One of the most formidable armadas in the world, and certainly the greatest aggregation of fighting craft that has recently been a sembled in Far Eastern waters, will be arrayed in battle formation about the middle of October for the annual manceuvres of the Japanese navy. These manquvres will take place in Japan's southern ferriter waters. icans, so with the Japanese, the navy is the senior service and is gracefully conceded pride of place and honour. Japan to-day has four well-equipped dockyards in which] capital ships of up to 50,000 tons can be built. These are the naval] arsenals at Kure and Yokosuka, the Kawasaki dockyard at Kobe (now und: tke management of the Navy Depariment), and the Mitsubishi dockyard at Nagasaki. Japan manufactures all her ordnance from His Majesty the Emperor will witness some of the sham fighting and will proceed to the battle area aboard the Haguro, one of Japan's newest 10,000-ton cruisers.
The manceuvres will be conducted with a view to the necessity of, keeping open Japan's sea lanes to the south of the Asiatic continent and to safeguarding her communic tions with the Chinese mainland in time of emergency.
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