HUGE CONTRACTS FOR NEW WARSHIPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 215, 10 September 1940, Page 8

HUGE CONTRACTS FOR NEW WARSHIPS.

US. PROGRAMME. Building Expected To Take Five Years. C'nllffl I'r.-K* Association.—Cc.pyrijrlit. (Heed. 1.30 p.m.) XKW YORK, Sept. !). The navy lias awarded contracts for 201 warships, costing 3,861,000,000 dollars, says a message from Washington. It is estimated that they will require live years to complete. Simultaneously it is revealed that flna' negotiations have been reached toward the acquisition of 2400 aeroplanes, worth lflS,000.00«> dollars. To-dayV naval contracts will increa.m the present authorised tonnage by 7f per cent, including seven battleship* eight aircraft-carriers, 27 cruisers, 11a destroyers, and 43 submarines. The House of Representatives passed unanimously the 23,680,000-dollar drvdock bill, authorising a 10,001>,000-dollar dock at Xew York and a 7,500,000-dollar dock in the Panama Canal area, and an improvement in the Boston dry dock. President Roosevelt has signed the r>00,000,000-dolW defence bill. A message from Honolulu says the United States Battle Fleet has left Kahaina Roads for five days' manoeuvres in the presence of Colonel Frank Knox, American Secretary of the Navy.