AMERICAN NAVY

Evening Star, Issue 19782, 4 February 1928, Page 12

AMERICAN NAVY

MR BBiDGEMAH'S COMMENTS (British Official News.) Prcs« Association—By Wireless—Copyright RUGBY, February 2. Mr IV. C. Bridgeraan (First Lord of the Admiralty), in a speech in,which questions were dealt with relating to the American naval programme, said that the United States had a perfect right, subject to the Washington Conference, to build whatever it thought necessary for its own defence. The limit in the size of armaments was another question. “We should carry on with what we think is necessary for the defence of our shores and commerce and let the people of the United States go on with what they think is necessary for themselves. Let us hope that if they build a larger navy it will be as great a factor in the preservation of tiic peace of the world, as. the British Navy has been hitherto;” Referring to the steps taken towards disarmament, he said that “before the war Great Britain bad 700 warships, with a tonnage of 2,690,000, and in November last year she had 390 ships, with a tonnage of 1,424,000. We are prepared to go further when other countries will do tho same.”