1948-11-20 — Page 4

4

The British Navy Of The Future

By Admiral of the Fleat

LORD

FRASER,

First Sca Lord

In an interview with ALAN BROCKBANK

WHEN the war ended all maltitäin

three Services were ren Power,

our place 13. a leading And what will the navies of the thrown off balance by demobill- future be like? As far as one can aation. It was a technician's sec, their physical shape will not be war, and nearly all our technical greatly altered 'people 'went back to the fac- tories and the universities.

Now we are building up again, and slowly but cortainly we are orenting 'n pouce-time Navy that will be adequate to meet the .ngw/demands.of.dofence that a iloping age of science thrusts

upon us.

I say advisedly that we are building up our defence fleet alowly-actually, we are going nhead as fast as the economy of "the nation and the supply of .manpower will let us.

Costly basiness Obviously we have to plan within the framework of the country's economic ability. If we did not do so the collapse of industry would halt us just the

JAME.

Science has made defence a complicated and costly business,

Tako : a frigate, for example. Bofore the war I suppose you could build one for £300,000 or £400,000. Today one would cost nearer a million,

Wo used to think of a battleship as a £3,000,000 investment,

Todny a battleship with all tho latest, scientifle requirements and defensive armour would probably cost £20,000,000 and take maybe eight years to build.

Formidable Navy

We are taking the line that it is cheaper, and for the moment satis- factory; to modernise the ships and equipment we already possess artd

efinve a formidable- Navy.

Many people are inclined to thinle only of the Home Fleet when they talk of the Navy. Actually, of course,, we have a powerful balanced deet in the Mediterranean, cruiser Squadrons in several parts of the a large fleet of sub- world, and marines and small craft.

.

But this is an interim policy, Our. scientists are already blue-printing the Navy and the weapons of future.

the

the

Every other notion is doing same. I believe that we are as well

off in this sphere as anyone, here is where we have been generous as. we can in spending.

We shall not see the results of this for possibly some years, but they will be important years if we are to

Guided missile

We shall stil have battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, sloops, and submarines,

But their armour, their armament, maybe their propulsiva and machinery will be revolutionised.

The guided missile has come to stay; it in nat impossible that atom projectiles will be used, that and more deadly mines will be in- vented.

new

Submarines will be greatly im-- proved, and our experiments with the schnorkel breathing device have given us submarines capable of long distance voyages under water.

Is the bntileship doomed? I think the answer to that in that for every war you require the biggest and most heavily armed ships you

can muster. The battleship is still the most difficult ship to sink.

Its

A hard target heavy armour and great fre power make it a hard target. Tako the Scharnhorst, she wan difficult enough to conquer.

And Its purpose is still well de- ained. No one will deny the effec- tiveness of the battleship In the Anzle beach landings, or during the Normandy operations

The weapons that may be used ngainat us? The atom bomb?

I can only think that for the effect It could obtain it would be waste-

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1948.

"I reckon we'd all be better off if they run this Danny Kaye for President "

BOARD the . aircraft- carrier Illustrious in Portland Harbour 1 heard stories of human heroisin on the night when the pinnuce sank with the loss of 29 lives which seem to me to deserve a place in the glorious records of the Navy.

Alfred Raymond Lowe, ship's ful to drop a highly expensive boy, aged 17. of Cornworth- atom bomb on a dispersed fleet.

was in the road, Dagenham, pinnace.

It would seem that atom bombs, if they are used again, would be reserved for concentrated land tar. gets such as harbour and military Installations and war factories.

Our new men? In the final count, the strength of any navy

depends upon its officers and men.

Man are heen

I am happy about the type of men we are taking into the Navy. We have a very young Navy Indeed, but it is tremendously keen and quick to learn.

"The boat

was about

10ft.

under water when I struggled loose and rose to the surface," he told me.

"I threw off my boots and floating greatcoat, caught lifebelt, and awam 50 yards to the stern of the Illustrious.

"A marine threw me a life- The recent Home Fleet exercises showed its quality. We have need line. Then I saw the midship for more who are prepared to make man close by in the water cry the Service a career and become

ing for help. skilled technicians.

Britons have always responded to the call of the sea.

"I shouted up to the carrier To the young men who are man-deck for more slack rope. At ning the ships and establishment of first they didn't hear me and the Royal Navy today we hand on

began hauling me on board, but a great heritage and heavier

# responsibility. I have supreme con- managed to strike out 10 yards and grab the midship- fidence in them,

man.

and EDITOR'S NOTE:Lord Frauer, whose sinking of the German pocket battleship. Keharnhorst, was one of the memorable

"He was unconscious and too exploits of the war, was C-in heavy to move. I shouted that Pacine Fleet, and had his Headquarters in Hongkong from

shortly after

I couldn't hold on much longer. Liberation tü! mid-1946,

THE

the

Russian Window

BERLIN. RUSSIAN, WINDOW for its

first appearance looks out. on. THE shortcomings of the Soviet's top-class con-

p08078......

RUSSIAN composers come in

ing in the Moscow Press as the Soviet Union works itself up to the great annual colebration of the 1917 Revolution.

It is customary on November 7. the anniversary of the day, to pre- sent Marshal Stalin with tho fruits of all the best achievements during the year, from demonstrations the newest Jet propelled planes to the performance of the latest sym- phony.

Alas! This year, there are serious tags in cultural production."

A "FLYING SAUCER” from Finland which may have broken a treaty as well as itself when it cruslied.

Into the assembly and fight of a "Flying Saucer" plane in Fin- anonymous land. According to an letter in

paper, it

PRAVDA is demanding an inquiry.

secretly constructed in various was

it

tories. Flown by Slivio Socca. reached a speed of 530 miles an hour

ls withi

concern

the

before it crashed.

Pravda's Soviet peace treaty with Finland, which prohibits the production of Jet-planes. Russia has made up its mind that this is what the "Flying

Saucer" was.

4

PETER BURCHETT

ia in charge of the Burea

and will report regularly

A RUSSIAN scientist's attempt to portray Communist ideology as

defy a world belief,

and

the

to

the

Illustrious

is the

name, and rightly so

by GERALD SCHEFF

"A petty officer lowered a fog buoy. I pulled the midshipman on to it and tied a rope round his waist. Then I swam to the in the gangway, I had been water about 15 minutes. Sud- denly I began to shiver."

Boy Lowe reported for normal duties next morning.

The fact that 19-year-old Al- fred Steel, of Aston- road, Ferry Barr, Birmingham, was in the pinnace might never have been known if he hadn't gone to clean out the captain's cabin next morning.

Floated_10_Minutes.

TEEL had floated calmly for 10 STEEL

minutes before being picked up. Then, clambering on deck, he walk- ed to the ship's police office and, standing in a pool of water, smartly handed in his leave pass.

After this he went below to dry off. It was a few hours later be- fore he admitted to Captain Hughes Hallett that he was a survivor.

Naval Airman Thomas Grahom, aged 19, of Oak Lodge, Hungerford, Berks, is a National Serviceman.

He swam to the stern of the carrier and clung to a rope. He saw A friend exhausted, and held on to him until both were hauled to safe ty.

A robe was thrown to two others struggling in the water. The bigger of the two thrust his friend forward to the rope, shouting: "You get it, I'm all right. Then he was swept

the

made several mistakes. In his story. chief of which was to forget driving force behind

harole away. deeds of the partisans in the war.

Mr J. P. Bordiss, a commissioned NEWSPAPERS, cartoonists,

This has now been happily cor-

gunnery warrent officer, saw radio commentators have swung rected and the Alm, said to be the disaster from the Illustrious. From: into getion to popularise Lysenko, most starkly realistic ever made in the quarterdeck he could distinguish the scientist, who is overhauling the Russia, proves that the young Com-the lights of the pinnace. national agriculture. His theory hunist, Olyer Kozhevoy, soal Air Tho composers, according to the denied by most of the world's at friends died bravely in the war be- Suddenly he realised the lights Review of the Fine Arts, have pre- thorities--Is that characteristics 20- cause "the Communist faith is thehad stopped rising and were shining pared little or nothing. They have quired during the lifetime of plants, inner fire which prodded the paril on the water. He knew then that

excuse, for "the resolution of the animals, or humans can be

she was sinking. passed sans into herole deeds, and enabled Communist Party has drawn a clear

parents to watch their children being and rigid. line for the development In simple terms, the seeds of the tortured, not with pity, but Berce of Soviet music. The composers grent head of wheat lying on my pride and faith that they would not have been very slow to produce on table, obtained by artifetal cross- weaken and betray the Fatherland." the basis of this directive. Among breeding, will continue to produce

no

operas."

now

on to their progery.

