JAPANESE NAVY.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 July 1925, Page 14

JAPANESE NAVY.

' BIG BUILDING SCHEME. ! PROPOSED £32,000,000 VOTE. Tokio, June 8. The Japanese Navy Department is asking for the inclusion in the budget now being prepared, of 320,000,000 yen ( £32,000,000), for replacement construction spread over five years, with the object of providing four 10,000-ton cruisers, 20 large destroyers, 10 submarines and three special service ships. In general, the Cabinet’s policy is not to allow the department to expend a total in excess of the current budget, except for an increase of 20,000,000 yen ( £2,000,000) for school teachers’ salaries. This policy will probably prevent the sanctioning of the War Office’s proposal to send a third division to Korea. The Minister for War advocates the increase in view of the possibilities of trouble in Manchuria. The Foreign Office, however, discounts alarmist views. By the end of May Japan planned to have 17 light cruisers in the water, thus completing her programme for crafts between five ■ and six thousand tons. Many of these cruisers have a guaranteed speed of 32 knots, and all are in the programme laid down prior to the big earthquake of 1923. Work is progressing on four 7190-ton cruisers and on the four 10,000-tonners laid down. Two of the latter have been launched and are being fitted out. With the new ships so well under way, the Navy Department is planning a reorganisation of the personnel. A recent cablegram stated that Japan’s new aircraft-carrier, the Akagi, was of 2'6,900 tons displacement, had a speed of 28 knots and accommodated 28 aeroplanes. She is armed with 10 eight-inch guns, and 16 4.7 inch quick-firing guns. The Akagi is virtually a light battle cruiser as well as an aircraft-carrier, and her hitting power surpasses that of the British, French and American cruisers now being built. In the Akagi, as in the cruiser Furutaka, the Japanese have trumped all their rivals by increasing the ratio of fighting power to tonnage and producing ships capable of delivering heavier blows than larger vessels of other navies. Britain’s largest air-craft-carrier, the Eagle, is 4200 tons smaller, and four knots slower than the Akagi, and she carries only niD.e six-inch and six four-inch guns.