NAVAL AIR FORCE

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19213, 20 January 1928, Page 9

N A VAL AIR FORCE

AMERICA'S HUGE PROGRAMME.

TIMES THAT OF ANY OTHER POWBB. January !»• *** :. new yor k . J« n «y "•, 1„ *»ra that Congress will be asked i™& t0 purcfaase a » Z 300 new aeroplanes if the programme i. in advices from the Navy Acwrdttg be more than VeSrt aircraft strength of doaW ? * l&ttte fleet. In addition, if America's battlenee mm6j Conff<a . "SSSeI will have to be *•' Ef approximately 30,000 ißcre T Se-tbird of the present gtrengtu. t , rfeat i ncre ase S fSTavai official on the basis S«omBBuMfo»» made by MrWJ f^AiTnroeramme are: 25 cruisers, \ ™ SSSnal 10,750 men and 100 «*„ fi'submarines and 2528 men, t* aircraft carriers with 8000 men £3 200 Planes, nine destroyer leaders Tilflral men and nine planes. T the additional planes are author•*l the United States will have a *& fighting Plane strength four ?w as ereat as either Britain, S : 'sft»cß, and Italy. No menSi of tl> 6 P ,anes Pe rsounel 1S yet "$ the tearing by the Naval Affairs r-tmittee naval officers estimated SrßSmate total cost of the addiSJrpluw at 5,400,000 dollars, basfoe their figures on an individual cost .I*lßooo dollars. Tt i said the Navy Department does M t contemplate any increase in lighter air craft.

)T HE ADMIRALTY STAFF. SELECT COMMITTEE'S CRITICISM. ,jcn«u« *M> s - z - CABLB association.) January 19th,8.15 p.m.) ,\ , LONDON, January 19. Sir Charlea Madden told an Utoce at the United Service Institnljon that he was naturally surprised k learn of the Select Committee's enmity' because he read of it then for tie tart time. „■'... . "I thought that as I was chief ot itifll might have been consulted." '[A> Parliamentary Select Committee Vthe Estimates reported recently that jmhstantial reductions in the Admiri{tty atafl touia be made without impairing the Navy's efficiency. The committee pointed out that while the personnel at the Navy had decreased from 151,00p in 1914 to 102,275, and the number ot ships in commission or reserve ftom 619 to 394, the Admiralty staff had increased from 1900 to 3026.] BEVEUTHP BY ADMIRAL HUGHES.

fir smi-tniM association—copibight.) (iviruuur iKS- k.z casus association.)

[ WASHINGTON, January' 18. L AdmWHughes testified further, be-. Uv/fft tie House Naval Committee. He that he" was trying to, perform Kljijjiatriotie duty, when he based the Ifwtl programme submitted, to' Con\jnsi on the'navy which Britain would tifcin 1936, when the proposed profjuime would be completed, /jlembers of the committee insisted tt<t the large programme grew from ttMllnrp o'f the Geneva Conference. declared that 90 '!(} «ent." of the people of the United Jtie« t< l>elisved this. fAdmirsl-Hughes replied: "I am one Jfte other 10 per cent." Vinson elicited the fact 'hat the wposed programme would give the jFaited States a larger tonnage than wold have been permitted had the JMMge limitation proposed by the united States at Geneva been accepted, Vinson said: "The failure at the fleaeva? Conference necessarily means a Wpwune of this magnitude then?" Hughes replied: "Yes, if I Wept your point of view." P ' .