NAVAL DEFENCE

Hokitika Guardian, 6 January 1932, Page 6

NAVAL DEFENCE

DIS A R.U A WENT CONFER ENCE. T.HB BRITISH PROGRAMME. (United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Received this day at 9.25 a.m) LONDON, January 5. The “Daily Telegraph’s” naval ourrespondent says that the British piogramme to be laid before the Disarmament Conference, includes tne reduction in size of battleships from 35,000 ton’s to 25,000 tons, and of guns from sixteen inches to 11 or 13.5. No future cruiser to- exceed. SutlO tons, or carry guns larger than 6 inches; also the complete abolition of submarines. Unlike the 1927 Naval Conference these proposals will bo pressed as an essential preliminary to any serious relief of naval armaments. British delegates will not again easily yield to the United States contentions that only the largest ships have a radius of action which America considers essential. The British delegates will argue that the largest American ships have a cruising range inferior to certain small cruisers. The decision to persevere with the British proposals is made, despite the report that instructions had been given to. the American delegates at Geneva during the week-, end, that they must resist at all costs, a cut in the existing tonnage standards of battleships and cruisers.