FRENCH NAVY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23224, 19 December 1938, Page 11

FRENCH NAVY

1939 ESTIMATES SUM OF £45,000,000 HIGH DEFENCE COSTS ARMY AND AIR FOKCE By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received December 38, 7.5 p.m.) PATHS, Dec. 17 The French Navy Estimates for 1939 total £45,000,000, an increase of 57 per cent, compared with 1938. Extensive additions are planned to coastal defences, naval bases and arsenals.

Part of the increased expenditure i-3 necessary to catch up the time lost during the enforcement of the 40-hour week in the dockyards, which it is estimated set back the programme eight months.

The aim is that the complete construction of all vessels on the stocks shall be concluded before January, 1943.

The naval aircraft Estimates havo been increased 19 per cent. _ The Chamber of Deputies, which is discussing the Budget, approved of the following allocations: —To the War Ministry, 5,795,227,415 francs; to the Air Ministry, 2,674,172,567 francs; Naval Ministry, 2,321,6*18,649 francs, says the Independent Cable Service. GREAT CANAL PLAN NEGOTIATIONS PROCEEDING WATERWAY THROUGH FRANCE ATLANTIC TO MEDITERRANEAN PARIS, Dec. 10 It is reported that negotiations are being concluded by French, British and Dutch interests for the construction of a canal for ocean-going vessels to link up the Atlantic with the Mediterranean, at a cost of £90,000,000. The project chiefly consists of deepening the existing water routes between Bordeaux, on the Garonne, and La Nouvelle, on the Mediterranean, just north of the Spanish frontier. It would be important strategically, as it would enable the British and French fleets to have easier communication at possibly threatened points. At present destroyers alone are able to use the existing waterways. Moreover, the canal would be a commercial highway similar to the Suez and the Panama. The work would occupy three years and probably would be finished in 1942. DEFENCE OF BELGIUM GRANT FOR AIR FORCE BRUSSELS, Dec. 16 The Belgian Cabjnet has approved an expenditure of £4,286,000 for active and passive aerial defence.