THE ADMIRALTY AND PARLIAMENT . [To the Editor of THE SP E CTATOR.]
SIR,—It does not appear that we shall have an early oppor- tunity of discussing Sir Thomas Inskip's new appointment and the functions of his office. I shall be grateful, therefore, if I may call attention to one or two matters in regard to defence.
The debate on the Naval Estimatei was extremely disap- pointing. Two naval matters are of exceptional importance : (i) the security of our imports of food, raw materials and fuel Oil in war, in view of the development of the air weapon ; (ii) the value of the capital ship. Both points were specifically raised. In his extremely pedestrian reply the Parliamentary Secretary ignored the first and, as regards the second, quoted the verdict of a committee of enquiry of 1920. The war 'showed that the AdMiralty had not foreseen the menace of the submarine to our overseas imports. These imports will he threatened in the next war by submarines and by aircraft also There is no evidence that the Admiralty have thought out the problem of air attacks upon our imports any more than they had that of the submarine in 1914.
The power of aircraft has increased enormously since 1920, the date of the Committee which is quoted in 1936 in support of the capital ship. There is no evidence that the Parliamen- tary Secretary has received advices on this subject from anyone else than men whose dearest ambition during the whole of their professional lives has been to command a fleet of such ships. We are apparently to lay down two battleships next year, yet neither the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty nor the Under Secretary for Air have returned any answer at all to the plain question, put in the. House, "Are the Air Ministry satisfied that they have received from the Admiralty all the facilities they have asked for in order to carry out aeroplane versus warship experiments under the exact circum- stances and conditions they, the Air Ministry, preScribed ?"
I should like to ask further if there is in existence any report on this subject to which both the Admiralty and Air Ministry have agreed.
It will be a real scandal if the two battleships are laid down before there has been an impartial enquiry before a civilian commission on the value of the capital ship and before there is a joint report on the subject of aircraft versus warship agreed to hy Admiralty and Air Ministry.
There are, unfortunately, only too many signs that. the civilian members of the Board of Admiralty are in the hands of their professional advisers and are retailing to us in the House the briefs which the latter prepare for them. As the Minister for CO-ordination has announced his intention of interfering as little as possible with those professional advisers there is every prospect of the increased expenditure , on the Navy adding to the number of costly freaks and wretchedly designed' ships with which our dockyards are ,now lumbered up.---I ain',,your obedient servant,
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