NAVAL SUPREMACY.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 403, 9 April 1937, Page 5

NAVAL SUPREMACY.

Italy’s Mediterranean Claims. Press Association—-jopyrrglit. Rome, April 8. “Britain has been living in Nelson’s glory for the past century,” declares the Tribuna, which claims that Italy is now the predominant naval bower In the Mediterranean. “A new Fascist power has arisen In the Mediterranean and’ means to keep its predominance,” the paper proceeds’. “It would be dangerous to try to fight this, especially for the English, because they must hold their own in all other of the world’s seas. It would be safer and simpler for them to accept and recognise Italy’s preeminence. British hegemony in the Mediterranean is finished.” The Naval Estimates for 1937-38 total £20,000,000, an increase of £2,600,000 over the year, it was reported from Rome recently. An accompanying report drew attention to “entry into activity of the great British base at Singapore and the search by Britain for the most favourable locality for the creation of a naval base in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.” The report also alluded to the “possibilities of strengthening our precarious points of vantage in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean which resulted from the conquest of Abyssinia.”