JAPANESE NAVY

Grey River Argus, 1 July 1925, Page 2

JAPANESE NAVY

BI’ILDiXG SCHEME. I P!i()P()Si:i) C.">2,fi()(),o(i(i VOTE. TOK 10, June 9. The Japanese Xavy Department is asking for the inclusion in the Budget now being prepared, of 32(',OI'().tiCO .•(•n (£32,000,00(1) for replacement conj! ::ut ion s;»read over five years, / ilh j: he object of providing four LUGi!t'Hi cruisers, 20 large destroyers, 10 ii.inn ri nos, ami three* special service ships. I a general, the Cabinet’s policy is '! i! to allow the departments to exin al in cxccm of the curien''|e,e!. except for an increase of 20,0011,000 yen (£2,000,000) for scl:o:)l t oacliers ’ sal.-iries. 'This policy will probal.ily pre\ ‘lit the sanctioning of tin* War proposal to semi a third division <o Korea. The Minister for War advocates the increase in view of the j os--ibililies of trouble in Manchuria, '‘'he foreign ()llice, however, discounts alarmist views. By tilt* (‘nd of May .Japan planned to have 17 light cruisers in the water, thus comjileting her programme tor crafts between five and six thousand [lons. Many of these cruisers have a guaranteed speed of 32 knots, and al! lin the programme laid down prior to I the big (‘arthquakc of l!>2">. Work is I progressing on four 710-ton cruisers and on the four 10,000 tonners laid [down. Two of the latter have been | launched and are being fitted out. I With the new' ships so well under way, I the Navy Department is planning a I reorganisation of the personnel. A i recent cablegram stated that Japan’s I & new aircraft-carrier, the Akagi, was of 20,900 tons displacement, had a speed of 28 knots, anl accommodated 50 aeroplanes. She is armed with 10 eight-inch guns. The Akagi is virtually a light battle cruiser as well as an aircraft-carrier, and her hitting power surpasses that of the British, Even ch, and American cruisers now being built. In the Akagi, as in the cruiser Furutaka, th e Japanese have trumped all their rivals by increasing the radio of lighting power to tonnage and producing ships capable of delivering heavier blows than larger vessels of other navies. Britain’s largest aircraft carrier, the Eagle, is 4200 tons smaller, and four knots slower than the Akagi, and sh G carries only nine six-inch and six four-inch guns. j