RIVAL NAVIES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 48, 27 February 1911, Page 7

RIVAL NAVIES.

*■ — AUSTRIAN DREADNOUGHTS. VESSELS OF 20,500 TONS. TO BE LAUNCHED THIS YEAR. Bj Telegraph.— Press Association.— Copyriglit, {Received February 27, 9 a.m.) VIENNA, 26th February. Two Austro-Hxmgarian Dreadnoughts, now building, will be launched this year. They will be vessels of 20,500 tons displacement, equipped with turbine engines, and will carry, twelve 12in. guns in -four turrets, tweh'e 6in quickfirers, and many lighter guns. FRENCH MONSTERS. TWO BIG BATTLESHIPS. LONDON, 26th February. The Chamber of Deputies, by 461 votes to 76, authorised the construction) of two 23,500 ton battleships. Admiral do Lapeyrere, Minister for Marine, stated that-the navy programme provided for the construction of a permanent fleet of twenty-eigtft battleships, with an age limit of twenty years. The cost would be 54 millions, and would be epread over ten yeaa's. It is understood that the Austro-Hun-garian Navy Department will lay down the third Dreadnought at Pola next April, and place the order for the fourth Dreadnought with the Stabilimento Tecaiico, of Trieste, during the summer. The whole division should thus be ready in the course of 1914. The total cost of thi6 shipbuilding programme is foreshadowed as approximately £13,730,000 •spread in equal instalments' over the next five years. As the ordinary Estimates will exceed £2,OCO",000, the total estimates for 1911 are expected to; amount to £4,700,000. AMERICAN BEEF TRUST. <»■ MR. HUGHES'S FEARS. By Telegraph.— Press Association.— Copyright. (Received February 27, 10.40 a.m.) MELBOURNE, This Day. The Federal Attorney-General, Mr. Hughes, fears that under the present Constitution the Government will be unable to fight such a colossal financial organisation as the American Beef Trust.