DOMINION NAVIES

Evening Star, Issue 25170, 9 May 1944, Page 5

DOMINION NAVIES

STRONGEST IN HISTORY CANADA RANKS THIRD IN UNITED NATIONS (Rec. 12.20 p.m.) NEW YORK, May 8. The approaching climax of the Luropean Avar and the accelerated pace ot Pacific operations find the dominion navies the strongest in history, says the Associated Press. They have grown from less than 100 ships. and 15,000 men before the war to approximately 1.000 vessels with 118,000 men. Australia and Canada now build destroyers, and Canada, with about 80.000 men and 700 ships, now rates third among the United Nations' navies. The Australian Navy now has over .25,000 men, compared to the ipre-war figure of 5,170. New Zealand's naval men have increased more than 10 times to about 7,200. The Indian Navy has also increased its staff tenfold, and South Africa, starting from scratch before the war. now has over 6,000 volunteers. Australia, despite heavy losses in the first three years of-war, when half its pre-war fleet of 14 warships was lost in action, now has four cruisers, perhaps a dozen destroyers, 16 or more corvettes, several armed merchantmen, and sloops and smaller vessels.