RUSSIA'S NAVY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 73, 29 March 1910, Page 7

RUSSIA'S NAVY.

A SHIPBUILDING PROGRAMME. Bj Telegraph. — Pren A isoctation.— Copyright. ST. PETERSBURG, 28th March. The Government is introducing in the Duma a shipbuilding programme extending over ten years, totalling £75,000,000. The Duma will be asked to vote ihe first annual instalment. Last month the newspaper Russ stated that the Tsar liaH sanctioned the expenditure of a hundred million pounds sterling on a naval scheme. The vessels, it is said, would consist chiefly of Dreadnoughts. A St. Petersburg correspondent remarked that the Duma's early consent to the scheme was improbable, owim* to dissatisfaction with the naval administration. He added that as the Russian yards were overtaxed the new Dreadnoughts would have to be built abroad. Tho proceedings of the Dumn Committee on the Naval Estimates, published 011 31st December, showed that the Admiralty, unlike the War Office, was 3till in a disorganised condition. The committee noted tho delay in the construction of the four Dreadnoughts by Rufixian yards with Russian material, which was undertaken in order to convince public opinion that the Admiralty were able to cope with such an undertaking. Two-thirds of the ship-build-ing grant of 22 million roubles. (£2,200,000), which was sanctioned without the Duma's assent, had been already expended on the equipment of tho yards and the purchase of material, but the actual work on a half of it during tho year had been nil. Even the designs were not all settled. The Goveminent Izhora Works, which were to supply the armour within two years, found it impossible to deliver the turret« and plates for tc-u jears. In these circumstances, the Duma, it wa» belic\ed, would certainly rcfube further credits for shipbuilding.