NAVAL STRENGTH

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 241, 25 July 1935, Page 5

NAVAL STRENGTH

FAILURE OF NEGOTIATIONS. JAPAN NOT PERTURBED. CHEAPER DEFENSIVE FLEET. f (United Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.5 a.m.) ' TOKIO, July 24. The spokesman lor the Navy Office declares that the failure of negotiations for a new naval conference does not perturb Japan, which is not afraid of the absence of a treaty, because she would then build a more effective defensive navy more cheaply than replacing vessels, as necessitated by tiie London Naval Trea-ty. GERMANY’S FLEET. MANY BIG DESTROYERS. LONDON, July 10. That there is a real threat in the new German naval programme just announced is emphatically pointed out by the well-known naval expert, MiHector By water, in the “Daily Telegraph.” .... . x , The writer visualises Germany with two heavily-armed 26,000-ton battleships, and Britain with only one 1 rattleship, the Hood (built in 1920), fast enough to speed it with them at 31 knots.

Mr Bywater barely hints at what would happen in war if the Hood were disabled. Describing what he calls the “real surprises” of the new German High Seat Fleet, he draws the country’s attention to “the many big destroyers and the large number of submarines.” “Each of the 16 German destroyers,” says the writer, “is ilearly 300 tons larger than the latest British type. 'Hie armament is also heavier. These destroyers are actually flotilla leaders of exceptional power, and; are probably the German reply to the French ‘pocket cruisers,’ of which 32 have been, built or laid down. “The two German 26,000-ton battlecruisers are obviously a reply to the Frenph 26,500-ton vessels, Dunkerque and Strasbourg. The German boats have been masquerading for more than a year as 10,000-tonners. “The only British ships combining high speed and heavy-calibre guns are the Hood, Renown and Repulse, and the last two will certainly he slower than the new German units. “The submarine programme means that Germany has already provided nearly half the tonnage to which she is entitled under the Anglo-Geiman agreement “The 250-tonners are evidently being built in large numbers to provide training facilities for officers who are to man bigger submarines of the future.

“The whole programme will certainly be carried out with unusual speed, because the German shipbuilding and armament-factories' are fully mobilised, and have been working overtime for the past year.