The Post-War Navy
The debate on the Naval Estimates on Monday served one useful purpose. It should dissipate the idea, which inept methods of publicity have most unfortunately discouraged, that the Royal Navy today is something which Latin American republics can afford to defy. The announcement that for a time the once powerful Home Fleet would consist of one cruiser and four destroyers was disastrous. It is a fact, on which Mr. Churchill insisted and which Mr. Alexander readily confirmed, that as soon as the present process of reorganisa- tion is completed the British Navy, reinforced in case of need by Dominion squadrons substantially more powerful than ever before, will be second only to that of the United States, and in various respects not even to that. By 'the end of the year there will be in commission four battleships, 17 cruisers, 56 destroyers, 34 sub- marines, eight aircraft-carriers of varying strengths, and an ample number of lesser craft, all with adequate reserves available. These are the facts, and it is well that the world should know them. No hostile navy menaces, but it is satisfactory to have Mr. Alexander's assurance that if necessary a balanced task force could be provided now within a matter of a week or ten days. The most controversial question raised in debate was the wisdom of scrapping so many capital ships, in particular 'Nelson' and ' Rodney '; but Mr. Alexander's defence of the decision was convincing, and Lord Tovey
backed it with his great authority in the simultaneous debate in the House of Lords. No one can foresee in what conditions the next naval campaign, if there is one, will be fought ; but there is equal soundness in Admiral Sir William James's contention that existing instruments of war must be maintained till they are demonstrably superseded by new weapons, and in the Admiralty's determination to spend no less than L9,00o,000 on research in the coming year, with particular reference to the possible developments of atomic warfare. In spite of plenty of party skirmishing, Monday's debate was on the whole reassuring.
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