FRENCH NAVAL PLANS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 338, 20 January 1937, Page 7

FRENCH NAVAL PLANS

! France is to spend £1*2,310,000 on [ next year’s naval building programme. • This was revealed in the Budget pro- | posals lor 1937, copies ot which wtru ■ distributed in the Chamber to-day. ’ The 1936 and preceding naval pro- ■ grammes had for their objects the t building of four new battleships to be • ready for sea by 1940 and three other I battleships of the Bretagn type. ! The 1937 programme, it is announced, j will consist of: ; 1 cruiser of 8000 tons, i 2 torpedo boats of the Hardi class, i 4 light torpedo boats, and I 5 submarines. ■ The submarines will represent a ton- : wage equivalent to that provided lor ' in. the 1922 programme. In addition there will be built 26 I auxiliary craft of a tbtal tonnage of ’ about 15,000. They will consist of j scouts, minesweepers, suppl\ and repair ! chips, destined to protect naval poits j and merchant shipping and to assist .'the seaplane service in coast de!erne, j A 4600-ton oil tanker will also he i built. n/w-M j France is, further, to spend 11’.fK.0.- ! 000 on new landing grounds. i -