We are unable to follow President Coolidge's figures about the
relative strength in cruisers of Great Britain and America. He said that if the existing programmes were carried out Great Britain would have sixty-eight - cruisers to America's forty. But this figure of sixty-eight. —as we gather from a calculation in the Daily Telegraph —can be reached only by including all the small :British cruisers which were never designed for deep-sea work and many of which even for their particular purpose ate -out of date. According to this calculation, Great Britain will ultimately have twenty-six large cruisers. The present programme of the Navy Department will give America thirty-three large cruisers—all designed since the War, and that cannot be said of all. the British large cruisers. Moreover, if the Navy Department's present programme, which has the backing of President Coolidge, and apparently of Mr. Hoover, is completed; America will ultimately be stronger than Great Britain in capital ships.
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