Although bidding for the new battleship contracts is expected to be very keen, reports from the North indicate that the firms mest likely to be successful are those which suffered through the cancelling of the four battle cruisers a year ago, says the "Naval and Military Record."
According to one forecast, John Brown & Ca., of Clydebank, will secure the hull and machinery of the first ship, while the Tyneside firm of Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson will build the second vessel, the machinery being supplied by the Parsons Steam Turbine Ca. Events may, however, falsify this anticipation. The armament contracts will furnish work for several concerns, and Woolwich Arsenal, Elswick, and Sheffield all hope to benefit therefrom. Besides the hull, machinery, and armament, each ship will require innumerable items of equipment, the manufacture of which will give employment to a large number of people in many parts of the country.
As a general rule, 70 per cent. of the total cost of a modern warship is paid out in wages, and since it was estimated by the Admiralty last July that the two new battleships at prevailing prices would cost £6,500,000 apiece, or, including all accessories, reserves, stores, etc., afloat and ashore, something like £8,000,000 apiece, the wage-earning community should benefit within the next three years to the tune of £11,000,000 or thereabouts. Eight million sterling is, of course, a big price to pay for a single ship of 35,000 tons, especially og the Hood, which is heavier by 6,000 tons, cost two million less—£6,025,- 000 to be exact, which works out at £145 per ton. very largely from the exchange troubles that developed durin, the war," Mr. Walter H. Rastall, chief of the Industrial Machinery Division, said. Conditions in the Orient are much nearer to what might be called normal than are those in Europe."
Mr. F. R. Eldredge, of the Far Eastern Division, advised taking advantage of the new China Trade {Act which exempts American trading companies in- China from American income taxation.
"China is still in its infancy commercially,") he said; "We have built up there a tremendous store of good will which will be of great advantage to our business men.""—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.