"I slewed round the floodlight and bone it on the boat," he told me. Alarm Sounded

"Away

sca

boats

Many did not wait for the beats. They clambered part way down the stern of the carrier, on ropes and swam to the rescue.

the new works there are no great similar heads of wheat. The wheat KROKODIL (Ruista's comic imperi instrumental productions or new production of the Soviet Union can ..shedding tears over what is not a

ANOTHER officer sounded the be doubled in a year or two if what

laughing matter. Lysenko says is true, and the Sovlat

crows" was piped. AN AMERICAN-RUSSIAN deal in Union is planning as if it were true. THERE will be a great shortage The theory derives from the work of sklo, skates and snow-shoes,

Men swung from their hammocks fertilisers which shows how fertile

wrinkled the international business mind of Michurin

wizard all absolute necessities for somebody, and raced on to the quarterdeck. who claims miracles in the field of in Russia this winter. The paper can be.

plant breeding.

blames and caricatures officials of American

His most spectacular achievement various Ministries, and Pravda adds SOVIET officials and

cotton with varlour private enterprise have pulled was crossing

ominously?— off a neat deal to get round the coloured flowers to produce different

which divides coloured cottons,

соп bo "It has been decided to take con blockade wall which Eastern Germany and Western woven into coloured cloth direct creto measures for the improvement

from the plant.

of this year's winter sport and Europe.

In Berlin, Soviet tride officials

He insists that the seed from his physical culture organisation, despite bave signed a contract with Mr Col- cross-breds produces the same crop the muddie in several of our Minis-

Co ono of as the cross-breda. lins, of Baker and

tries." Americo's largest Arms dealing in Farmers in all collective forms will artificial fertliizors, under which have to too the Lysenko line, and 100,000 tons of Soviet zone potash sow their crops and cultivate the will be exchanged for 100,000 tons soll on the basis of his and Michu- of American phosphates.

rin's theories. Hence the propaganda Transport will be in American campaign. ships, and, to avoid the blockade, the fertilizers wilf be exchanged NEW FILM, "The Young Guard,” 46 hrs. 40 mins., during which theymouth," Murray said, rengete through the Polish port of Sieltin.

A deal of this kind makes black markoleers, who shoot Hois through the blockade, look very small stuit.

tho

boosting the old guard,"

1

WOMEN'S AFFAIRS...............

UDMILLA IVANOVA and Sonio Tonkova claim a new record lu, ballooning. They went up into the Etratosphere and stayed there

for

travelled 700 milesgonvek shows

Fashion paper VERASIMOVO - produced the fim waistlines higher and skirts longer from a novel by Fadayeff, Tho This, if not quite the New Look, is writer; says Russian critics originally a glance at it

Officers Cook Charles James Mur- ray jumped into the sea and saw two boys, one with a lifobelt and the other, clinging to a rope, cry.. ing: "Help. I can't hold on much longer."

Murray, held on to him until a lifeboat was lowered and the boy hauled to safely. Then he swam back and grabbed the other one.

"He nccidentally booted me in the

"I went dizzy, and had to clog to a rope myself, Then I swam out again and caught hold of a third man. I held tight; but he slipped out of my numbed grasp.”

Murray's legs. were "wobbly" when he got back to the Illustrious. He slept in the sick bay that night. but in the morning "made room for someone else."

R. M. MâcCOLL VIEWS THE TRUMAN VICTORY.

"

He Ain't No Churchill,

-but what the heck!

: WASHINGTON. :

HE underdog won, and perhaps he won largely

Tbecause he was the underdog. And perhaps

he won because Americans love a tough, game, nover-say-die scrapper, and Harry Truman was all of that.

:

When things were at their worst, when his intimates werò privately throwing up their hands and the sponge, Truman himself would come out jauntily, smile happily and sail into the glant with gusto,

Sald the pundits: "He is throwing wild punches." But that is exactly what American fans, whether fight or election fans, like to sec. They yelled. "Pour it onto Congress, Harry,” and Harry obliged with a will, lambasting the luckless Congress at every turn.

"Cheap stuff," said the pundits, shaking their heads, but he knew that, in the abstract, the man in the street does not like Congress much,

From that moment In April 1945 when the former farmer, ex-World War One artillery captain, broke haberdasher, and successful Senator, Harry Truman 'quaveringly took the oath of office under the shock of

the great Roosevelt's death, and with ,tears in his eyes asked the reportera present to "Pray for me, please, boys," he

has touched a deeply

responsive chord in all of America's "hitle' guys."

Sometimes he, has done things as President that verged on the pre posterous. "So what? He can't know all the answers, can he? Give the guy a chance," say all the little guys.

