3 round trips weekly, Express (Douglas) 4 round trips weekly. (Ford)
The London Naval Treaty, which limits the size of battleships, aircraft-carriers, and cruisers, makes no stipulation about the kind of fuel to be used, But Earl Stanhope explained that to revert to coal or dual firing when building new ships would mean the sacrifice of speed or armour or armament or all three, if the Treaty limitations were to be respected.
The young Earl Beatty had already paid respect to his father's memory by asking that this country. should free herself from the London and Washington Treaty limitations, and should suggest to other nations a general increase in the size of ships to allow coal bunkering.
Lord Ailwyn, who began the debate had pages of figures to prove how dangerous was Great Britain's depend-. ence on oil fuel, the sources of which she could not control. An annual importation of oil, which had risen from 2500000 tons in 1914 to 12,000,000 tons in 1936, could not, he insisted, be adequately supplanted by reserve supplies in time of emergency.
But Earl Stanhope agreed with Earl Howe that the day of the coal-burning warship had passed,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.