BRITTEN AND BRITAIN

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 584, 9 February 1929, Page 9

BRITTEN AND BRITAIN

BITTER ATTACK ON PRESS FEELING OVER CRUISER BILL (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) Reed. 1.4 G p.m. WASHINGTON, Fri. Word from London that the British cruiser construction programme will probably be carried out as scheduled was followed here today by a denunciation of the British Press by the Chairman of the Naval Committee of the House of Representatives, Mr. F. A. Britten. ll© accuses the British Press of the circulation of false reports at the time when Congress was considering America’s 15-cruiser Bill. “During the past six years,” he goes on, "whenever Congress has been considering Navy increases, it has been customary for the British Press tc broadcast the intention of Britain to slow up her building programme. These announcements have been taken seriously by pacifists and European patriots.”

BUILDING NEW CRUISERS

TWO FOR THIS YEAR (Australian and N.Z. Press AssociationJ (United Service) LONDON, Friday. The First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. W. C. Bridgeman, in a written answer to questions in the House of Commons, states that the provision in the naval estimates is based on the ordering of two new cruisers in February and March. Arrangements for these are proceeding. One cruiser- will be allocated to Portsmouth Dockyard, one cruiser and two sloops to Devonport, one submarine and one depot ship to Chatham and the remaining ships built by contract. This answer is interpreted in some quarters as disposing of the report that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Winston Churchill, has secured the dropping of the cruisers in the interests of economy. On the other hand it is thought that though preliminary arrangements have been made for ordering the cruisers the Government may yet decide not to build them at prsent.