BRITAIN’S NAVAL PROGRAMME

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 85, 9 January 1928, Page 8

BRITAIN’S NAVAL PROGRAMME

HELP TO SHIPBUILDERS COST OF £58,000,000 Dominion Special Service. London, November 10, 1927. Much interest has been aroused by the announcement that the Admiralty will be placing orders for no fewer than eighteen new ships before the close of the financial year. This does not, however, represent any addition to the naval shipbuilding programme to which the country is already committed. ■ Over two years ago, Parliament approved a scheme of naval construction designed to cover requirements from 1925-26 to *1929-30 inclusive. It provided for a total of 80 units, which were to be laid down at the rate of nine in 1925, fifteen in 1926, eighteen in 1927, eighteen in 1928, and twenty in 1929. There are nine cruisers of the 10,000-ton class, seven cruisers of 8000 tons, one aircraftcarrier, 27 destroyers, 24 submarines, five gunboats, two mine-sweeping sloops, two submarine depot ships, one netlaying ship, one repair ship, and one floating dock (for Singapore). The cost of the above programme was estimated at £58,000,000. All the vessels listed for commencement in 1925 and 1926 have been duly started, and the eighteen ships authorised for this year will soon be ordered unless the Admiralty have changed their plans, which is very doubtful. Of the *lB new vessels provided for in the current Navy . Estimates, all save three or four will be built by'contract—that is,- in private shipyards. Moreover, the whole of the machinery, all the armour-plate, and most of the armament and equipment will have to be manufactured in- nonGovernment establishments. The placing of the contracts will thus be an event of great industrial importance. So far as can be gathered, one of the big cruisers will be built at Devouport dockyard, and Chatham also hopes to secure a cruiser, ns well as one or two submarines. Even so, the shipbuilding firms will have a chance to tender for at least one cruiser, nine destroyers, and four submarines. The bulk of Jhe work is expected to go to lyneside, Barrow, and the Clyde, though Sheffield and the other steej centres will benefit to a considerable extent.