Ten Cruisers at Least

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 728, 30 July 1929, Page 9

Ten Cruisers at Least

AMERICA’S NAVY PROGRAMME Britten Distrusts Britain (United P.A. — By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and X.Z. Press Association t (United Service) Received 11.13 a.m. WASHINGTON. Monday. THE final outcome of the naval limitation discussions is expected by United States experts to leave at least twothirds of the 15-cruiser programme intact. As they see it, at least ten of the contemplated 10,000-tou vessels will be built under any arrangement reached in carrying out an agreement between the United States and Britain, on a principle of absolute equality in the fighting strength of their navies, with all kinds of craft considered. ,

Tile chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee of the House of Represen-

he was sure no one would say America w r as yet in agreement with Britain on naval matters. On the contrary, they were very far from it. Britain had no intention of building the cruisers, the construction of which had been suspended. “As at the Washington Conference,” said Mr. Britten, “we are the goat, and British diplomacy is laughing up its sleeve.” Commenting a few days ago upon Mr. MacDonald’s statement of naval policy in the House of Commons. Mr. Britten remarked: —“If Mr. MacDonald really wants naval equality with the United States let him tell the world that, from now on, Britain will stop building cruisers; and if Mr. Hoover wants equality, the. surest way for him to get it is to keep on building cruisers.” GOOD PROGRESS MADE FURTHER CONFERENCE HELD AT LONDON British Official Wireless Reed. 11 a.m. RUGBY, Monday. A further conference was held at No. 10 Downing Street today, between the Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, and the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. A. V. Alexander, on the one hand, and Mr. C. G. Dawes, United States Ambassador to Britain, and Mr. Hugh Gibson, on the other hand. It is understood that substantial progress was made toward a naval agreement.

tatives, Mr. F. A. Britten, left New York yesterday for Europe. Interviewed prior to his departure, Mr. Britten said the two British cruisers, the construction of which the Prime Minister, Mr. MacDonald, had ordered to he suspended, were merely mythical ships intended by far-sighted British diplomacy only for trading purposes. America had “grabbed the bait.” Mr. Britten insisted that President Hoover had no right to suspend cruiser construction in the United States in the present circumstances. He said