New York, June 21.
Praising President Roosevelt's naval rearmament programme Rear-Admiral Clark S. Woodward, Commandant of the third naval district, disclosed today that when the present naval building programme is completed in 1946 the United States would still have only 80 per cent. of her naval tonnage immediately after the World War.
Rear-Admiral Woodward blamed the scrapping of 928,000 tons of warships, as a result of the 1922 Washington Naval conference and the 1930 London parley, for the present shortage of bottoms, The present fleet of the United States comprises 155 under-age ships, 112 of which were built and commissioned since 1983, he said.
Rear-Admiral Woodward said the "exaggerated statements" of the effect or bombing plane attacks on battleships "should be heavily discounted.
No battleship has ever been des. troyed by such a means, he said, "and no news received from abroad during the present war has altered my personal opinion as to the final effectiveness of aerial bombardment on warships,"
He named American naval planes as "auxiliary weapons only."—United ess, Spanish Company Buys Two American Liners Madrid, June 20.
The Ibarra Steamship Company. Spanish, recently purchased the two American liners, Presedent Lincoln and President Wilson, it was learned today, The liners were making for Cadiz from New York with Spanish crews aboard when they were stopped by patrols of the British contraband control and were taken to Gibraltar, it was also learned.
Both ships will be renamed at the end of this month and will be placed on the regular run from Barcelona to Buenos Aires via Cadiz, Lisbon and Montevideo—Havas, U.S. Charge d' Affaires Returning to Germany rad New York, June 21 Mr. Alexander Kirk, US, Charge d'Affaires in Germany, left by plane for Lisbon today to return to his VITAMINS - the sparkles of life!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.