London, Mar. 1.
Particulars of the British naval building programme for 1938-9 were published this morning.
According to these predictions, which are in close agreement with each other, the budget proposals to be published next Friday will provide for 150 ships to be on the stocks at one time. Of these at least three, put probably even five, will be battleships the tonnage of which has not been determined yet. Besides these there will be five aircraft carriers, seventeen cruisers, forty destroyers, eighteen submarines, five anti-aircraft ships, four coastal patrol ships, nine minelayers, twelve motor torpedo-boats (an innovation) three river gunboats, three depot ships and 34 smaller craft—Trans-Ocean.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.