GERMAN NAVAL PLANS

Hokitika Guardian, 14 February 1929, Page 2

GERMAN NAVAL PLANS

THE SURPRISE CRUISER. (Received this day at 8 a.m.) LONDON, February 14. The “Times” correspondent at Paris says the French Ministry 'of Marine is watching with intense interest and no little anxiety, the German Govern* ment’s naval plans as revealed in the cruiser recently launched. It is the first of four of the same class. The Reichswehr Minister, Von Groener, recently indicated it was designed to secure Germany’s preponderance in the Baltic, but what the French authorities are asking is, if it is really designed to control the Baltic, why should it be so superior to the necessities. They point out that though displacing only ten thousand tons, the cruiser is enormously superior in gunpower and protection to the conventional type of ten thousand tonner Which it could blow out of the water with immunity to themselves. The radius of action by the German ships enable long operations at all periods of the Mediterranean and farther afield. Wherever they appear, they will enjoy a local superiority against any force which includes a squadron of super-dreadnoughts. The French view is that Germany uses the treaty rights to replace her six obsolete battleships. Competition in naval building is inevitable unless a limitation is secureable by an agreement. The German Government will assure a. heavy responsibility if it starts a new armaments race.