NAVAL BUILDING

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18598, 8 January 1935, Page 5

NAVAL BUILDING

NEW YEAR ORDERS

LARGEST FOR YEARS

LONDON, Dec. 15.

Fifty new vessels for the British Navy will .he under construction early in the new year, the aggregate tonnage, including that of auxiliary craft, being 150,bW. This will be a heavier tonnage than any put in hand for any one time for eightv years. The unusual (activity of the shipyards is the consequence of overlapping of naval programmes due to past delays tor reasons of economy. In addition to one 9000-ton cruiser of the latest, design, one 5200-ton ■ cruiser, and several sloops ancl submarines, which are to be laid down in the Royal Dockyards, liie following vessels will be built under contract: — Cruisers: 10,000-ton class, 4; 7000lon class, 2; 5200-lon class, 2. Flotilla leaders and destroyers : 22. Aircraft carrier, more than 10,000 tons : 1.

Sloops: 5. Depot Ships: 1. Submarines: 6. .Apart, from this belated effort- to overtake arrears of construction, it ts an open secret at Westminster that the naval estimates in the spring will show a considerable increase, and provide, for additiolnal building. The Admiralty will press for 20 new cruisers to bring the .effective cruiser strength of the Navy up to 70 of modern type, hut it is doubt fill whether the Government will he willing lo iuiaiice so ambitious a project unless its efforts to arrive at an understanding with Japan and the United Siates prove to he abortive. It is obvious from the dejected tone of the London conversations that such an understanding is a remote possibility. A provisional building programme to meet the situation is therefore expected to he covered by the forthcoming estimates.