The new French Navy Bill which was issued on Monday
provides that the battle fleet in home waters shall consist of twenty-eight battleships, formed in four squadrons of six battleships each, with a reserve of four ships. Each battle- ship squadron will have attached to it two scout-cruisers and twelve ocean-going destroyers. Two cruisers and four destroyers are to be kept in reserve. The foreign service fleet is to consist of ten ships, together with the necessary com- plement of gunboats and coast-defence vessels. There are also to be ninety-four submarines. The Times correspondent says it is suspected that the authors of the Bill have been influenced by Parliamentary considerations rather than by the true needs of French naval defence. Last June the Naval Council adopted a programme which provided for forty-five battleships in 1925. The new programme does not extend beyond 1919, but if there are to be only twenty-eight battleships in that year, there will be little prospect of France having forty-five battleships six years later.
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