Then

NO SUBTLETY

they add to themselves, "Suppose it was you up there, Joe. What kind of a mark-up would you make of it? He ain't no Churchill, but what the heck. He's trying. uin't he?"

The glant-killer has not an ounce. of subtlety. But then he has not an Gunce of affectation either. He has common gol the certainty of the

touch.

saw a crowd of 80,000 farmers at him when he repeated written for

yawn

some purple passages him by one of lile ghosts in Town East September. Applause was feeble at the end.

Truman had a ham lunch, grinned at everything in aight, then suddenly bounced back on to the platform and started an impromptu talk about his own days on the form.

THOSE MULES

"I could plough a mighty straight furrow, That's truc, folks mah Able Seaman John Biddles, oged own mother said so. But the Fairlands trouble Ah had with those mules." 20, of Kiln-meadows, Estate, Guildford, jumped into the The yawns gave way to cheers. He first boat lowered and helped to hati them with him.

rescue six.

Teams of nine men on deck haul-

Pelty Officer. Richard Atkinson, who lives at Garnier-street, Fratton, ed survivors to safety under great Portsmouth, was in the carrier's difficulties, cinema when Commander Courage rushed in to announce what had happened.

Racing on deck, the petty officer saw Boy Lowe in the water support- ing Midshipman Clough.

Lowe shouted that he hold

couldn't

Atkinson eased a fog buoy over the side, dropped + lifeline, and shinned down It.

He helped the boy get the mid- -shipman-on-board, but Clough-was- already dead.

Atkinson then made for the port side and hauled three

to mory safety,

Others

clambered down ladders

at and tied ropes round the waisl those in the water under the broad beam of the 23,000-ton ship.

Normal life and training has been resumed in the carrier.

Great Gallantry

Hughes-Hallett,

APTAIN John

CB, DSO, in command of the Ilustrious, sold to me:-

the man.

His accent is exactly right for Simple, unaffected, as he is himself. He sometimes mis- In his pronounces words wildly flat "Missourah" twang. And he is so patently, touchingly proud of his daughter, too. When he introduced her to crowds at early morning all the whistio stops it reminded men present of, the way in which they fish craps of their own chil- dren from their wallels to show to neighbours.

So when all the clever boys, the The pollsters and pundits, said: ilitie guy hasn't got a chance." everyone felt badly, but he kept on grinning and swinging, and said: The polisters will sure have mighty red faces on November 3."

TOO RITZY The glant Dewey was a farmer. too. But that place of his up there

New of at Pawling,

York State, is In not what millions of Americans dis-, think of as a

form

No, sir. Too

Coplain-John Hughes-Hallett, CB, DSO, in command of the Illustrious, said to me:-

"Considering the

number rescue boats got into the area such a short time I was deeply Marine Johr Tone is a stocky, re-appointed that more lads were not ritzy, too mechanised, too antiseptic. soureeful, and courageous cockney, rescued.

He dived off the after gangway "I can only conclude that they and pulled one lad to safety. Next must have included a high percen- he stripped, leaped un à raft, and fage of non-swimmers. swam out with it to another boy, shouting, "You're not dead yet."

11.

The boy yelled back, "FII make

John Tone got him back to the

stem of the carrier, but then the tide swept him out to sea. A drifter picked him up.

On the way back they another man in the water.

spotted

"As I was the only one stripped, I dived in and got him," Tone said. Marine Tone is 30, and Ives in Gloucester-terrace, London.

Sole Agents

r

Harry's was a real farm. Bee

maybe the

what I mean, pal? Real dirty, and

hired hands wenl barefoot. And the glant was a bit too aloof, a bit too sure of himself "Those who kept their head and and of victory. "Heck, he acts like the President before ho's could swim were able to

swim' he's

against the wind to the stern of the elected"

That well-oiled giant's machine

carrier. Some even swam further

round to the port gangway.

all right, but too was smooth amooth as it turned out. "The heaviest proportion of those Little old Harry's motley crowd were not so hot, but lost were naval airmen trainees, of advisers mostly short-service volunteers, who there was always little old Harry had only come to us at an early the glant-killer himself.

ant, stage in their training for a three

And that, as it has turned weeks' course of instruction.

was good enough.

So put the Missouri Waltz right Edra, "The

the gramophone, operations were back on carried out with great determination you're going to hear it for four more and great gallantry."

years.

U. SPALINGER

York Bldg.

rescue

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