NAVAL EXPANSION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 48, 25 January 1934, Page 7

NAVAL EXPANSION

UNITED STATES POLICY.

BIG APPROPRIATION VOTE. ... ... BUILDING UP CRUISERS. ... (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received January 25, 9.55 a.m. WASHINGTON, Jan. 24.

An Appropriation Bill carrying 284,747,000 dollars for the navy in the next fiscal year was passed by the House of Representatives and sent to the Senate.

The Vinson Naval Construction Bill, providing for ail expenditure of 38,000,000 dollars, was approved by a unanimous vote of 18 members of the House Naval Committee. Its early passage is predicted. During the hearing Representative Britten charged a group within the Naval Department with attempting to block development of flying-deck cruisers. Admiral Standley replied that such cruisers were experimental. He urged that they first build up the ordinary cruiser strength. FREE HAND CLAIMED. AMERICA AND JAPAN. LONDON, Jan. 24. Emphasising the weakness ,of Brittain’s naval forces in the Pacific and Far East, the Daily Telegraph in a leader, recalls that both the United States and Japan have claimed a free hand after the expiry of the Washington Treaty, which reduced the British Navy to a one-power standard. It adds: “The forward naval policy of America and Japan need not be injurious to the interests of the British Empire, but it is clear that the time has come for careful reconsideration of what is essential at Singapore to Imperial defence.”