THE AMERICAN NAVY

Otago Witness, Issue 3853, 17 January 1928, Page 31

THE AMERICAN NAVY

FIVE-YEAR PROGRAMME.

COMPETITION WITH BRITAIN.

WASHINGTON January 12. Mr Wilbur emphatically denies the charges that th e naval programme was designed to compete with Britain. Mr Butler, chairman of the House of Naval Affairs Committee, requested Mr Wilbur to return and tell just what a firstclass navy was. Mr Butler, having criticised the navy as too large, was shocked Oy Mr Wilbur’s statement that it was not first class. Mr Wilbur stated: “We will allocate the expense of the programme at 168,000,000d0l a year, and must build new ships in order to bring the navy up to the necessary strength.” The proposed 20-year building replacement programme, he said ; would cost 3,360,000,000d01, and at the end of this 20-year programme the navy should embark on another 20-year programme to keep the navy up to the required strength, indicating that the basic expenditure would be 168,000,000d0l annually for 20 years. He said the expenditures for the proposed five-year programme in reality would be spread over eight years, os follows:—55,200,OOOdol in 1929; 110,400,000d0l in 1930; 141,100,000d0l in 1931 ; 141,500.000d0l in 1932 ; 139,000 000 dol in 1933 ; 93,000,000 in 1934; 46,800'000 dol in 1935 ; and 10,400,000d0l in 1936. AMERICAN PRESS OPINION. NEW YORK, January 12. With a cartoon entitled “ Big Navy Jingo ” and showing Uncle Sam and John Bull carrying an overgrown individual S fling a sabre and beating a drum, the .York World prints a lengthy leader warning the American Government concerning Mr Wilbur’s proposals. The paper says : —“lt is idle, it is worse than idle, it is profoundly misleading, not to recognise fully that this programme challenges in unmistakable fashion the ancient prerogative of British sea power, and to challenge the British command of the seas is to touch the nerve centre of world affairs. This ig the most momentous question in the whole realm of statesmanship. Ihe problen is fundamentally political, and to leave it to the admirals on both sides of the Atalntic can only lead to disaster.” The New York Times says:—“lt is to be regretted that the United States and Britain could not get together at Geneva. Competition in cruiser building looms ahead, despite the protestations of Mr th n he -J S right when he sa Y s that both President Coolidge and Congiess are opposed to competitive building lhere is reason to believe that Congress ">ll not eomimt the country to an unrestricted building programme.” BUILDING PROGRAMME. WASHINGTON. January 13. .7. . , °JJ se . Affairs Committee cuticised President Coolidge’s failure to set a definite time limit for the com pletion of the building programme. The members of the committee expressed the tear that such a failure would be liable to cause future conflict with the President. In the meantime the Assistantsecretaary to the Navy (Mr Robinson) appeared before the committee and xplained the discrepancy between Mr Wilbur’s first estimate of 3,360,000,000d0l programme and the corrected figure of 2,280.G00,000d0l which Mr Wilbur later issued. Mr Robinson revealed that the Naval General Board had first drafted a programme calling for the first figure. This programme included battleships and additional destroyers, but was discarded oecause it was seen to be unnecessary -,o start battleship and destroyer replace ments at the present time. RECOMMENDATION DEFEATED. WASHINGTON, Januarv 14. The House Naval Affairs Committee overwhelmingly defeated the recommendation of Mr Wilbur that no defipite date be' set for the completion of the administration of the 740,000,000d0l new construction programme, and that the President be empowered to suspend the proposed construction either i n part or whole at any time he might deem advisable. The Republican members of the commit, tee interpreted the action as a positive expression in favour of “ actual iron and steel ’ ships, instead of a possible “ paper

Representative Britten predicts that the five-year programme will eptail appropriations of 740,000,000d01, and that only one change will be made in Mr Wilbur’s suggestions—namely, submarines will be in creased from 32 to 35; other items remaining the same—namelv, 25 cruisers five aircraft carriers, and “nine destrover leareds. J