The Position of the Navy
The sense of proportion and reality in naval matters, which seemed in some danger of being lost in the uproar over the appointment of an American admiral as Supreme Allied Com- mander, Atlantic, has been very largely restored in the past week. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty, Mr. James Callaghan. has given the House of Commons a picture of naval preparedness which although it falls short of the ideal, at least has the merit that the main effort is being directed to the right point—protection against Russian submarines. The programme of vessels to be laid down in the next three years includes six aircraft-carriers, eight destroyers and twenty-four frigates, and it is intended to convert forty-five destroyers to anti-submarine frigates. These, with a refinement of the Asdic equipment (anti- submarine direction-indicator) and aircraft specially designed for anti-submarine work, should go a long way to ensuring that, even if the Russian submarines are more formidable and more efficiently worked than has been anticipated„ they will have an even stiffer task than the Germans had in two world wars. There is greater cause for confidence at sea than on land or in the air. Indeed, in sea-power the goal of superiority sufficient to act as a real deterrent to possible Russian aggression may already have been reached.
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