NAVY SAVES MILLION

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 300, 10 March 1928, Page 1

NAVY SAVES MILLION

Long Period of Peace Expected

WARSHIP ACTIVITIES ABROAD

By Cable.—Press Association. — Copyright. Received 9.5 a.m. LONDON, Friday. rE Navy Estimates total £57,300,000, which is £700,000 less than the original estimate, and £1,150,000 less than the figure as amended by the supplementary estimate which has now been found necessary.

r PHE First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. W. C. Bridgeman, in a memorandum points out that the continued placidity of the general navy situation has been constantly in mind in the preparation of the estimates. Many important services have been either deferred or provided for at a leisurely rate, which the expectation of a prolonged period of peace alone warrants. The reduction of two and one cruisers respectively in the 1928 and 1929 programmes meant an economy of £1,170,000. Expenditure at Singapore has been limited to preliminaries and also the preparations for the floating dock which will arrive in November and be ready for use in four months. According to a British official wireless message some of the newspapers say they anticipate that a total decrease of £13,000,000 in the expenditure of the defence services, civil services, customs and excise and the Home Office (which totals about £407,000,000) will be disclosed. The prospective cuts of ££.00,000 in the Army and £700,000 in the Navy Estimates, coupled with £12,000,000 in the civil services will give the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Churchill, a prospect of taking about £13,000,000 off the Budget departmental commitments, where savings on sinking fund may swell the cuts to £270,000,000. — A. and N.Z.

vided for the commencing of the construction of two cruisers, one submarine depot ship, one flotilla •leader, eight destroyers, six submarines, one river gunboat, and four sloops..—A. and N.Z. ' .

The Glorious, with the Courageous, served as a cruiser with the Grand Fleet during the last, years of the war. Both were “freak” ships in that they were too lightly built to serve with the battlecruisers, although they were similarly armed and powered. After the war it was decided to convert both of them for aircraft-carrying purposes. A feature of these ships, as originally built, was the single enormous funnel in which, it was said, there was room for two trams to pass if laid on its side.

BUILDING PROGRAMME NEW AIRCRAFT CARRIER SUPPRESSION OF PIRACY British Wireless—Press Assn.—Copyright Reed. 11.15 a.m. RUGBY, Friday. In a statement explanatory of the Naval Estimates for the coming year, the First Lord of the Admiralty says, that the provision for new construction is £9,600,000, which is less than the figure for the current year under this head. But for the reduction of the cruiser programme it would have been exceeded by nearly £1,000,000. Provision for the fleet air arm is increased by £198,000 owing to the formation, in the coming year, of two new flights of aircraft for training purposes, in anticipation of the completion of the aircraft carrier, Glorious. Referring to fleet activities abroad Mr. Bridgeman says that, during the past year, the situation in China, from a naval viewpoint, has become less exacting. With the arrival of the Shanghai Defence Force the need for large cruiser reinforcements disappeared, and these have now been withdrawn to their respective stations. Unfortunately, the prevalence of piracy both on the high seas and in the inland waterways of China has continued. Direct intervention by the navy was possible in one recent case on the high seas, and this has been followed by a remarkable cessation of trouble in this sphere. The new programme for 1928 pro-