BRITISH NAVY.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19854, 15 February 1930, Page 15

BRITISH NAVY.

CRUISER REDUCTIONS.

PRIME MINISTER EXPLAINS

■untl OI7ICIU WIRILIBg.) RUGBY, February 13. In the House of Commons to-day the Prime Minister (Mr Ramsay Mac Donald). was asked by Mr Stanley Baldwin what were the naval standards in respect of cruisers, and what were the reasons for the variation by which the Admiralty would bo guided at the present time, and which had led to the variation of those standards whicli were enforced by the late Government, and also what was the programme of naval replacement construction which the Government considered necessary to sustain in the approved standard during the next six years. Replying, Mr Mac Donald said that the decision to take the reduced number of 50 cruisers as the minimum required for our needs had been reached by taking into account the measure of security accorded by the signature of the Pact of Paris for the renunciation of war by most of the nations of the world, including all the naval Powers, not only those who were members of the League, but also the United States. With such powerful support for the pact the Government felt justified in looking forward to a period in which armed yonflict need not be expected. .The proposed reduction in the number Of cruisers to 50 was, of course, dependent on the agreement at the Naval Conference and the limitation of projected building programmes by the other Powers, and would be fo£ the period covered by such agreement. The programme of replacement must to a certain extent depend on the nature of the agreements which might be reached at the Naval Conference, and it was not possible to state what they would be.

STRENGTH OF FLEETS.

A COMPARATIVE TABLE. £ HAITI 3H CiTICIAI, WIRELESS.) RUGBY, February 13. The First Lord of the Admiralty (Mr A. V. Alexander) has supplied information requested by members of Parliament comparing the total tonnages of the completed warships of the British Empire, Japan, and the United States in August, 1914, with thoso at the end of last year. The classes of vessels included in tho figures are battleships, cruisers, air-craft-carriers, destroyers, torpedo-boats, and submarines, and tho figures for 1914 are reckoned on.Navy List displacements,' while tho current figures, except for tho battleship category, are estimated on "standard" displacements.

The figures show that in August, 1914, the British Empire's naval tonnage was 2,160,326, which figure by the end of last year had been reduced to 1,201,930 tons; Japan's 1914 total of 522,082 tons has increased to 771,908 tons, and tho United States 1914 total of 848,403 has increased to ' 1,095,992 tons.

The British Empire's total personnel has been reduced over the same period from 151,047 to 106,023, Japan 'a has increased from 50,645 to 85,000, and America's has increased from 67,258 to 114,500.