Berlin, Dec. 5.
The first of four aircraft carriers was launched at- Kiel today.
The vessel will have a speed of 32 knots per hour, displaces 19,250 tons, and will be able to carry 40 planes.
Commenting on the launching of this ship, the "Nazional Zeitung" asserted that Germany, like Italy, cold have done without such units if she only wished to rule the air along German coasts.
However, the paper added, the problem should be considered "in the light of present conceptions responding to the use of German naval forces he free spaces of the Atlantic.
The air force, like the navy, must be freed from coastal tasks," the paper continued. "The number of planes on board cruisers and battleships was not sufficient.,, The construction of aircraft-carried was necessary, and the Anglo-German naval agreement allowed u: four such units with a total displacement of 87,000 tons. At present two are under construction, tand it is hoped that two others will follow when the experiments on the first two prove successful.
"The German navy will thus dis-Dose of a complement permitting it to show its power in a form unknown up till now wherever it will be a question of safeguarding German interests in conflicts abroad," the paper concluded. "The aircraft-carrier could replace an expeditionary corps in order to protect German national interests in any far away-country."—Havas.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.