NAVAL EXPENDITURE

Evening Star, Issue 22327, 1 May 1936, Page 9

NAVAL EXPENDITURE

BRITISH SUPPLEMENTARY ESTIMATE

EQUIPMENT AND RESERVES FOR DEFENCE Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, April 30. (Received May 1, at 10.5 a.m.) A supplementary naval estimate of £10,300,000 provides (commencing with the 1936 construction programme) for additional expenditure on the equipment and reserves for defence outlined in the White Paper of March 3. The estimate for the work on the Singapore base is increased from £8,693,000 to £10,661,000. The 1936 programme comprises 38 vessels and a number of smaller units, including five cruisers, nine destroyers, one aircraft carrier, and four submarines. The supply of anti-aircraft guns on existing ships is being accelerated. Also included in the supplementary estimate is a further £2,000,000 for special naval measures in the Abyssinian dispute.

JAPAN’S PLANS

FORTIFICATION OF PACIFIC ISLANDS. LONDON, April 30. (Received May 1, at 11 a.m.) A ‘ Sun-Herald ’ service message says that the Japanese Parliament is expected immediately to provide finances for fortification of key points in the Pacific islands in readiness for termination of the Washington Treaty. The Emperor has convened an extraordinary session of Parliament for May 4 under martial law conditions. It is expected that tbo proceedings will be unusually important, particularly in connection with the army and the navy expansionist programmes. The navy’s 1936-37 budget will probably exceed £35,000,000, continuing to increase annually owing to capital ship replacements, independent armament plans, modernisation of naval armaments on a basis of non-treaty relations, and modernisation of the naval air arm.

THE TREATY AND OUTSIDE POWERS (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 30. (Received May 1, at 1 p.m.) After the Naval Treaty was signed in London on March 25 copies of the agreement were communicated to other naval Powers, both members and nonmembers of the League of Nations, and the British Government undertook to enter into conversations with any of the other naval Powers with a view to securing wider application of the principles embodied in the treaty. The Russian Ambassador in London informed the Foreign Secretary of the willingness of his Government to enter into such discussions, and it is understood that the Russian naval attache, who has been absent from London, will shortly bo returning with his Government’s instructions to begin an exchange of views.