A RED FLEET.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 133, 7 June 1926, Page 7

A RED FLEET.

RUSSIAN SQUADRON ON MOVE. 1 A ROUND OP VISITS. BRITAIN IN THE BALTIC. ( Bt Ca :, le. — Press Association.—Copyright.) Received 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, June 6. The Kiga correspondent oi" the "Times'' reports that Moscow announces that a "Red" squadron I consisting of a battleship, two | cruisers and some destroyers will make • _ voyage round the world this summer, visiting Stettin, Portsmouth, Toulon, Genoa, Alexandria, Calcutta, Nagasaki, San Francisco and Panama. The fleet has begun its exercises in the Baltic. A special order emphasises the point that the chief object of the manoeuvres consists of testing the defences of Lenigrad approaches, and calls special attention to the co-ordination of fleet, air and coast defences. The commander-in-chief, M. Zoff, in urging the reinforcement of the Red navy, emphasises the fact that Britain la able to penetrate the Baltic and creep np to Kronstadt. He recalls the action of the great Powers in 1923, when they refused consent to the bottling up of the Baltic for the Baltic powers, and adds, "British naval visits to the Baltic are certainly atrtrressive. She is trying to utilise the Baltic States in order to strengthen her influence against Russia." — ("Times.")