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In the Lamotte Picquet I covered 19,000 miles in all weathers and we never rolled badly. The cruiser has marvellous sea-going qualities and her speed, too, is marvellous. With only one of her eight boilers, i.e., with only 13,000 h.p., she can steam at 20 knots; with two boilers she can steam at 25 knots in all weathers; with 62,000 h.p. she can do 30 knots.
The boilers and turbines run so perfectly and with such supple- ness that alterations of speed are effected incredibly quickly. The engines of the 10,000 ton cruiser Tourville are equally satisfac- tory; at her first trial in the open sea she attained a speed of 34 knots in two and a half hours. This is simply wonderful and does great credit to our technical experts."
New Construction. The new submarines Caiman and Phoque having carried out successful trials are starting on a 40 days' endurance test in the Mediterranean. This practice of doing a long endurance cruise before entering service is being carried out for all new submarines now. The Redoutable was launched at Cherbourg on 14th February, and her sister ship the Vengeur should be ready for launching in April.
The new submarine depôt ship of the 1926 programme year is to be called Jules Verne and one of the submarines of the same year will be named Nautilus.
Personnel. The Bill for the Organisation of Officers and Men in the Navy was passed by the Chamber of Deputies on 2nd March, without any general discussion.
The Bill provides for a total strength of 2,112 officers instead of the present authorised strength of 2,002, and the 1928 budgetary strength of 1,864.
Promotion of officers of all ranks will come on an average two years earlier than it did in 1914. The number of Sub- Lieutenants is increased by 120 to provide for the needs of the Naval Air Service and the numerous light vessels of the con- struction programme,
The creation of Warrant Officer grade in the Engineer Branch, which will facilitate the promotion of ratings to the rank of Officer, will enable the number of Junior Engineer Officers to be reduced, and the chances of promotion are further increased by a slight addition to the number of Senior Officers of this branch. The strengths of the Construction, Gunnery, and Medical Branches are all increased. The number of Officers of the Hydrographic Branch is increased from 17 to 25.
GERMANY.
Naval Estimates. Despite the reductions referred to in February M.I.R., the German Naval Estimates are still astonish- ingly high in comparison with the small size of the fleet. For 1928 they amount to approximately ten and a half millions sterling, or roughly the same as those of the French and Italians.
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Very little criticism of these estimates has, however, appeared in the German Press, the sole exception being the Berliner Tageblatt which has published a series of articles accusing the Ministry of Marine of gross extravagence. The final article concludes with the following remarks, which, as far as statistics are concerned, appear to be substantially correct :-
In view of the statements already outlined, it is no surprise to find that our navy, in comparison with other navies, is by far the most expensive. The picture for 1927—and according to present information no appreciable alteration will occur in 1928– showed the following:-
Germany.—15,000 men, 9 warship units and some torpedo-boats in commission, and 6 small coastal artillery units.
Estimates
Italy. 45,000 men, more than three times the strength in ships, strong flying service and much larger coastal artillery organisation.
Estimates
France. 57,500 men, otherwise similar to Italy.
Estimates
£11,000,000
£10,000,000
£12,000,000
"If Italy and France spent correspondingly as much on their navies as we on ours, their estimates would amount to £33,000,000 and £42,000,000 respectively, and the naval estimates of Japan, U.S.A. and England, would grow to immeasurable amounts. Even when one recognises the fact that a small navy is always somewhat more expensive than a larger one, there still remains an indefensible disproportion to the disadvantage of our navy. And the expense of long service personnel in our navy (which also arises in the case of America and England) is not of great importance, as the pay of the entire active personnel amounts only to 12 per cent, of the estimates.
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In conclusion of this review of the Naval estimates, in which the figures and examples given are indefensible, it can only be urgently demanded that the Reichstag will rigidly carry out its duty of freeing the German people of a condition of affairs which still further reduces the strength of its already small Defence Force, owing to an irrational over-organisation, and which owing to the excessive expenses on all sides, lays such a heavy burden on its exchequer.”
The following are some of the points made in arriving at this conclusion :—
The navy is over-organised and the headquarters are over- staffed. The fleet, with a personnel of 15,000 officers and men, consists of:--4 old battleships of the Deutschland class, 5 cruisers and 12 destroyers in commission; 2 old battleships and I cruiser in reserve; 6 small artillery units for coast defence. To run this there is provided: an Admiralty at Berlin with 3 main
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