First Lord Gives Commons an Inspiring Description of Admiralty's Replenishment Programme London, Mar. 11.
House of Commons to-day, by 152 votes to 87, agreed to the Navy Estimates after listening to an inspiring description of Great Britain's efforts to reorganize her Navy by the First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Samuel Hoare.
He said the Navy was forced, owing to past inaction, to teles~ cope into two or three years what normally would be carried out in a decade.
Now the House was asked to approve an expenditure ships. of over £100,000,000 and a construction programme of eighty new
The demand, Sir Samuel continued, meant that at the end of the year Great Britain would have under construction the remark~ able number of 148 new ships, including five capital ships, four aircraft-carriers and seventeen cruisers. All in the Admiralty were determined to avoid any unnecessary delays, Samu! cee te male either of exhi vee Slag gh a eon twas the fulure of naval ter There had been continuous efforts to learn the lessons of the war and to keep abreast of subsequent, developments, As the result of large and small scale experiments the new! ships would bear the impress the concentrated attention of the last eighteen years, The designs of new ships were based upon the lessons of the war and the experiments, Including those "into effect of ex: plosives.
He refused to accept a. view fatalistic as, there had. been Washington Treaty, though not newed; the 1930 London Treaty, Anglo-German naval agreement, protocol on submarine warfare lastly, there was every hope that London Treaty of 1936 would be ace cepted by a sul cient number powers for Britain to ratity it.
The main effort of the British Government had boon directed to the conclusion of bilateral agreements with Germany and Soviet Russia, but similar negotiations had. been proceeding satisfactorily with Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Poland and Before the five battleships were laid down there were no less than eighteen separate designs,—tested from' every possible angle.
Question of Right Sort of Fleet The fleet of the future had to take Into account.
Danger of ale attack, Batety" of sasestieek and. particulary" of arrow seas, snd "i" Bitensive power.
The First Lord was glad to say that the Italian Government was ready to make a valuable contribution. by {ts readiness to accept the maximum gun calibre of 14 Inches for capital ships provided other principal naval powers did "likewise and following, the Anglo'Itallan declaration on' the Mediterranean, he hoped Italy would soon secede to the treaty,—Reuter, The veer 1914 caught the Navy in dangerous transition stage and before it had had time to. organize against new forms of attack. They had had seventeen years in which to develop, "counter-action. These. cluded the fullest use of alr power fud the production of antialreratt weapons on a scale and of a precision undreamt of in 1918, to make the: Fleet in general and the baitieship in particular, the least attractive target for an enemy air force.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.