BRITAIN'S NAVAL NEEDS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19062, 26 July 1927, Page 9

BRITAIN'S NAVAL NEEDS.

IMPORTANT CABINET MEETING.

CRUISER QUESTION TO BE DISCUSSED.

(BI CABLE— PRESS ASSOCIATION— COFXRIGHT). (AVSTKALTAX AND K.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received July 25th, 7.20 p.m.) LONDON, July 35. The diplomatic correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph" says: To-day's meeting of Cabinet is momentous. The Ministers will have to make decisions defining the exact limits of British concessions to American and Japanese standpoints at tho naval conference. It may be pointed out that British cruiser squadrons in the Mediterranean had to be gravely depleted m order to provide the cruiser force required in the Pacific in order to cope with Chinese dangers. That is where tho adoption of the 12-12-8 ratio for large cruisers might threaten liritain s naval security and the epz\fSM;nications of the Empire, unless a substantial surplus of small but not necessanjy modern cruisers, is conceded to Britain. Fortunately, the Chinese crisis happened when there was no-danger of war in Europe, otherwise the British Fleet in the middle seas would have been unduly weak. American opinion has failed to realise this.

KING INTERVIEWS MR BRIDGEMAN.-

(ATJSTKAU.VN AXD N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, July 24. The King had an audience with Mr Bridgeman, it is believed, with reference to the Geneva negotiations.