FRENCH NAVY.

Grey River Argus, 10 December 1928, Page 5

FRENCH NAVY.

OVER TWO MILLIONS. Increase in Estimates. (Times Cable.> (Received December 9 at 8 p.m.) LONDON, December 8. “The Times’s’’ Paris correspondent states that the navy estimates, which the Chamber passed almost without discussion, show an increase of nearly £2,252,000, of which new ships account for nearly one million. Coast defence, harbours and arsenals also show an increase. The Government points out that the defence of Corsica and Tunisia is notoriously inadequate; the existing harbours are inadequate, for the new large ships, the arsenals require modernising. France does not intend to build the new battleship to which she is entitled under the Washington Treaty. Perhaps she is influenced by Italy’s decision not to exercise a similar right. France, in order to attain tho present programme, must eventually lay down 90.000 tons of light surface ships, and 40,000 tons of submarines.