NAVAL AFFAIRS.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 14727, 4 August 1921, Page 5

NAVAL AFFAIRS.

BRITISH ESTIMATES.

FOUR CAPITAL SHIPS. (A. and N.Z. Cable). (Received 11.5 a.m.)

LONDON, August 3. Colonel,L. G. M.S.Amery. Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty, in the House of Commons'when, submitting naval estimates, including provision for four capital ships, said that the latter were not a sign of competition or a challenge, but simply the replacement of obsolete ships! A few hours of actual fighting in the late war had sufficed to revolutionise ideas as to the necessary type of battleship. The other Powers were not slow to make use of

that experience. There Were at present under construction whole battle fleets of a type incomparably more powerful than any afloat at the battle of Jutland.

Japan would have eight completed by 1925, and eight more completed by 1928, while the United States would have 12 of these engines of war, each of over 43,000 tons, completed by 1925. The construction of four ships could not, under any circumstances, be regarded as provocative. On the contrary, the Admiralty might be open to the charge of allowing the navy to fall below the standard of other Powers. This was a risk only justified by the general financial situation, and the desirability 61 avoiding any_step of inviting competiton in armaments on the eve of a conference whose object was. to avoid competition. (Cheers). In the matter of design, we were not trying to steal a march on the otner Powers, but only bringing ourselves up-to-date with modern developments. The new ships would be battle-cruiser? of the Hood. type, but improved in regard to armaments and protection in.the light of war experience. .