BID FOR POWER

Taranaki Daily News, 3 May 1935, Page 5

BID FOR POWER

GERMANY’S WARSHIPS 18 MONTHS’ PREPARATIONS . “SHOPS AT FULL BLAST” STRENGTH OF CRUISERS PROBABLE BRITISH NEED By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 11.30 p.m. London, May 2. “Information not yet available to the public confirms the reality of the German bid for sea power,” says Mr. Hector Bywater, the Daily Telegraph’s naval correspondent. “At least 18 months active preparation in drawing office, shipyard, steel works and gun factory pre- ■ ceded the official avowal of the new programme. “The eleven German capital ships and cruisers built sijice 1929 all have, a greater cruising radius than any British man-of-war. It is known that the ordnance shops at Essen and Dusseldorf are working at full blast and that a 'heavy armourplate factory is on overtime,. This activity is not explained by the programme of 12 small submarines. Germany can build in secrecy and will probably do so. “While there is no immediate perturbation at London about U-boats, . the cruiser position is regarded as serious. Already there are six German cruisers more heavily gunned than the new British ships of the Leander and Arethusa type and individually superior to. any of the 26 older vessels which comprise half the British cruiser strength. Other German cruisers about to be started are equal in gunpower and far Superior in armour protection to any of our 10,000ton county class ships. “In the light of these facts a substantial enlargement in the British naval programme may soon. be inevitable.”