HIT-AND-RUN FLEET

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 88, 14 April 1938, Page 7

HIT-AND-RUN FLEET

JAPANESE WARSHIPS

Construction Under Way STARTLING DISCLOSURE CRUISERS UNMATCHED IN SPEED

[By Telegraph—Pleas Association—Copyright] Received April 13, 6.5 p.m. WASHINGTON, April 12. The Navy Department has learned that Japan is constructing a powerful hit-and-run fleet of super cruisers unmatched in speed, mobility and striking power. Three ships of 16,000 to 18,000 tons are being constructed armed with eight or nine twelveinch guns and with a speed of forty knots. In addition, she is constructing three «,000-ton dreadnoughts, five aircraft carriers, forty-three destroyers, seven light cruisers and eight submarines—a total of sixty-six fighting vessels against Mr. Roosevelt's planned forty-six.

MYSTERIOUS VESSELS JAPANESE DESTROYERS? APPEARANCE IN PHILIPPINES. Received April 13, 10.45 p.m. NEW YORK, April 13. The Manila correspondent of the United Press has reported that part of the United States Asiatic Fleet at present manoeuvring in the China Sea may be ordered to Davao to investigate the presence of 22 mysterious vessels resembling Japanese destroyers. The Customs collector at Davao said that the flotilla, either destroyers or submarines, did not display their colours and repeatedly ignored a wireless identification request.