“I ascertained while in London, from additional sources not to be mentioned here, that the construction of these ships was undertaken in consequence of a secret alliance between Great Britain and Japan to prevent the United States from securing possession of the Sandwich Islands and to head off the Russians in the Pacific, etc.
“The great engineering strike in Great Britain during this time delayed the delivery of the Japanese vessels and the construction of the great fleet of British ships then under way for two or three years, and the whole thing fell through because the favorable opportunity had passed. The delay gave them time to think it over. And, besides, we were beginning to make a show of naval power. It was also at this time that the Germans were beginning to show their practical aspirations in the direction of ‘sea power.’
“The construction of the ships and their object was known also to Captain Gregorovitch, Russian Naval Attaché in London, and that probably accounted for the visit of Mr. Tchernigovsky.
“One interesting circumstance in connection with this strike and its consequences was the fact that under the operations of the strike a very large number of the best English shipyard workmen and engineers went to Germany, and became permanently located there in the shipyards; and while their absence crippled Great Britain, they more than any other cause advanced the construction of the German navy; so that while the leaders of the strike in England gained nothing by it there for the engineers but disaster to themselves and their country, they were conspicuously instrumental in assisting the most powerful rival of England.
“It would be an interesting subject for reflection or discussion as to what might have been the consequences if the strike had not occurred and the Japanese and British fleets had been finished two years before they were.
“At the time these fleets were started there existed throughout the naval world a lull in war-vessel output, particularly so in Russia and the United States, until some time after the announcement of the Japanese policy. The Germans had, however, been much in advance in the way of waking up and realizing the real situation.”
The programme of the visit to the Armstrong Works embraced the following list of war vessels then building there. This programme did not indicate the destination of any of these ships, so far as they were being built for foreign account, and that designation included all of them except one third-class cruiser of 2800 tons displacement building there for the English navy. Therefore the destinations of all war-ships then building at the Armstrong Works which are noted in the margin of the programme are those dropped from other sources of information, all of which turned out to be absolutely true. It should be explained here that the policy of the Armstrong Company in building vessels of war for foreign navies always was to keep their destination secret as long as possible. And here it may be added that Brassey’s “Naval Annual,” the most comprehensive work of its kind that ever existed, did not in its issue for the year 1897 contain the destination of any of these ships building at Armstrong’s for foreign account, and that the same work for the next year did give their destinations based upon the disclosures made by Mr. Cramp in connection with Commander Colwell, our Naval Attaché in London, and the Naval Attaché of the Chinese Legation there. With this explanation, we present a copy of the programme of the visit, with Mr. Cramp’s annotations as noted above.
THROUGH NEW SMITH’S SHOP TO
ELSWICK SHIPYARD.
Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., Limited, have now under construction the following vessels of war: