now that aircraft have immensely in- crensed the possibilities of scouting and observation.
Far more difficult in the Navy's task of protecting the merchant shipping on which the feeding the popula tion and the activity of our industries depend.
The chic! trouble is that whereas invasion can only take place some where on the comparatively limited coastal areas, the attack on our world. wide shipping can be made at any point on any of the trade routes all over the world. In the last
War,
Berlin
for instance,
ŽELIM GERMANY
ITALY
by Commdr RUSSELL GRENFELL
of
Second in a series of articles on Britain's de- fensive forces and the strategic preoccupations their commanders. Commander Grenfell, a leading authority on naval strategy, was for- merly on the teaching staff of the Royal Naval College at Greenwich. Ad- vocates more commissions from the lower deck and better conditions of pay and service all round for naval.ratings..
shipping was attacked in the Indian Ocean by the Emden, in the South Autantie by the. Karlsruhe, off the coast
of Africs and in the Eastern Seas by the disguised raiders, and in the Mediterranean and the reas round the British Isles by the U-bania,
So dispersed an attack naturally calls for an equally dispersed defence, which why the Admiralty is always so persistent in its call for cruisera. For. like hounds in search of a fox which has been eating the chickens, it always takes a number of ships to find ong raider,
WE had about twenty cruisers chasing tho Emden, and something like Afty were engaged in the search for Von Speo's Far Easter Squadron of Ave.
What makes even greater demands on the defending Navy is.submarine- warfaro against commerce.
For protection against this invisible danger in the last war our merchant shipping had to be put into convoy and
KURLAND
LIV.
TACT
THE map
on
the right is published in Schwarze Corps, newspaper Illiler's Blok
Guards. The white area indi- cates the eastern section of the first "German Empire" between 1250 and 1400 A.D. It purports to justify Hiller's conquests in "re- erectior ibe old historical boun- daries."
The map is cut off so that It does not show how much of Mussolial's Italy is "historically" German
On the felt a sketch map com- pletes the picture.
round each convoy had to be placed enough escorting warships to give a fair chance of hampering the sub- marine in making its attack, and of having a man-of-war in a reasonably good position to drop ita depth charges from whichever direction the submarale made its approach
The great volume of British shipping requiring anti-submariŋe protection caused a large number of destroyers, slocps and other amnil craft to bo em- ployed on that duty,
During the height of the German submarine campaign, wo had about 250 of these vessels an convoy escort Work in the Channel. the North Bea, and the waters north and south of Ireland; while there were about another 100 fan, the Mediterranean,
UNFORTUNATELY,
large numbers of these were broken up after the war, and we can now only produco about 130 as compared with the 380 employed in Home Waters and the Mediterranean last time. There are many who view this deficiency with gravo concern especially as the addi tion of air to submarine attack bas intensifed the prolective problem.
In addition to direct protection against riders, steps have to be taken to prevent on enemy's main fighting feet from taking a hand in the game. That is to say, his battleships and whatever cruisers, destroyers, and als craft carriers they may have with them. There have to be matched by & watching deet of corresponding type but superior dimensions.
The strength needed for this pur- pose is therefore directly proportional to the battleship and auxilary ton- nago possessed by the other side. That is why we have had to keep pace with renewed battleship construction by Germany, Italy and Japan.
The provision of the necessary num. ber of ships is, however, only half the battle. Rather less than half. In fact For the men who man the ships are more important than the ships them- selves, 'Good men in poor ships.” LI a famous naval historian has said. "will nearly always beat poor men in good ship."
The recruitment of sufficient person- net of tho requisite quality is there form of at least as much importanco as the actual construction programmes. Except in certain skilled branches, tb Navy is getting all the men it wants. The, number of officers and men has increased from 90.000 to 133,000 in ve yenra. though it is still 13.000 below the figure for July, 1014. Certain of the artifcer classes are not, however, coming forward in the numbers desired. The Admiralty's explanation that the great demand for akilled men in industry is keeping the Navy short carries, however, the obvious corollary that the naval col ditions of skilled service are insufl. elently attractive.
THE demand for a rapid increase of numbers is almost more dificult to meet in the case of the officers than In that of the men, chiefly owing to the Imited accommodation in training colleges
the
Having filled these to capacity, the Admiralty then turned to the Mer chant Service,' and a number of mer cantile emcers turned over to the Royal Navy.
This step brought the natural criticism that in thus ignoring its own non-comtalsaloned ranks, the Admir alty was belying its oft-repeated declarations in favour of promotion from the Lower Deck..
It is therefore satisfactory that a recent Admiralty order should have Announced a considerable increase of numbers to be drawn from this latter BOLLITO.
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