Paris, June 9.
M. Denise, the Reporter of the Naval Committee, speaking in the Chamber, outlined the construction programme for 1921-3. This consists of six light cruisers, 12 destroyers, 12 torpedo-boats, 36 submarines, and the conversion of the battleship Bearn into an aeroplane-carrier, at a total approximate cost of 1,416,000,000 francs. Parliament was at present he said, asked to vote the credits for the 1921 instalment of the above programme.
He pointed out France's inability to emulate Japanese, British and American naval development, and advocated the abandonment of the construction of battleships in consequence of the opinion of great foreign experts that they were too vulnerable to submarine attack.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.