AUSTRALASIAN SQUADRON.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1458, 5 June 1912, Page 7

AUSTRALASIAN SQUADRON.

.—» DISPERSAL OF PRESENT FORCE. By Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright. Sydney, Juno 4. H'.M.S. Challenger has been ordered to' England, and will sail on Juno 2G. She takes a large number of Australian Mamen for the Australian cruisers. It is announced that tho cruisers Prometheus and Pegasus will not return to Sydney from China. The Cambrian, now in Chinese waters, returns, but the date is uncertain.

. The Australian Fleet unit to he completed by the-end pf the year, will replace the present Australasian Squadrcn. It will consist of an armoured cruiser, the Australia, under construction in Britain, three protected cruisers of the "Bristol" type named respectively Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, sis torpedo-beat destre'yers, and three submarines. The shipbuilding yards o£ the Mother Country will have the respensibility for two of the protected cruisers, but the Brisbane will be constructed at the dockyard ol the Now South Wales Government largely from materials shipped frem England. The policy of fostering naval shipbuilding in Australia is also bein» pursued in respect of tho torpedo-boat destroyers. Three pf those small craft provided for are already afloat. The Parrainatta and the Yarra went out from Britain with nucleus crews lately, whilst the Warrejo *is the first of the three destroyers to be built at Sydney from sections sent from Home contractors. When the large warships of the Fleet unit are taken to. Australian waters there will be, no rtpubt, among their crews those natives of the Commonwealth who are now serving in tho Royal , Navy for tho purposes of the training to be obtained, for it is understood that in manning the new warslrps preference is to be given to Australian-, bprn sailors. :