THE FRENCH NAVY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18205, 28 September 1933, Page 3

THE FRENCH NAVY

MINISTER’S CLAIM ANOTHER RECORD BROKEN “EQUAL TO U.S., BRITAIN AND JAPAN” PARIS, August lb. That the French navy is equal, it not superior in strength to the British, American and Japanese, navies was one of the statements made by M. Leygues, France’s Minister of Marino at a banquet here. He said:—-“-Whether it is a question of tor-pedo-boats, destroyers, submarines, light cruisers, or heavy cruisers, wo have vessels equal, if not superior, to those of the United States, Great Britain and Japan. “As for battle-cruisers, we shall soon have the Dunkerque, which foreign Admiralties now consider the most powerful of capital ships. Hoc speed of 33 knots, her armament of 305 mm (about 12in), and her 330 mm (about 13in.) guns will truly make her the Lord of the High Seas.” M. Lebrun, President of the French Republic, when.opening the new dock at Cherbourg, declared that Franco’s reconstructed navy was, thanks to the happy initiative of the Minister of Marine, well worthy of assuring the safety of the French coast, the liberty ,of her maritime communications, and the defences of the vast colonial domains.

4 4 MARITIME SPIRIT ’ ’ RESTORED. M. Joan la Veyric, writing in “L’lntransigeant” to-night, describes how France has regained her “maritime spirit” of olden times. His headings are: “An historical revival. In 1933 the French navy has regained the honorable rank which it occupied hoforo the war.”

“The French navy,” lie 'declares, “which was mutilated, disintegrated, and diminished by the war, is to-day almost completely renewed, approximately satisfies our present and future requirements, and cuts a line figure on the seas.

4 ‘What a great distance has been covered in a decade! P he goes on. “Nearly 50 units of all types have been successively put on the stocks. In spite of tho fall in the franc and the economic crisis, in spite of everything, the reconstruction of our naval materials has been accomplished, patiently and stage by stage.

SHIPS ARE NEW. “And, apart from, our battleships, which have almost reached the ago limit, and the replacement of which would cost a go,od number of milliards {of francs), our ships are now, their grouping is homogeneous, and their speed and armament are at least equal to what is constructed elsewhere.

“Lot us add that the construction Of the Dunkerque, that aco which, for the moment, will continue alone the lineage of cruisers, marks our intention of not allowing the position xvo have rogained to bo superseded- ” Tiiis article is merely ono in a series of articles and speeches composed during the last few weeks in praise of the French navy. It is not merely by chance that all these statements are being made, but part of a regular policy.