Tentative Programme of Cruisers and Smaller Craft Tokio, July 4.
A tentative naval programme which is expected to be completed ju 1928 and which is supplementary to vessels completed, building and contracted for, has been given out by the Navy Department. It includes four 10,000-ton and four 7,100-ton cruisers, 24 destroyers, totalling 33,600 tons, and 22 submarines, totalling 28,166 tons.
Compared with the former programme this is a reduction of one cruiser, 13 destroyers and 24 submarines or 13,305 tons.
The announcement of the programme is accompanied by a statement by the Minister of the Navy that Japan has every intention of abiding by her engagements at Washington and that her plans prove that the reports that she is contemplating an expansion of her auxiliary fleet are ill-founded and untrue.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.