NEW BATTLESHIPS.

Wairarapa Age, 31 July 1936, Page 5

NEW BATTLESHIPS.

TWO ORDERED BY BRITAIN. KEELS TO BE LAID EARLY NEXT YEAR. RUGBY, July 29. In the House of Commons to-day the First Lord of the Admiralty announced that it had been decided to give orders for two new battleships of the 1936 programme to Vickers-Armstrongs, Ltd., on the Tyne, and to Cammel, Laird, and Co., Ltd., fit Birkenhead. Arrangements for laying down these ships were being made in full accord- , ance with the declared policy of the Government to press on with the naval replacement and new construction programme with all possible speed. It was intended that the keels should be laid at the earliest moment permitted by the Washington Naval Treaty, namely, in January, 1937. Sir Samuel Hoare added, with regard to an inquiry made by the Minister for Co-ordination of Defence into the vulnerability of capital ships, that he had received an advance copy of a draft report from which it appeared that the designs of battleships would not be be affected by the recommendations.

UNITED STATES ALSO. AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT. (Received Thursday, 7.35 p.m.) WASHINGTON, July 29. The announcement that Britain will lay the keels of two new battleships drew an intimation from the ActingSecretary of the Navy, Mr. Standley, that the United States would build two ships similarly of 35,000 tons. Plans had progressed so far that bids could be called late this year. “We have not built a battleship for fifteen years," he said, * 'and naturally there will be changes in armour, speed and other details."