TOPICS OF THE DAY.

THE GREAT NEED OF SHIPS.

THE resignation of the Advisory Committee on

Mercantile Shipbuilding was a portent. It meant, of course, that the highly responsible members of that Committee were not satisfied with the manner in which the shipbuilding of the country was proceeding. No body of determined and patriotic men, such as this Committee unquestionably was, resigns its position if it is in the full tide of success, if it is achieving all that it knows the nation requires and expects of it. The evidence is only too certain, therefore, that the construction of ships has hitherto not been on such a scale as to satisfy the standard which those best qualified to judge regard as necessary for the salvation of Great Britain, and perhaps of the whole Alliance. We are very glad to know that the gap created by the resignation of the Committee was very quickly filled. A nominally new body has been formed, and the members of the old Committee have expressed their willingness to serve on it. In other words, our ship- building advisers have no intention of leaving the country in the lurch ; by the act of resignation they merely brought about the downfall of a system which they believed to be working unsatisfactorily. It is most earnestly to be hoped that the new system will produce better results. But we have to recognize that the new system is only now being created. Almost the whole work of salvation lies before us. The sincere good wishes of the nation will go with the new body, which is called the Shipbuilding Council. Every one recognizes now that shipbuilding is the greatest of our needs. Everything depends upon it. We have often pointed out that the war has become a kind of race between our ability to deliver a decisive blow against the enemy, and the gradually approaching exhaustion of the world. Time is an essential clement of the problem. Owing to the Italian reverse, the race seems likely to be a longer one than was thought possible a few months ago. All the greater is the need to make sure that we are running this race in such a way as to use to the very best purpose every ounce of our strength. We hear a great deal about the importance of man-power in the field, and the importance of air-power, and we ourselves, of course, have often insisted upon them ; but the obvious truth cannot too often be repeated or remembered, that the applications of man-power in the field and of air-power, and indeed of everything else in the conduct of the war, depend 'upon the increase of our shipping. It is useless to have all the men you require in the field if you have not enough ships to bring to this country the material for supplying them with munitions and the food that sustains the strong arms which labour in the factories. It is useless for the United States to raise great armies if she cannot convey them to Europe, and if—what is still more important, for no one doubts that the United States will somehow tarp her armies across the Atlantic—she cannot keep them fully fed and equipped when they are actually in the field. It has been said over and over again in the speeches of public men that the rate of construction of ships is not keeping pace with the loss from submarines. The figures are not in our possession to publish, and could not be published even if we had them ; but taking the facts at their literal value as stated by members of the Government, we see plainly that if the process continues by which the balance, gradually perhaps but still steadily, tells against us, a point will be reached within measurable distance when we shall be unable to carry on. Of course we do not believe for a moment that that point of disaster will ever be reached, but we do say that in order to prevent such a disaster the whole of the resolution of the Government and all the steadiness of purpose of which they are capable will be required. The same goodwill both of mind and hand will also be required among men labouring in the shipyards

and in the factories which produce the boilers and engines and steel and all the various parts that make up a ship.

According to figures mentioned a few days ago in the Daily News, we are two and a half million tons down in large ships alone ; that is to say, in ships of over sixteen hundred tons.

Such a fact as this, which if not mathematically true, is

at all events as true as round figures can he, must never be allowed to leave our minds. Nothing could

be more futile than gaily to make military plans when the basis postulated by all military plans does not exist. We are reminded of an incident recorded of Napoleon during the disastrous campaign in Russia in 1812. When many of his regiments had been engulfed in the snow, he still used to draw up aeherees which depended upon the

existence of those lost legions. Members of his Staff used to point out that the divisions which he assigned to this and that manoeuvre had disappeared for ever. But, Sire," they would say, " you no longer have those divisions." " Why rob me of my calm ? " was Napoleon's rather peevish remon- strance. We must never be calm until we have gained for our- selves in the matter of shipping the right to be calm.

Not very long ago the First Lord of the Admiralty spoke of something like a million tons of merchant shipping being produced this year. But in normal times of peace we used

to produce an average of two million tons. Of course a large part of the resources of the yards are used up in providing

ships for purely naval purposes, but that fact is only another

argument for the most extraordinary, and indeed superhuman, efforts now. Besides feeding and supplying ourselves, we

have to feed and supply to a considerable extent both France

and Italy. Something, it has been suggested, might be done by a more strictly controlled use of both French and Italian

merchant vessels, but ultimately we must recognize that the solution of the problem depends upon our own capacity to construct ships forthwith at a greatly increased rate. We must not even rely upon the United States. Her programme,

it is true, promises extremely well, but not having. been a great shipbuilding country in the past, she has hurriedly to

rearrange her yards now as well as create new ones. Double.

and even treble, shifts, as we learn from American news- papers, are at work, and we may well envy her the magnitude of the labour reservoir upon which she can draw ; but it is not safe to assume that the United States will be able to do more than maintain the great Army in Europe which she means to send over.

Much had been hoped of standardized ships. In theory, of course, the idea of standardization is beyond reproach.

and we ourselves heartily welcomed the idea. But the reports which reach us make us doubt whether the initial delay which was inevitably incurred in making preparations for standardized building is being overtaken as quickly as

had been hoped. Over a long period standardization is no doubt the quickest method of construction, but against that fact we have to remember that for our present purpose our

calculations cannot extend over a very long period. We want to produce the quickest possible results, and if we find that we are betrayed by a theory, then nothing must prevent us from acting with open minds and depending more upon some other scheme that works out in a more satisfactory manner. We have read that standardization would have succeeded much more noticeably if the ships had not been built with unnecessarily curved lines. The lightning constructor tells

you that the model which can be built far quicker than any

other is practically rectilinear. It is, in fine, a mere box with straight sides and flat bottom, and the only curved parts are the bow and the stern, which arc, as it were, added as a kind

of finishing touch to the box. It is suggested in the Daily Chronicle that reinforced concrete might be used more gener-

ally for building such ships as these. It is already used for building barges, and though the inferiority of its tensile strength to that of steel limits the size of concrete vessels, there is said to be no objection to the use of this material for ships of considerable tonnage. We cannot pretend to judge in this matter, but at all events we may safely rule out the criticism that these unsightly horrors would not be of very much use after the war. Our business is to win the war as quickly as possible, and to neglect no means of doing so. If reinforced concrete is a practical material for shipbuilding. it has the very obvious advantage that it would relieve the enormous pressure upon our supplies of steel.

It would be useless at this time of day to go back upon the friction which no doubt occurred between the Advisory

Committee on Mercantile Shipbuilding and one of the Admiralty Departments. We assume that the period of friction is ended, but there seems to be no doubt that one of the chief objects of dispute between the two parties to the controversy was the Government scheme for creating new national shipyards. As this scheme still holds the field, it is necessary to say something about it. Indeed, the matter is so important that it must be dealt with in a separate article.